....I'm not 100% sure I would have sat through the whole thing. It certainly would have received a lower score.
I love the movies; yes, I am one of the seemingly few who actually
likes the second and watches both from time to time. I had a proton
pack as a kid, and remember going to the drive-in movies three or four
times to watch the second movie and Batman back to back. I even watched
the cartoon religiously during its run.....those were the days.
Like many, I heard that this game was supposed to be something like
"Ghostbusters 3", as Ramis and Akroyd penned the script, and most
everyone from the original cast is back. I wanted to believe almost
religiously that this was not hype. Well, Ghostbusters 3 this is very
much not. 2 1/4 perhaps. For those of us stuck on the old movies, 3
will probably never happen. However, what we do get in the video game
is like a nice (albeit bumpy) trip down memory lane.
The script is alright, not much and certainly not more. Uninspired
would describe it fairly well. Tacked-together would work too. The
story, unfortunately, was what I was looking forward to the most with
this game. There are some funny lines, its true, but the best ones are
usually pulled right out of the movies. In fact, most of the plot
points are stretches of recurring movie themes; not much effort was put
into creating a completely new Ghostbusters experience. In the game's
defense, it would have been an awful idea to try to simply recreate the
movies, and I for one am glad they didn't. It was great to revisit
familiar locations and characters under different but similar
circumstances, but it would have been even better for us GB geeks to
have a substantial new story (or even a deeper development of the one
they used) to sink our teeth into.
The gameplay does not exactly stand out in the game as anything
special; however, it does not ruin the game either. I had low
expectations, and the game exceeded them by far, even if many
improvements could be made. Wrangling ghosts is pretty fun; it really
feels like the movies make it look. Blowing away the little ground
enemies, though, gets old quick. So does the at times infuriating
knockback, and the need to tend to your buddies really often,
especially at higher difficulties. While these things are frustrating,
as I said they do not completely ruin the playing experience. I did
have fun playing the game most of the time.
The visuals in the game are fantastic; the city and all of the
environments are rich and pop off the screen. I noticed a couple of
slight tears, and had the framerate stutter once or twice, but all in
all it is gorgeous.
The voice acting sounds like the Ghostbusters as it should, considering
the talent. The acting, though, often sounds wooden, and I imagine
there are a couple of possibilities for reasons. One, the majority of
the actors have no voice over acting experience, and video game work is
too foreign. Or, they didn't really care too much about the project,
and only did it for a friend (Ramis/Akroyd) and the almighty dollar.
Either way, I expected to hear more enthusiasm in the voices of those
involved, rather than sleepy, monotone recitations. Not that all lines
were such, but Ive heard the term "phoned-in" used to describe some of
the dialogue, and that fits.
In conclusion, this game was worth playing as a fan of the Ghostbusters
series, though I was kind of hoping to see a little more love put into
the project. I do realize that as far as video game adaptations of
movies go, this one is definitely one of the best. I did have a blast
playing it, and would certainly recommend playing it to anyone familiar
with the movies. That said, I would also recommend only paying full
retail if youre a die-hard (no regrets here), as there are many
stand-alone games that do what this one does, and better. Like I said,
if it wasn't a Ghostbusters game....
Cheers, y'all
