Ghost Busters its been a movie, it’s been a comic, hell it’s even had a few decent video games over the years. But with the rebooted Ghost Busters movie out in theaters, we have the fine privilege of tearing into the Ghost Busters (2016) game and talking about it for what it is. The game itself can be described in one very simple and very straightforward sentence.
“The game is soon to become a ghost because it’s not very good, it’s poorly designed, and it’s garbage.”
Now I know there are some Ghost Buster die-hard fans out there who will say any piece of the Ghost Busters franchise is amazing and will defend it till the death, to these people I truly hope you are enjoying this game.
Now the game itself costs $50 US dollars which is the cost of any big triple-A title and you expect it to rival games like Metal Gear Solid V, or Fallout 4 in terms of quality. However, this game fails massively in comparison to these titles.
The game is played as a top-down exploration game where you play as not the four female protagonists from the movie but rather, some lackeys they hired to maintain order in their absence while they are out busting Ghosts at the White House keeping Obama safe from old assassins.
Each stage is composed of three sub-stages and they are all repeated and very massive so you will spend about an hour in each stage. The best way to describe it is if you go on a three-mile hike and realize the only way to finish your walk is to do it three more times.
The stages are long and drawn out fighting the same amount of enemies over and over, in repetitive combat with very few health kits around encase you happen to die.
The enemies themselves aren’t unique either, they are just re-skinned on every enemy but with a different color glow behind them to make them look more unique. There is literally nothing special about the Ghost Busters (2016) game design. The worst part of it comes when you realize a game design grad student in modeling could potentially do a better job than they did in terms of quality control.
Now gameplay and story-wise the game is primarily handled by missions. No great in-depth quality missions either but simple still drawn doodles giving brief explanations about Ghosts that are out there and what is happening with poor jokes tossed in to try to liven things up. I truly feel sorry for any voice actors whose names are tied to this title.
Music for the game is equally bad as they just sing the original Ghost Busters theme on a loop on the main menu. Don’t get me wrong the theme is good but even good things have to be handled in moderation and not repeated over and over roughly ninety-plus times.
One of the worst sins of the game though is simply the genuine lack of effort, for fifty dollars you expect quality and you expect good things but this. People were worried the movie would be bad and would be ruining the franchise I say it’s the games. Cheap games are made quick to try to make a quick buck. Not giving any care to the players or the people investing in it.
It’s no wonder why the company Fireforge has gone bankrupt. If you make a good product, people will rally to you and support you through Kickstarter and other companies. But ONLY if you make a good product. In the end, the game falls short and I cannot recommend it to anyone. Save your money, go buy Deus Ex, or Call of Duty. A game that you know is actually pretty good.
An autistic gamer with opinions on games who also enjoys making dumb videos on the internet!