BUSTING MAKES ME FEEL GOOD!
The history of the recent Ghostbusters was not a walk in Central Park for anyone concerned. Starting off as a project back in 2006, Ghostbusters was an idea in the eye of development company Zootfly who sadly had forgotten to participate in a key bit of licensing. They couldn’t get were not bothered did not have Sonys approval. Whooops.
Sony then of course thought to themselves, hmmmm, this game seems to be getting a lot of positivity from the internet crowds, so they met with Sierra and Terminal Reality, a new developer, about the possibility of creating a game. Then after a year of ums and arrs about whether the game was still to be cancelled, at CES 2009, Sony confirmed that the game was still on their release schedule. So with a bit of history in a nutshell, the PS3 and 360 versions were born, well just about.
But this review is not about those versions, it is about the PSP version, which also went through various ons and offs of its own. Is it coming out, is it it not. Many blankets were thrown over the game, a game that was also not supposed to exist. However less with the drama, more on the itty bitty.
It is has been a while since the PSP has been dusted off to be used, as I for one prefer games on a big screen scale, ironic for someone who is an iPhone developer, however Ghostbusters intrigued me. Why so you ask? Well, as a big Ghostbusters fan, the idea of having Bill Murray in my pocket more than excited me, it gave me vivid and exuberant dreams.
The game is set in the Ghostbusters universe where Ghosts exist (sorry to burst the bubble of some seance fuckers) and they are a proper nuisance to the population of New York City, the only city in the world where this occurs supposedly. The whole gang is back, apart from Rick Moranis who is not a great loss, and their voice talents remain intact as well. This is a massive plus for the game as anyone playing a Ghostbusters game would expect to hear their characters being voiced by their favourite characters. However it is not only the voices that make the jump from film to game, as the story is written by the heavyweight that is Harold Ramis and is coined as being the official third movie, which is a lie.
The game takes place a few years after the end of Ghostbusters 2 when a PKE shockwave hits NYC and sends ghosts everywhere. Obviously you have to go pick them up, but instead of playing as one of the movie characters, you play a character called ‘Rookie’, be it either a male or female character. It’s good to have a choice. This means as you are gradually introduced to the busting world, the techniques are given to you through the missions that you participate in, which means there are no dull tutorial levels teaching you how to use the kit. The game begins as soon as the well known theme kicks in, albeit quite short due to a loading screen, as your are thrust into the Ghostbusters headquarters.
As stated above, I have not played a PSP game in a long haul, so when greeted with the Ghostbusters control system the primary reaction was of shock. How is it possible to negotiate corridors of hotels,sewers etc by using the key four buttons to run look up etc. However, just like learning to ride a bike, it was tricky at first but eventually the control system became instinctive. Firing the Proton Pack with right trigger/bumper is tough to begin with, but what is useful is how the proton packs lock on to objects if you are aiming close to them.
Well, it is a PSP. They are blocky at the best of times and sometimes the characters faces get so distorted through graphical glitches that it is impossible to tell characters apart. Which is a worry for a piece of hardware that Sony intends to push as a real contender to the consoles. What does appeal though, and shows the power that the PSP holds is the ability to destroy, scar ,cataclysmically atomise the majority of objects in the game. So when swinging a ghost around a room and trying to hold it down, one can smash it into any object that populates the room. Kapow!
Gameplay is solid, but there is a reason for worry if you buy it. Repetition. The ye ol’ problem with games on any console. On playing the first five levels, there was no problem with capturing ghosts and then moving to the next, however, further thought the game, it did not seem to be testing me any further. This, in my mind is a real shame as a variation on the missions would have been so beneficial. The developers have tried to stretch out the longevity by adding Art Cards that have to be collected and combined with PKE readings. This works fine for those who believe longevity is to collect items at the end of a game, but this is the only variety that I noticed within the game mechanics. There is room to expand at the end of the game but users will only be interested in this if the developers find some way to vary the gameplay.
Overall
To start with, this game has one amazing positive. It made me realise what quality games there are on the PSP and how on earth I had managed to miss them. This does not mean that the following sum up will be glowing however. Ghostbusters is a sturdy game, enjoyable for the most of it, but the blocky graphics and lack of gameplay variation really take away from the plus points that the script and voice add.
A sequel would not be ill advised, but there needs to be an epic brainstorming session before it even gets the green-light.
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