Ghostbusters: The Video Game (PlayStation 3)

Are you troubled by strange noises in the middle of the night? Have you experienced feelings of dread in your basement or attic? Have you or any of your family ever seen a spook, specter or ghost? If the answer is yes then don’t wait another minute, pick up the phone and call the professionals…GHOSTBUSTERS!!!

Ghostbusters: The Video Game is the first game in almost 20 years based on the Ghostbusters universe and features the actual voices of the original cast: Bill Murray (Peter Venkman), Dan Aykroyd (Ray Stantz), Harold Ramis (Egon Spengler) and Ernie Hudson (Winston Zeddemore), as well as Annie Potts, who reprises her role as Janine Melnitz, and William Atherton, reprising his role as Walter Peck, the team’s nemesis from the first film. It also features the soundtrack from the first two films, as composed by the late Elmer Bernstein.

The story (written by Aykroyd and Ramis) takes place in 1991, two years after the Ghostbusters vanquished Vigo and prevented him from taking over the world. Since then, the Ghostbusters have been overrun by the increasing number of spirits appearing in the city and has decided to add a fifth member to the team. This is where the player will step in, taking the place of the nameless “new cadet” of the Ghostbusters, hired to test Egon’s new experimental equipment.

Just as the “new cadet” is being initiated into the Ghostbusters, all hell breaks loose in the city as a massive amount of spirit energy has threatened to tear New York apart and it is up to the player along with his new employers to stop a familiar menace. The player will follow the Ghostbusters as they travel through familiar locales and fight familiar enemies including Slimer and the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man using authentic equipment including the famous proton pack and spirit traps to catch the many ghosts swarming throughout the stages. To do so the player must use the proton beam to wear down the ghost and once it gets weak enough, the beam will automatically latch onto the spirit and the player must set out a trap and guide the ghost towards it and keep it from escaping.

There is also new equipment to be used that can be unlocked during later levels as well as being able to upgrade equipped items by acquiring money for catching and destroying ghosts (however money is also deducted for the amount of destruction the player causes on each level). The player can also use the P.K.E. meter to track spirits, as well as scan various objects, ghosts and residue left behind to fill in the Tobin Spirit Guide. The slime cannon from the second film is also present which is used to free possessed people, allowing the player to safely catch ghosts without harming the person.

The story is told through both pre-rendered and in-game cutscenes and differs from its Wii and PS2 iterations which features more of a cartoonish look and feel to the overall game. There are also online multiplayer modes that allow players to meet up with friends online and team up.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTq6YED00os