Answer sincerely: do you believe in UFOs, astral projections or telepathy? Do you believe ESP, clairvoyance, spirit photography, telekinesis, writing and non-writing mediums, the Lochness monster and the theory of Atlantis? If you answered yes to all of these questions … we are ready to believe in you. Unfortunately, there is no mention of a fixed salary, we are sorry, but the action will not be lacking and we also guarantee some unsolicited thrills.
We have been waiting for exactly 13 years for a new Ghostbusters game. The last was the title developed by Terminal Reality which acted as a hypothetical third chapter of the film saga, in which the original team welcomed in its ranks a rookie ready to be “lost” in order to restore “the normal amount of psycho- kinetics”. It was a good title, with gameplay capable of capturing the attention of both the most loyal audience and generations less linked to the franchise.
Since then, total silence, interrupted only for a moment by the remastered edition of the aforementioned game released in 2019 on PS4, Xbox One and Switch. On the other hand it is understandable, we are talking about a heavy license with which many developers are afraid to cross flows. This is not the case with Illfonic, which has embraced the project with enthusiasm thus completing their personal film trilogy after the experiences of Predator: Hunting Grounds and Friday The 13: The Game.
Your Ghostbusters can be aesthetically customized but will not have any specific abilities.
If you have played at least one of the two titles just mentioned you will have no problem adapting to the gameplay of Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed, which once again puts asymmetrical multiplayer at the center of the experience, while still leaving the single-player door open to players less accustomed to online interactions. The imprint left by the previous titles developed by this team is seen above all in the tendency to release games with a quantity of content that is not particularly rich, and then enrich them later with the regular release of DLC.
Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed
Developer: Illfonic Publisher: Illfonic Availability: October 18 – PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series XS, PS4, PS5 Tested version: PS5
In this case we are talking about a scarce half-dozen maps that are quite intricate and well designed but not particularly extensive, and of a single game mode called Fire Station. Your business will start and evolve from the mythical base of the Ghostbusters, which for the occasion has been renewed and expanded by the good Winston. Here you can customize your character, upgrade their equipment and test their effectiveness, go hunting for cinematic Easter Eggs but above all start disinfecting the city by accepting the missions from the agenda that is on the desk once it is occupied by Janine.
You, along with three other companions managed by friends or as many bots, will enter the selected location, be it an old prison, a pub or a natural history museum, and you will have to prevent it from being haunted and abandoned by the occupants. At first everything will seem normal, the employees and / or customers will walk around quite calmly (you will understand their alert status from the icon placed above their head) and nothing will seem out of place. But soon the first signs of the infestation will arrive: a scream, a person running away terrified, a chair floating or who knows what else.
In the base of operations you can upgrade the proton backpack and other toys of your equipment according to the level reached.
From that moment on, you and your companions will have to find the location of the ghosts, or rather the “portals” from which they migrate into the real world. There are three of them and you will have to close them to avoid the respawn of the ectoplasm in question, which once forced into our world can be definitively captured. You won’t have all the time in the world, as the infestation will continue in the meantime and once it reaches 100%, the game will be lost.
The presence of spirits will often be betrayed by a suspicious movement, by an object that moves by itself or by a luminous trail that was not there before. At that point you will have to rely on the PKE meter and the proton backpack to make it appear and thus have a possibility of direct comparison. The ghost can pass through walls and move 360 degrees, which makes it very easy to “break” the flow that is holding it back. He is also often accompanied by small-sized henchmen who are taken out quite easily but which can make the capture operation more difficult.
You will also need to pay attention to your equipment. Backpacks can overheat and when that happens you will be forced to cool them down. You could also run out of the energy of the traps and in this case you will have to recharge them in special points located on the map. It will also happen (obviously) that you are “wasted”, which will slow down your movements and consequently your contribution to the battle. It may even happen that you are terrified and lose control of the character, in this case you will not have to do is stay in the company of the group to return to normal.
Fan service abounds in Spirits Unleashed. Good Ray is one of the veterans of the original team but the base of operations is full of quotes.
Everything is easier if you and your comrades collaborate for the same cause. To win a challenge in Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed, team play is essential, and every element of the gameplay is built to encourage collaboration since you will hardly be able to complete the work alone. Especially the first games are rather chaotic as the morphology of the maps does not allow you to easily keep the position of the other players under control and the ease with which the ghosts escape the proton grip means that most of the matches translate into breathtaking races, in the hope that the cursed ectoplasm will show up somewhere.
With time, experience and the upgrading of the equipment, things improve but in general we can say that we are not facing the most tactical “shooter” ever. If you have one to three friends available to do all this, unless they are totally incapable, the chances of victory will be quite high.
On the contrary, playing solo you will have to rely on the Artificial Intelligence of the bots which, let’s say, is not exactly the spearhead of the production. This means that if you are considering purchasing Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed to enjoy it all alone on your sofa, perhaps you should think twice.
The amount of “Experience Points” you will get at the end of each match will, as always, depend on your performance.
The speech changes a bit if you are not used to hunting the evil spirit and you are more attracted to the idea of infesting, possessing and frightening helpless visitors. Spirits Unleashed allows you to do this too. A fifth player can impersonate one of the floating monsters available in the game, which possess powers that in fact allow to balance the gap due to numerical inferiority.
The game as a ghost is framed with the classic TPS view, much more practical given the greater freedom of movement, and the goal is diametrically opposite: to haunt the level with its simple presence and with the possibility of scaring humans. or possess objects, which in turn will confuse the work of the Ghostbusters. Once 100% infestation is reached, it is necessary to “survive” another 90 seconds for the game to be declared won by the ectoplasmic side.
At the end of the comparison, the actions of Ghostbusters and Spirits will be judged based on the results obtained, which will increase the level of the characters. This will unlock new equipment and powers and advance the “story” of the game. We have deliberately added the quotes as Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed does not have a real plot, the game proceeds on predefined tracks and already after the first 2/3 hours it tends to always repeat the same challenges and situations. As we mentioned at the beginning, the amount of content available at launch is quite low and the idea of playing alone that initially tickled us was ditched by the road test.
Too many close encounters with ghosts could terrify you; in that case try to stay in contact with the other Ghostbusters.
Technically we are on discrete levels even if belonging to a generation much further back than the current one reached by Sony and Microsoft. The polygonal models are simple but “nice” and the architectures are sufficiently complex for a title that makes hunting its primary objective. However, some obvious hesitations of the game engine are unjustified, which already in the presence of two characters, a handful of ghosts, activated proton beams and traps set, sees the fps count drop below the alert threshold. Here, too, some action is needed to bring things back to normal.
Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed puts in a lot of good will to give players that irresistible mix of action and humor that has characterized the first two films of the saga, but despite the fan-service is present in generous quantities thanks to the presence of two members of the original cast (as you may already know the characters of Bill Murray and the late Harold Ramis are not present in the game) and numerous quotes from the films, something is missing that significantly impacts those who are in front of the screen.
The title of Illfonic starts with a good initial concept: putting together a “real” team that goes on a ghost hunt around the city. What he leaves in his memory, however, is as thin as a sheet of paper, an experience that is too repetitive and shallow at the moment.
Effects of light and particulates are some of the technically best things in the game, but when they abound the fluidity suffers.
Despite the doubts expressed so far, we still decided to give a sufficient evaluation because we cannot deny that we had fun during the online challenges and that we saw a considerable potential in Spirits Unleashed. As you would say at school it is a vote of encouragement for what this title can and must give, given the lineage it carries.
We therefore expect a full-bodied support in the medium and long term, which provides lifeblood capable of justifying the initial expenditure not exactly from the budget title.
6
/ 10
