The name conjures images of Silent Hill-like tension and Resident Evil-ish scares. However, Ghosthunter owes just as much to Ghostbusters as it does to the survival-horror classics. The game mixes just the right amount of humor, horror, and plain surrealism to create a compelling experience. While it’s not a perfect game and does bear some blemishes, Ghosthunter delivers a beautiful, scary, and very campy game experience that horror gamers are sure to love.
Ghosthunter puts you in the shoes of Lazarus Jones, the new kid on the police force. He and his touch talking partner, Anna Steele, are sent to investigate some complaints at an old abandoned school. Years ago a series of mysterious murders took place in the school, with the teacher accused of the crime disappearing without a trace. Naturally you split up, and along the way Lazarus manages to unleash hundreds of ghosts who just happened to be contained in the school’s basement. By the time Lazarus fights his way back to the surface his partner has been taken, leaving him alone with a ghost inside him and a broken AI barking out orders.
The first thing that stands out about Ghosthunter is how visually appealing it is. The character models are very high detail, rivaling Silent Hill 3’s. The facial expressions are also very good when you get past the strange jump-cuts that are frequently used in the cutscenes. One character who especially stands out is Astral, the ghost that’s hitching a ride along with Lazarus. From her ghostly aura to the way she literally swims through the air, Astral really showcases how good this game can look. The environments in Ghosthunter can tend to be a little boxy, especially in outdoor areas, but they make up for this by adding a lot of props and texture details that help bring things to life. There’s also a surprising range in environments, from the inside of a collapsing school to a swamp and more.
The ghosts themselves run the range from baby-eating monstrosities to campy and weird, like the Viking redneck snipers and crocodile men with chainsaws for arms that populate the swamp. The game gives you a pretty decent arsenal to handle these ghosts and tends to give you hints as to what firearm works best for each type. You also get a Capture Grenade. This is kind of a square flying discus that you can shoot into certain types of ghosts. The ill-named grenade will show you how much health the ghost has and how much time you have to kill it so that it can be captured. Capturing ghosts serves a couple of purposes. The first is to give you more energy for those weapons of yours that are fueled by spectral energy. The second is that Astral can learn new abilities if you capture a certain number of different types of ghosts, abilities that are necessary to progress in the game. The final is that they will show up in the ghost containment chamber back in the old school. The containment chamber is one of those nice little things in Ghosthunter that sounds small and unimportant but that really helps make the game. Not only does it display the ghosts you have captured, you can also mildly torture them by blasting them with steam. They also fuel the AI that is desperately trying to help you find your partner.
The game is a 3rd person shooter, which means it can be difficult for people who aren’t familiar with console controllers. If you are very familiar with these types of controls, however, the game will probably be extremely easy for you. The only real difficulty you can have is with the boss ghosts, who are puzzle bosses where you have to find the right combination of things to do to finish them off. Ammo and health is rarely a problem – even if a ghost is not a type that can be captured most of them will still throw out a few glowy balls of health and ammo after they die, and then you can throw out your capture grenade to pull them in. Occasionally you come across spots where Astral can exit Lazarus’s body and she gets to do a little adventure game-like puzzle solving using the new abilities you have collected to her.
Remember those blemishes mentioned earlier? Sometimes you spend a little too much time in an area, the swamp especially, and the game can feel a little repetitive. However, the biggest problem with Ghosthunter, and one that is a real shame, is the ending. Ghosthunter does such a great job setting up a fun scary yet campy atmosphere and making you really want to defeat the villain, that what actually happens is a huge let down.
Despite that, Ghosthunter is still a pretty good experience. It delivers a coherent experience that mixes horror and humor very effectively, and does so with some beautiful environments. If you’re a fan of the survival-horror genre and are looking for some lighter fare, then this is the game for you.
