Terminal Realitys Ghostbusters is no stranger to death. After witnessing the untimely demise of Sierra, initially handling publishing duties before becoming a swallowed-whole casualty of the Activision-Blizzard merger, the game seemed to be left with one foot in the grave when Activision inexplicably passed on publishing it.
That was a mistake on Activisions partjust ask the legions of angry Ghostbusters fans that wouldve rioted if deprived a chance to strap on proton packs and bust the hell out of some Manhattan ghoulies. Terminal Reality clearly knew what they were getting into when they signed up for this project; after so many cheap cash-ins of such a beloved series, they had to do things right. Luckily, Atari saw the games potential.
See, for a lot of us, Ghostbusters isnt just a game. Its a realization of a childhood dream, and one that we played out countless times with plastic ghost traps, PKE readers and other Spengler-created equipment when we were kids. The dev team seems to be have been well aware of this fact (my guess is mostly from personal experience) and kept it in mind throughout the games development cycle.
In any case, that they have given us a quality Ghostbusters game, let alone a new Aykroyd/Ramis penned sequel to Ghostbusters II complete with nearly all of the principal cast, is a minor miracle. Hundreds of hours of tweaking, testing and sheer love for the series have obviously gone into making this one, and the result is the best damn Ghostbusters game ever seen. Even without a celluloid counterpart, this is a new benchmark for movie games.
Yes, there is no Ghostbusters III filmnot yet, anywaybut thanks to a considerable amount of non-phoned-in cast performances, generally spot-on likenesses and a great script that fits nicely into the existing busters canon, this really feels like it. So much so, in fact, that those Office scribes writing the upcoming film sequel might actually want to consider dropping that III from its title. The only difference is here youre actually playing it, albeit as a new member.
As excited as I was when I first heard about Ghostbusters, I had my doubts about the rookie. Why the hell would anyone want to play some new kid over the original four? Not to worry: the new cadet remains nameless (Venkman says they shouldnt get too attached for liability purposes) aside from the teams amusingly never-ending supply of nicknames for him, and doesnt utter a word from start to finish.
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