Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed is a promising iteration from IllFonic’s previous titles – GDC 2022 Preview

gamepur.com:

There are times when you hear a game premise that sounds so obvious that you’ll be wondering why you didn’t think of it yourself. Enter Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed, a five-player asymmetrical multiplayer game that pits four Ghostbusters against one Ghost. According to studio IllFonic, best known for Friday the 13th: The Game and Predator: Hunting Grounds, the hope is that this next title will be a reflection on lessons learned from making those games.

Taking place after last year’s Ghostbusters: Afterlife, Spirits Unleashed features Ernie Hudson and Dan Akroyd as their iconic film characters, while players are in the shoes of new Ghostbusters recruits. These are characters that players will create, from their aesthetics to their gadget perks. Meanwhile, a fifth player will play the role of the Ghost, being able to choose from different Ghosts with distinct abilities. I played a bit of Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed with the team at IllFonic — I was able to play a round as a Ghostbusters and another as a Ghost.

The preview build that I had played at GDC 2022 featured one map and one playable Ghost, but it was more than enough to understand the baseline of the gameplay loop. We played on a museum map, with civilians wandering the exhibits. As a Ghostbuster, I wielded the Proton Pack in a first-person perspective, and I could switch to the EKG Meter — the former was our main weapon against Ghosts, and the latter was what we used to track the Ghost.

Each side will have its own objectives: the Ghost will have to haunt the area (monitored by a progress bar), which they will do by straight-up scaring the NPC civilians scattered throughout the map. The Ghost will also have to protect three Rifts, which will serve as respawn