Sierra Spring Event: Ghostbusters
If there's something strange and it looks way too good; who ya gonna call? Ghostbusters! That's right, the paranormal 80s movie, Ghostbusters, is once again coming to possess your console and slime your pants. During our preview of the new Ghostbusters game, I was thoroughly impressed by the spectacular graphics of everything from the proton beams electric-looking beams to the ethereal phantasms that would fly around taunting the characters; however, in giving the game a new and exciting look, they also kept what made the movie what it is, a comedic focus on beating up and catching ghosts along with the same endearing characters. While the game is still in development, the preview really left me with a shocked look on my face from just how great it looks and plays so far. The game will be coming out on the Wii, Xbox360, PS3, PS2, PC DS sometime in October (around Halloween if the developer has their way) and seems like it will be packing a wallop. More info and screen shots after the jump.
The first thing we got to see during the preview was the physics demo. I've seen a number of physics demos, and a bunch of them tend to be the same thing (thousands of one type of object failing to the ground together); however, the Ghostbusters' one really had me impressed. Apparently the entire physics, graphics and AI engine of the game, dubbed the Infernal Engine, was built in-house and the attention to detail really shows. At one point during the demo the character was brought into a cathedral with pews and everything. By jumping on different switches a variety of objects would fall onto the screen, cars, buses, books, and more. As they fell and the player shot them with his proton pack ray and the objects would explode correctly and crumple properly onto each other. A little later the character was found in a room with water up to the ankles and about 100 books floating around very realistically. An incorporeal phantasm then entered the room and the books flew off the water and walls and into shape around the ghost. As this 'book ghost' was hit by the proton pack beam, the books at the section hit would fly off the monster and back onto the water, like knocking Legos off a structure.
After the demo, one of the developers than ran through a bit of the actual gameplay. True to the movie, the main point of the game seems to be missions in which you are called to the scene of some paranormal disturbances in New York City and then, proton packs blazing, have to destroy and/or capture the ghosts running amuck. You have the standard proton pack blasters from the movie as your main weapon, but also a variety of other beams at your disposal, such as Neutron, Dark Energy, and Plasma beams. Each type of beam seems to have two different types of shots it can fire, the most interesting be the 'Slime Tether' that you can use to temporarily attach two or more objects together with a string of green ooze. You use these beams to help either destroy ghosts, or knock them into submission, at which point you or an AI teammate can throw out a trap to catch them. The cool part of actually trapping the ghosts is the use of the normal beam as a lasso to corral the ghost above the trap. For harder ghosts you may even need some of your fellow ghostbusters to help lasso the baddie into the trap. The game even allows you to use the lasso to beat the ghost into submission, which can be done using the Sixaxis controls on the PS3. Add to all of this that many times the ghosts are not corporeal, and so you have to pull out a PKE meter to figure out where the ghosts are hiding. Some ghosts can even inhabit objects around the level and hurl them at you or at your teammates. One other interesting gameplay point to be made is that the games entire HUD is contained on the proton pack that your character has slung across his back. By simple glancing at the pack you can tell just how much ammo you have and many other important pieces of information, leaving the rest of the screen uncluttered and full of the stunning visuals that is the game.
Outside of the normal story mode, which seems to be single player only, there will also be a few multiplayer games and missions. We were told that there will be a few cooperative missions that will allow two players to tackle ghosts and demons together. Adding to that, they also seem to be working on both competitive and cooperative mini-games for both the team-spirited and cutthroat players of the game. As for the movie tie-in, it seems as thought many (if not all) of the original cast of the movie will be lending their voices to the game. While the main character of the game is not any of the principal characters of the movie, instead a new recruit, many of your teammates throughout the game are the original ghostbusters and behave true to their character's form. As the new recruit, though, you also seem to be the guinea pig, which is why you get all the new (and possibly unstable) inventions to try out on your proton pack.
This game was easily one of the best that I saw at the Sierra Spring Event, and with it coming out on such a wide variety of platforms, its sure to be available for a console that you own. Can't wait to see more from this game as it matures.
PixelPoet
Posted to Hot Stuff, Video Games on 28 April 2008
· Comments (3)
Other stuff like this: ds, ghostbusters, pc, playstation 2, playstation 3, sierra, wii, xbox 360
I will certainly be getting this when it hits, it's one of my "must owns" this year (along with MGS4 and GTAIV, so I place it in fine company indeed).
Looks to be really great.
I do hope Sigourney Weaver will have a voiced part too. She wasn't actually one of the ghostbusters, but she was in both movies and she's my favorite actress, so...
I'm just dieing for this to come out, I really can't wait, to me, this is the most anticipated game of the year.