After months of rumours about whether or not it was in development, a surprise reveal, the loss of a publisher, a new publishing partner and release date delay, and then a last-minute switch in publishing arrangements, Ghostbusters: The Video Game has finally been released, and if you’re a true-blue Ghostbusters fan, the wait has definitely been worth it.

From the excellent story, humorous dialogue (written by original Ghostbusters Harold Ramis and Dan Aykroyd), pitch perfect voice acting (voiced by original Ghostbusters cast) and great pacing (just pushing you to the limits, and then rewarding you with some great cinematics and the afore-mentioned voice acting), this third-person action adventure game provides what is probably as good a Ghostbusters experience you can get, interactive or otherwise.

As a piece of interactive entertainment (i.e. a game), Ghostbusters: The Video Game also delivers a quality performance that, while not as pitch perfect as the acting and writing, and containing a few oversights that the developers should have ironed out, is only a few steps away from being the quintessential Ghostbusters game that future, similarly themed games can look up to.

You play through the game, humorously (which comes to be a theme throughout the adventure), as the fifth, unnamed member of the Ghostbusters crew, currently going through a ‘performance review’ by the original four Ghostbusters as they try to determine your suitability for the job of paranormal investigator and, when necessary, capturer and extinguisher of ghosts and other supernatural phenomena.

Why is your character unnamed? Well, the crew don’t want to get too attached to you, lest you perish on the job as you unwittingly test some of their experimental equipment, and act as the ‘canary in a coalmine’ that certain situations require. This opens the floodgate for all manner of nicknames that the other Ghostbusters use in lieu of a real name, which adds a layer of charm to your interactions with them.

As a Ghostbuster, you’ll be required to use the capabilities of the Proton Pack (the giant, technology-laden backpack you carry around), which includes firing beams of energy at ghosts and other phenomena to wear them down and, when the time is right, throw out your ghost capture device and skilfully guide the ghoul into the trap using your beam, which is the only way to rid an area of certain spectres, while other enemies can be destroyed outright with a few blasts.

The proficiency with which you are able to capture ghosts and destroy monsters increases as you gain access to new abilities, upgrade your current ones with money earned through your various activities, and take advantage of new types of weaponry. The environments in which you go about your ghost busting duties similarly scale to fit the occasion, from haunted hotels, libraries, museums and city streets, to alternate dimensions, ancient castles, processing facilities and Central Park, with pit stops in-between chapters at the Ghostbusters fire station headquarters.

Also used (extensively) during your adventure is your PKE Meter, which allows you to see (in a grainy first person view) extra phenomena you may not be able to with the naked eye, enabling you to spot hidden pathways and objects, sneak up on hiding ghosts and ghouls, find haunted special items (which net valuable upgrade money) and capture pictures and precious data when viewing monsters, ghosts and leftover spectral tracks (slime) through the PKE Meter goggles (which also provides money).

From the very beginning of the game, you’ll be taken on a whirlwind tour of New York City, as you and the crew try to keep up with, and neutralise, the unusually high amount of supernatural activity currently being experienced in the city and get to the bottom of the mystery. Each chapter of the story is pretty high paced with one chase after the other, pushing you just to the point where you’re getting frazzled, only to release the pressure with a well-placed story cinematic or a cool-down area with some witty (and at the same time expository) banter and dialogue.

This can lead to the game feeling a little too segmented, with obvious action, puzzle and story parts that start to get formulaic in structure, and feel more and more unrelated to one another as the formula reveals itself. The action segments too, while handled well with various decisions to make during any one enemy encounter, do feel as though they go on for just a little too long, with no real indication of the progress you’re making, leading to questions like ‘how many more times do I need to hit this ghost’ and ‘how much longer until this monster goes down.’ Similarly, no visible feedback clues are provided to inform players that they are in fact doing some kind of damage to this or that apparition.

The puzzle segments are fairly straightforward in nature, and will never tax the brain too much, except when it’s simply not clear what is required of you and what you need to do in order to progress. As the trainee of the group, you’ll be expected to perform menial tasks (looking for and pressing buttons and finding a way forward) that the other Ghostbusters are too senior to perform, which can lead to a lot of head scratching when you’re given no indication as to what it is you’re looking for or even the kind of thing you’re looking for (a button, a door, a monster, what?) to progress.

In some instances, these progress treasure hunts become even more obscure when the next sequence of events simply doesn’t trigger, leading to not insignificant amounts of backtracking, only to come back to the original door, hallway or elevator that was supposed to do something and then have it magically work… the second, third or fourth time you try.

Ghostbusters: The Video Game uses the ‘buddy system’ system during action scenes that proved popular (or infamous) in games such as Gears of War, where once one of your buddies goes down, it’s up to you (or someone else on the team) to run over and revive them with the push of a controller button. In the more intense action scenes, though, this system can become ludicrously time consuming as you may find yourself doing nothing but reviving your buddies as they constantly get hit to the ground, waiting for you to help them up. It’s important to make sure your buddies are standing, too, because in the event that you get hit down, you’ll expect a buddy to do you the courtesy of reviving you. If there are no buddies standing, or they don’t get to you in time, it’s game over.

This happened a few times, and every time it felt unfair, as though the game was somehow cheating and making things more difficult that it should have been. Again, while there are only a few instances where this happened (the more severe action sequences, like boss fights), when it does happen, it can be very off-putting.

Where this system doesn’t appear in a negative light, somehow, is the multiplayer component of Ghostbusters: The Video Game. This mode allows players to cooperatively bust some ghosts in locations from the singleplayer game, only more arena-like, as you and your team-mates (up to four players) work together to destroy idols, protect idols, survive waves of enemies and clear areas of ghosts. When you’re working together as a cohesive unit, these modes can be pretty fun and feel more personal than a lot of multiplayer shooters on the market - if you can gather some friends together, this would be a great mode to pass the time between sessions of Killzone or Call of Duty.

Ghostbusters: The Video Game is a great adventure story action game, with a good range of environments to visit, solid and satisfying gameplay to experience, and excellent humour and dialogue to keep you engaged, while Ghostbusters fans will be thrilled to hear the (oft-repeating) theme music, original voice cast doing their thing and the original sound effects used for the Proton Pack and other familiar gadgets.

While there are certainly some frustrating letdowns as far as the gameplay segments go, all of them are pretty minor when the singleplayer and multiplayer packages are assessed as a whole – you’ll remember the game more for the characters, situations, humour and solid action segments than for any one niggling artefact encountered throughout your adventure, which makes Ghostbusters: The Video Game as good of an entry to the franchise as a fan, or interested gamer, could hope for.

Pros: Excellent writing; excellent voice acting; creative use of traditional (and non-traditional) environments; solid gameplay action; great pacing; great use of classic Ghostbusters music themes and sound effects

Cons: Frustrating buddy system; lull periods where you’re left to your own devices; lack of enemy attack feedback; no indication of progress made during a given enemy encounter

Purchase: