Review for Ghostbusters: The Video Game Remastered. Game for PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch, the video game was released on 04/10/2019
We are simple people: we just need to go to a crowded place and yell at the top of our lungs "Who will you call?" to hear us answer in chorus from all the children of the 80s who, like us, grew up wondering if it was ever possible to build a functioning proton backpack: “The Ghostbusters!“. To put one on our shoulders we have not made it yet but, with the envy of those who are not gamers, we gamers are lucky enough to be able to live a thousand lives, including that of Ghostbusters: The Video Game Remastered.
There is a new Ghostbusters in town
Ray, Egon, Peter and Winston are no longer enough: in Ghostbusters: the Video Game Remastered - which as the name suggests is nothing more than the remastered version of the game released in 2009 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 - the player takes on the role of the fifth Ghostbusters, a young recruit who joins the historical characters of the first two films. The choice, interesting from a narrative point of view because it leaves room for the enormous charisma of the Ghostbusters and the sharp jokes of the actors who impersonate them, loses a bit of bite because of the protagonist without a name, with a personality that compares even the heroes of Dragon Quest are more outgoing.
While we understand that this is a deliberate choice to put the player at the center of the action as if he were watching a movie from the inside, it certainly would have been more engaging to have control of a character at least able to exclaim exalted (as we would have did all of us) "Hey, I'm in the Ghostbusters!" instead of staying silent all the time. The fact remains that the story, directly born from the minds of Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis, is a concentrate of bizarre events, ectoplasms and jokes and is still today, ten years after the release of the original game, is as close as possible to that Ghostbusters 3 that in due time we all would have liked to see at Cinema.
We are not talking about an Oscar-worthy plot (there is a lot of fanservice), but a story designed to satisfy every fan of Ghostbusters. It starts with a bang, with the first hour of play full of catastrophic events and with the quotes from the first two films in the series that follow each other relentlessly, both in terms of settings and for the characters and ghosts that will parry on the path of the Ghostbusters. Subsequently, things get a little quieter and the general pace of the adventure becomes slower, still giving a good script.
Perhaps missing a real twist that makes you exclaim "wow", but considering the havoc that certain licensed games have accustomed us to, you can rest assured: here the standard offered is really excellent.
Never cross flows
The basic mechanics of Ghostbusters: the Video Game Remastered are basically those of a Third Person Shooter action: proton backpack on your shoulder, for most of the game you will find yourself shooting rays at the most diverse ectoplasms to weaken them, harness them and box them inside the iconic traps. In the adventure there is also space for exploration with the ectoplasmic presence detector and the solving of simple environmental puzzles, mostly related to finding ghosts or using the secondary functions of the backpack - such as the rubber strap derived from the slime of Ghostbusters 2 - to open the way to seemingly inaccessible places.
For most of the experience, however, the pace will be quite sustained and firing proton beams and trapping entities will be your main activities.
Do not miss everything that made Ghostbusters such: the presence detector, the Ecto-01, the fire station, Slimer and Janine. You will be able to interact with these elements and characters several times during the game, to collect information and complete missions in order to continue with the adventure. Furthermore, the exploration of the operations center and the various levels of the game is a fundamental operation for completists: recovering objects and performing certain actions (those who do not make at least one turn on the pole in the plant do not deserve this game! Editor's note) will lead to satisfaction quickly achieve the objectives required to unlock all the collectibles offered by the game. In our test on PlayStation 4 we have won about ten trophies in the first hour of the game alone (the whole adventure lasts approximately 6-8 hours).
Great lack in terms of gameplay, even if the developers have perjured that the option will soon be made available for free for all buyers of Ghostbusters: the Video Game Remastered, is the multiplayer sector: destroying environments and capturing ghosts in the company of real friends was a unique experience offered by the original game, and we are sure that the presence of team play in this Remastered is a sine qua non to recommend its purchase.
(Almost) cinematic experience
The analysis of the technical sector shows the side of the first "but" of this title. Clean graphics and high resolution aside, the game remains in all respects that of 2009: same textures, same polygonal models, same frame rate. The graphic engine of Saber Interactive fortunately defends itself well even today, giving moments of pure enjoyment when the proton flow begins to disintegrate the furniture, leaving trails of burnt on the walls. However, it is obvious that in ten years of progress has been made, and that Ghostbusters: The Video Game Remastered visually presents itself as the game of the past, today unfortunately (and, allow us, of course) no longer astonishing as it was then.
Even the audio leads us to discuss a somewhat questionable choice: if on the one hand we have a wonderful and perfect soundtrack and sound effects to immerse yourself in the experience, on the other we must necessarily report a dubbing that, although recited by the original voices, does not prove to be up to modern videogame productions, But the worst problem is another: localization was also present in the 2009 game, complete with original voice actors from the film. In this remastered, however, we only have subtitles available, and since a lot of dialogue takes place during in-game action, less English-speaking players will be forced to read the subtitles or ignore them, missing out on much of the experience.
Judging Ghostbusters: The Video Game Remastered isn't easy at all. Certainly we are still faced, even today, with one of the best licensed games ever: the story, the characters and the situations are as close to that Ghostbusters 3 that should have come out in the golden years of the Ghostbusters. If you are a fan of the Ghostbusters you will certainly turn a blind eye to the flaws of the experience and we ask you to consider the rating of this review as if it had a couple of points more. Others are warned: if you do not know the Ghostbusters you will not grasp most of the references and you will find yourself in front of the remastered version of a good title which however has some strong shortcomings compared to more modern TPS.
► Ghostbusters: The Video Game Remastered is a Shooter-Adventure type game developed and published by Saber Interactive for PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch, the video game was released on 04/10/2019
