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"Those stubborn stains had to be on the ceiling, didn't they?"

Inhuman happenings are plaguing New York City... again! After a strange blue pulse rolls through the streets of New York, the level of supernatural activity in the Big Apple spikes to abnormally high levels and that begs the ultimate question: Who Ya Gonna Call?

As NY goes ghastly, the Ghostbusters are called in to deal with the ensuing ghoulish mayhem. As their newest recruit, you are brought along to help try out a bunch of untested and potentially dangerous new gadgets that Egon has been busy tinkering with since the defeat of Vigo the Carpathian.

The story for this game is nothing short of top notch. As it was actually written by Dan Akroyd (Ray) and Harold Ramis (Egon), who wrote the original two movies, it’s not just another in a line of generic action games that have a certain brand name stamped on them like so many other movie-based games . No, this is what movie games should be, a brilliant and engaging story that follows the spirit of the films without actually changing (read: ruining) any currently established story.

Everyone comes back to reprise their previous roles from the films, and they all sound happy to do it. None of it sounds “phoned in”. Egon spouts pseudoscience, Peter uses his aloof charm to try and woo the nearest female with a pulse, Ray gets entirely too excited about the wrong things and Winston just tries to keep a level head and rationalise it all. The jokes are clever and delivered with precise timing and the amount of thought put into the “mythology” of the story is nothing short of awe inspiring.

The story is pure Ghostbusters in every way and that is a great blessing, but also the bit where it comes undone. The game relies on you knowing the stories behind the first two movies for some of the story, and while there are tribes in the darkest part of Africa who can be heard saying “Don’t cross the streams!” there are still people out there who haven’t seen them, and thus won’t get every joke or understand every reference.

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The graphics and visual effects in this game are done incredibly well. The character models look like the actors just got done filming Ghostbusters II and decided to just head on into the digital world, which is a good thing because since it’s been around 20 years since the movies none of the actors are exactly in top shape.

The level design is excellent with no real repetition except with the Sedgewick Hotel level, but even then only a very few rooms are actually repeated and the reason for it is story based. The effects of the different beams on various objects are very well done. When you use the proton beam, for example, it will scorch the walls and cause cloth and plants to burn, and when you use the slime cannon it will leave splatters on walls and floors.

The lighting effects are nothing to be brushed aside either, with every lamp casting long shadows and creating an even more atmospheric condition. Even the proton beams have a light source, so when you use them in the darker areas it really shows off what it can do. Other little effects are also welcome, like when you hit water with the proton stream steam will actually rise off the surface.

The ghosts are incredibly detailed as they float ethereally in the air, or fly through walls and out of floors. The level of detail put into the visuals of this game is incredibly satisfying and really helps immerse you into the feeling you are a Ghostbuster. The only major drawback is the lack of graphical variety with the ghosts and baddies. There are a fair few, but several of them are simply palette swaps or simply a different skin stuck on the same critter which can lead to a feeling of déjà vu.

"I thought those pills were aspirin"

The sound in this game is great. The voice talent is spectacular since they used the original movie cast to provide the voices for their corresponding characters, and even famous actors for the new characters (Alyssa Milano plays the new female lead) and the musical score was taken directly from the films as well. Everything does a fantastic job of coming together to make you feel like you’re actually watching a Ghostbusters movie, rather than just playing a game.

The sound effects are all top of the line and many are also taken directly from the movies. The first time you hear the unlicensed nuclear accelerator strapped to your back powered up, it will bring back some very fond memories to those who loved the movies. Even the proton streams make the same sounds, and Slimer makes the same guttural noises as he did in the films. The sound effects add very well to the atmosphere of the game and help with the creepy overtones of certain areas. I’ve never been scared to go into the Children’s Section of my local library until now.

The only minor drawbacks in the sound department are that since the music is taken from the movies they have a very limited score to work with, so a lot of the songs are recycled to the point of exhaustion. The other is that almost none of the ghosts make any interesting noises. You’d expect the restless dead to be pretty PO’ed and making a ruckus, but unfortunately most of them just emit the same screams and moans as previous ghoulies.

"Excuse me madam, stay perfectly still. This won't hurt a bit"

The song says it better than I could ever hope to: Bustin’ Makes Me Feel Good! This game plays far smoother than I expected it to. The controls are simple and intuitive to the point that you will be fluent in ghost wrangling easily within the first level of the game. Aiming is as easy as pointing your targeting reticule at the required ghost and pressing the button to the corresponding beam you want to use. None of the controls feel too complex or finger deforming and this only adds to making bustin’ that much more enjoyable. The variety of beams and different ways to trap ghosts keeps it fresh so that wrangling and trapping doesn’t get stale through the entire game.

The game is very linear, with little to do outside the main story except using the Spectro-Goggles, one of several nifty gadgets you receive throughout the game, to hunt down cursed artifacts like the Anguished Stuffed Bear or capture information about the different entities you encounter to help fill out Tobin’s Spirit Guide, which in turns nets you money that you can use to upgrade your gear.

Upgrading in this game is far simpler than many others. After you acquire some cash, you can simply go into the pause menu and purchase an upgrade which will then immediately take effect. They vary from the offensive, like increasing the damage or recharge rate of certain beams, to the practical like increasing the speed at which traps suck in ghosts.

While the game can be as tense and atmospheric as Silent Hill one moment and then adrenaline pumping action like Gears of War the next, the main problem is there’s not enough game. This game is amazingly short in the single player department to the point that I conquered it in a little over 5 hours, and I am pretty sure I did everything I could in the single player campaign.

Now don’t despair fellow gamers! Multiplayer is here to save the day! This game has a plethora of multiplayer options including Couch Co-Op, which is sadly becoming a rarity in this day and age. You can play through various missions online cooperatively as well, which adds a great deal of fun and shelf life to the game.

"Ohhh, not another cliched haunted house, the prop department is really slacking off"

Now, this score is tentative for one reason: Online Multiplayer. If you’re not one to play online, or don’t have an internet connection, then that would easily knock a point and a half off of this score. The single player is absurdly short, and although you can play through missions as many times as you want, and there are varying difficulties, there just isn’t enough single player content and the game is far too linear to warrant playing through it more than once.

The couch co-op aspect is a good point as well, but it’s not really “co-op” in that you can go through the campaign together, but that you can play some of the multiplayer maps on a single console rather than online, which is a bit misleading and sad. All in all, the online portion is the saving grace but sadly even it’s plagued by numerous bugs which need to be ironed out.

"Stay, stay...now roll over!"

This was a game that could have easily been a horrific mangling of all things sacred to those of us born in the era of the Ghostbusters, but thankfully it’s not. It is easily far better than I anticipated and that makes this Child of the 80’s positively ecstatic. Barring the few gripes and a woefully short single player campaign, this game is top notch. If you’re not a fan of Ghostbusters, though, don’t bother.

This game is not meant to be played by people who didn’t like the movies or, even worse, haven’t seen them. This game is clearly directed at fans of the movies and cartoons and anyone who has fond memories of them will get a great deal of enjoyment out of this game. It is Fan Service, plain and simple, but unlike so many others before it, Ghostbusters got it right. You don’t just play as one of the original four through some rehashed tripe from the first two movies. No, they got the original writers to write the script to a whole new story and made you the rookie of the team. They gave every kid old enough to remember The Real Ghostbusters their dream, and that is proper Fan Service.

All of that being said I would have really liked to see a longer single-player campaign, and feel that this game could have easily gotten a score in the upper nines if it had just been a few hours longer. We all understand that multiplayer is the life’s blood of gaming now, but that doesn’t mean the single player portion should be neglected.