Ghostbusters.
As a kid, I was a massive Ghostbusters fan. I had the figures, Ecto-1 and 2 toys and the pneumatically operated ghost trap (never got the pack), books, comics...tonnes of it. Of course, back when I was but a Spectrum user (I was an 80's child), I had the games.
Now the games were alright and rather challenging in places but, even when I turned 28, I still wanted a game where you could catch a ghost in the way they did it in the films / TV show. Snare it in a proton beam (easier said than done!), get it over the trap and Bob's your mother's brother!
So when I heard that a new Ghostbusters game was coming out in which you could do that, I got just a little bit excited. Then I learned it was being written and acted by the original writers / actors and my hopes shot through the ceiling.
When Sony pulled that stunt at the 11th hour that resulted in me having to wait several more months to get my copy (PC) I was furious!
Anyway the time came for me to play and I have to agree with YZ in that it was wank!
The first thing that grated was the character. Half the time his expression made him look like a simpleton and why on Earth, if we were not allowed to customise or name him, was he not given a set name? In game, the explanation was so the Ghostbusters wouldn't "get too attached" to you like the "last one" which inmmediately marks you out as "disposable" and portrays the other Ghostbusters as somewhat immoral - which they weren't. At a base level it buggers the immersion because, even in games like Fallout 3 where everyone calls you "kid" or "lone wanderer" regardless, letting you choose your own name gave your character SOME identity.
OK customisation is only really best used in RPG's and Ghostbusters wasn't an RPG but, again, why not at least name the poor sod? The only time the "Man with no name" element ever worked was the Clint Eastwood films. The main character has to have a name - Niko Bellic, Batman, Dizzy, Jack Slate etc.
It wouldn't have been so bad if the other Ghostbusters weren't so biblically poor in the AI department but, from an early stage, you wind up being miles better than the so called "experienced" lot and all the time the smug bastards are on the line, patronising you all the way or complaining about your aiming when they run through your stream for the billionth time that day.
Moving on to the trapping mechanism, the bit I was looking forward to. When I first did it I felt bloody smug ("Bustin' makes me feel good!") and it took a while to get old but, very early on, I was wondering why bother with the capture stream? I would have done away with it and kept one stream that could hold a ghost once "hit" (easier said than done!) but if the ghost was powerful or was not drained enough, it could wriggle free if you moved the crosshair too far off it or tried to move it trapwards too fast. The idea of slamming a tethered ghost onto surfaces THEY CAN PASS THROUGH was laughable. Using the slime-blower to maipulate scenery / clear blockages was good but I feel that having the capture stream as well was excessive and really wrung out the gameplay and, despite the boast, was nothing LIKE the "old-fashioned" stream in the films / cartoons. They were more like a bloody elastic vaulting pole! I never once saw a film / cartoon where the stream bent in a smooth arc and to the extent where the tethered ghost could be pretty much directly behind the Ghostbuster!
I could go on - The story was lame and so overly-complex it bored me, the hordes of "lesser" ghosts that you had to destroy whilst simultaneously trying to hold and trap a "normal" ghost was a one-way ticket to Cluster-Fuck central, endless blindsiding, poor cutscenes, AWFUL dialogue (Sorry guys but it was!), woeful AI and the awfully contrived reasons to include everything from the first film. As a fan, I could (should?) have been pleased about this but I wasn't.
The game was billed as the "third film" and so there should have been all new baddies. Yes the Stay Puft marshmallow man was iconic but he's history - move on! Leaving him or Slimer out would have been a tough call but I think, rather than jerking off the fans (like me), the writers should have kept the basic premise and even the main antagonist but dropped the constant "tributes". There were some good bits and even a few token attempts at mixing up the formula (That part with the stone-angels was really tricky!) but they were vastly overshadowed.
I have a lot more bile for the game but I'm running out of time so I will conclude by saying that Ghostbusters was to me what Dark Void was to Yahtzee - It promised to much eventually was massively disappointing.
Wardy
PS: I forgot the ending.
Despite the best efforts of your companions to fuck everything up, you're asked to leave the team because "five is too many" - For FUCKS sake...all that work for a "Thanks mate...now go away!"
Not that I knew this at first, I had to look it up because my copy had a lovely bug that skipped from the middle of the ending cutscene to the credits so I missed this part!
S that was easily as large as many for Thief 1 and 2.
