Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed Review

ign.com:

Ever since I was a child rushing over to the VHS rewinder to queue up another showing of Ghostbusters, I’ve dreamt of a multiplayer game in its unflinchingly silly universe. Whether it’s the over-the-top spectral miscreants or the ridiculous ghost-sucking vacuums carried by phantom-catching vigilantes in janitor’s outfits, it’s hard to imagine a world more ripe for an asymmetrical multiplayer game where a team of ghost cops goes head-to-head against a vengeful wraith. Unfortunately, Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed’s attempt to fill this void is only a qualified success, as it often absolutely nails the ghost-hunting fantasy, but gets stuck in the thick slime of balancing issues, questionable level design, a story that only barely qualifies being called one, and most of all, a severe shortage of content. I had plenty of genuinely hilarious and satisfying moments running around as a ghost and monkeying with my irksome, would-be captors, and hunting down spooky foes with friends can be a lot of fun, but after a couple hours I’d seen all there was to see and was ready to consign this meager jaunt to the shelf next to my prized Ghostbusters VHS.

Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed pits a team of four Ghostbusters against a single slime-loving apparition in simple but mostly enjoyable matches on one of five maps. The ghost’s goal is to terrorize dimwitted NPCs and haunt areas of the map until it’s too creepy for human occupation, while the team of Ghostbusters works to track down and capture that slippery abomination before it’s able to complete its unfinished business. As a ghost, you can fly, go through walls, haunt or possess items in the world, cover things in slime, and use an array of interesting abilities that are specific