DoctorFinger
02-08-2009, 02:42 PM
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/198/3264485376_ea5b8a945f.jpg (http://farm1.static.flickr.com/198/3264485376_ef3165ce25_o.jpg)
Click on the image to enlarge
UPDATE - BAPenguin has informed me that the demo at NYCC was not multiplayer or co-op. I had asked one of the Activision reps, before I began playing, if the game was networked and he told me "yeah". I'm not sure if he misunderstood my question, or was just misinformed about the game. In the spirit of transparency I'm leaving the text of my preview unchanged. I apologize for any misunderstandings.
Ghostbusters is one of those games with Buzz. It's flying under no one's radar and by the time it's in stores we'll be inundated by the media blitz. But how does the game actually play?
The demo I had the chance to play was a 4 player co-op level set inside a high rise office building in New York. As the scene was pretty chaotic, I couldn't coordinate with the other players, but it wasn't too necessary for this style of gameplay.
Ghostbusters plays as a fairly standard third-person shooter. Of course you have your trusty proton accelerator - which can be used as the standard beam or as an energy lasso - your PKE meter and traps, as well as a few ancillary gadgets. Your PKE meter functions as a sort of enhanced vision mode, letting you see invisible ghosts before they attack you. Most of the baddies I encountered were dispatched with just the proton accelerator, but some will require the trap to defeat. Your Proton Pack actually does double duty as your HUD, similar to how Dead Space functioned.
Graphics and sound were pretty nice. The voice tracks, with all four stars aboard, were witty and fun. The game itself ran smooth, although there were some quirks, particularly when you started blasting the environment. Gameplay itself felt a bit sluggish. Your character felt a bit too tank like, especially with some of the faster enemies.
The level was fairly straightforward. You're running through a skyscraper, searching for the specters wreaking havoc on the offices. You encounter a few different enemies when you look out a window and see the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man going for a stroll outside. Soon enough you're fighting Marshmallow Minions, little guys which look a lot like the Tickers in Gears of War. These little buggers move fast, and sometimes it was hard to hit them. Stay Puft himself would occasionally wander by a window, letting you blast him, but it didn't seem to do much damage. One problem I had was with the doors. At one point I reached a room and couldn't continue for a minute, until suddenly a door which had been closed was suddenly open. This may have been a timed or instanced opening, but it could also have been a minor glitch. Either way the gameplay up to this point was good, but somewhat unremarkable. Then we got to the roof. Using the lasso setting of the packs, you grabbed the ghosts of evil construction workers (I think that's what they were) and slam them into the trap. This part was a lot of fun, one which will apparently go into the full Stay Puft boss battle in the full game.
Overall the game lived up to expectations, but didn't really exceed them. It's fun, but not particularly revolutionary. Everything is solid and seems to play well, but nothing jumped off the screen at me during my time with the demo.
Read some more on the game's co-op mode for the Wii, and the possibility of a TRUE co-op mode at Co-Optimus (http://www.co-optimus.com/article/1260/Ghostbusters_May_Get_a_True_Co-Op_Mode_Yet_%5BNYCC%5D.html).
Click on the image to enlarge
UPDATE - BAPenguin has informed me that the demo at NYCC was not multiplayer or co-op. I had asked one of the Activision reps, before I began playing, if the game was networked and he told me "yeah". I'm not sure if he misunderstood my question, or was just misinformed about the game. In the spirit of transparency I'm leaving the text of my preview unchanged. I apologize for any misunderstandings.
Ghostbusters is one of those games with Buzz. It's flying under no one's radar and by the time it's in stores we'll be inundated by the media blitz. But how does the game actually play?
The demo I had the chance to play was a 4 player co-op level set inside a high rise office building in New York. As the scene was pretty chaotic, I couldn't coordinate with the other players, but it wasn't too necessary for this style of gameplay.
Ghostbusters plays as a fairly standard third-person shooter. Of course you have your trusty proton accelerator - which can be used as the standard beam or as an energy lasso - your PKE meter and traps, as well as a few ancillary gadgets. Your PKE meter functions as a sort of enhanced vision mode, letting you see invisible ghosts before they attack you. Most of the baddies I encountered were dispatched with just the proton accelerator, but some will require the trap to defeat. Your Proton Pack actually does double duty as your HUD, similar to how Dead Space functioned.
Graphics and sound were pretty nice. The voice tracks, with all four stars aboard, were witty and fun. The game itself ran smooth, although there were some quirks, particularly when you started blasting the environment. Gameplay itself felt a bit sluggish. Your character felt a bit too tank like, especially with some of the faster enemies.
The level was fairly straightforward. You're running through a skyscraper, searching for the specters wreaking havoc on the offices. You encounter a few different enemies when you look out a window and see the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man going for a stroll outside. Soon enough you're fighting Marshmallow Minions, little guys which look a lot like the Tickers in Gears of War. These little buggers move fast, and sometimes it was hard to hit them. Stay Puft himself would occasionally wander by a window, letting you blast him, but it didn't seem to do much damage. One problem I had was with the doors. At one point I reached a room and couldn't continue for a minute, until suddenly a door which had been closed was suddenly open. This may have been a timed or instanced opening, but it could also have been a minor glitch. Either way the gameplay up to this point was good, but somewhat unremarkable. Then we got to the roof. Using the lasso setting of the packs, you grabbed the ghosts of evil construction workers (I think that's what they were) and slam them into the trap. This part was a lot of fun, one which will apparently go into the full Stay Puft boss battle in the full game.
Overall the game lived up to expectations, but didn't really exceed them. It's fun, but not particularly revolutionary. Everything is solid and seems to play well, but nothing jumped off the screen at me during my time with the demo.
Read some more on the game's co-op mode for the Wii, and the possibility of a TRUE co-op mode at Co-Optimus (http://www.co-optimus.com/article/1260/Ghostbusters_May_Get_a_True_Co-Op_Mode_Yet_%5BNYCC%5D.html).