Review by: William Abner

You don’t need me to tell you that most movie tie-in games are abysmal cash-ins created solely to take advantage of the movie of the moment. Ghostbusters is a bit different. This game isn’t promoting a new movie – it sort of is the new movie. (The next Ghostbusters film is due out in 2011 or 2012.) The game, penned in part by Akroyd and Ramis, plays out like the third chapter of the story—and it’s a pretty decent game to boot.

Ghostbusters is arguably the most quotable movie of all time. Filled with classic one-liners and memorable scenes, all you need to do is say “It’s the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, “He slimed me”, “The flowers…are still standing! or, “You gotta try this pole!” and most movie buffs will immediately catch the reference. The developers know this – you can tell by the names of the Gamerscore Achievements. Problem is, the videogame really has none of that. The script provides a few chuckles and the atmosphere is pure Ghostbusters right down to the original music – and not just the theme song – the instrumental tracks as well, but something is missing.

You can tell a lot of thought was put into the script and truth be told the story is a hell of a lot better than Ghostbusters II. But it also proves once again that funny is really hard to pull off in a videogame. The oddest bit is that Bill Murray phones it in. In fact I had to check the credits to make completely sure it was him doing the voice work for Peter Venkman. Another telling sign that maybe Bill wasn’t fully committed is that he has fewer lines than the other Ghostbusters – Ernie Hudson has more dialogue in this than the first two movies combined. It’s also noticeable that there is no Sigourney Weaver or Rick Moranis. The keymaster and gatekeeper are strangely absent, and seeing as the plot centers around events from the first film, it’s an odd omission.

You play the role of the newest member of the team – you get some screen time – and are forced to play a young white guy who never speaks and doesn’t have a name. You are consistently called “The new guy” or “The cadet.” It makes the feeling that you are starring in a Ghostbusters movie fade a bit because…you literally never say a word. You are the mute Ghostbuster.