You need to check out this PS2 hidden gem that’s now on PS Plus

digitaltrends.com:

At long last, Sony has started adding more PlayStation 2 games to its classic catalog on PlayStation Plus. The first batch included Sly Cooper and Tomb Raider: Legend as the big names, and while the prospect of diving back into Sly was incredibly tantalizing, it was a title on the list I had never heard of that roused my curiosity.

Alongside Sly, I hit download on the curious game called Ghosthunter and booted it up to see if it was just padding out the collection or if it was a major blind spot in my PS2 knowledge. The third-person shooter was created by SCE Studio Cambridge, which briefly became a sister studio to Guerrilla Games before shutting down in 2017. As it turns out, it’s a piece of PlayStation history worth exploring. While it certainly has its issues, Ghosthunter isn’t afraid to be experimental and weird. It feels like a true cult classic that never found its supporters in its day and prime to gain that status all these years later.

I ain’t afraid of no ghost

The first thing you’ll notice about Ghosthunter is how well it holds up graphically. Coming out in 2004 in North America, this was the tail-end of the PS2’s lifecycle and it shows in terms of how well the lighting, character models, and animations of the era have aged. The very first cutscene is about the most early-2000s scene you could imagine, complete with a hooded figure pulling out two sci-fi guns and shooting giant skeleton soldiers in slow-motion backed by thumping club music. It’s very much Matrix-inspired and, while corny, put me in the perfect mindset for the experience ahead of me.

Ghosthunter wastes no time getting you into the game. After a quick introduction to Lazarus Jones — a name that could only exist in this era of games — you are given a gun and a special Capture Grenade. The gameplay boils down like this: encounter a ghost, shoot it with either a traditional or energy weapon, and throw a disc-like Capture Grenade at it to trap it. I can stick the grenade to the ghost at any