Atari Preview Tour: Ghostbusters (Xbox 360, PS3, PC)

Quick refresher before we go any further: The Ghostbusters game has the full blessing of Harold Ramis and Dan Aykroyd. In fact, they worked on the script for the game! The core four members, Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis and Ernie Hudson, all lend their voices and likenesses to the game to bring a true Ghostbusters experience.

The game is set two years after the second movie and follows the Ghostbusters as they capture new and old ghosts. The new game also introduces a new recruit for the Ghostbusters team who's basically field testing all of the new gear the Ghostbusters have developed. It’s really hard to deliver good comedy in a videogame so the developers felt that players would get a true Ghostbusters experience by playing as the mute new recruit, otherwise known as the Rookie in the game.

The preview began with Ego, Raymond and the Rookie investigating a disturbance at the local library. There, they encounter the ghost of an old librarian lady that eventually leads the Ghostbusters crew to hell, more or less.

The Ghostbusters give chase to the old lady ghost and they deal with all sorts of ghosts as they run through the library. You get to see just how amazing the physics engine is for Ghostbuster. The proton beam destroys everything it touches in a realistic manner like columns, books, tables and plenty more.

Players will have to make use of the PKE Meter along with the Ecto-Goggles as they explore the environment. You’ll be able to find ghosts with these and find your way through rooms. I got to a point in the preview where there was no place left to go. After equipping the PKE Meter, I discovered that there was a hidden door behind a bookshelf. Cool! Secret passageways!

After making our way down the passageway, we arrived at a flooded basement where a mini-boss ghost appeared made out of books. This was a pretty fun battle as books would fly off of it every time it was shot. Later on, we encountered two more mini-bosses made out of fire. The only way they could be taken out was by ripping off their weak points from the top of their head. It took me a while to actually kill these two mini-bosses, as the slamming mechanic seemed really wrong. I just was having a hard time wrapping my head around how to use it properly.

Luckily, players can never really die in Ghostbusters so I had plenty of chances to finally get this right. You will eventually be knocked out and stuck lying on the ground, but you can be revived back so long as one of your AI partners comes over to revive you. The other Ghostbusters can be knocked out too, so you’ll have to make sure to revive them. If everyone gets knocked out, then it’s game over. The AI is really good at actually helping the player out and will capture ghosts on their own. Rarely did I feel the need to babysit the AI. They did get in my way a few times as I made my way through hallways however.

We eventually reached the final area of this particular act but some black slime was blocking our way through. To get through this area, Egon gives the Rookie a new weapon that shoots out green slime that will counter act the negative properties of the black slime and allow the team to move forward. Players will gain a few different types of weapons and they all can be upgraded to increase rate of fire, how much damage the weapons dish out and more. You’ll need money to upgrade, but so long as you keep capturing ghosts, you’ll have all the money you need.

The Ghostbusters team then ventured down a long tunnel and ended up in an underground room. A cutscene comes up (cutscenes will hide level loading) and the old lady appears once again. She is floating over a desk, looking through a demonic book that the Ghostbusters need. Oh, and did I mention that the old ladies’ skeleton is sitting in the chair next to the desk? Creepy.

One of the Ghostbusters grabs the book freeing the old lady, allowing her to cross over to the other side. That's what they think anyway, but the old lady ghost reappears as a giant demonic boss. The old lady boss can’t be directly hit yet as it has a energy shield surrounding it. There are about 12 or so floating torches circling the old lady that players must first destroy. Once the torches have been taken out, the Ghostbusters can do their thang.

The team eventually defeat the ghost but something's not right. The fight seemed too easy. Turns out that the old lady ghost managed to open up a cross dimensional portal and the Ghostbusters have now landed in a new dimension that looks like their own with a twist of Hell thrown in (it kind of looks like the demon world from Jackie Chan Adventures … I can’t believe I just referenced that). It’s one of infinite potential configurations, theoretically of course. The Ghostbusters are now standing on a slab of floating rock leading up to this dimension’s version of the Public Library with nothing but air surrounding the entire location. Looks like the old lady ghost wanted the Ghostbusters to meet an old friend of hers.

The preview ended here and just like the last time I saw it, I can’t wait to get this game. Now all I want to know is what’s up with the multiplayer? We still have yet to see or hear much of anything on it. Hopefully that’s the next thing Atari and Terminal Reality show off.

Ghostbusters is developed by Terminal Reality for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC, developed by Red Fly for the Wii, PS2 and DS and published by Atari. It will be out sometime early 2009.