Nerds That Geek Game Review – ‘Ghostbusters: The Video Game – Remastered’

Written by John Edward Betancourt 

We live in an interesting era when it comes to video games. Simply because the technology used to create these fictional and delightfully beautiful worlds is evolving at an incredible pace, to the point where something that was revolutionary a year or two ago looks quite dated in its own right, today. Which is now prompting video game companies everywhere to revisit some of those ‘older’ properties and clean them up properly for the next generation of consoles, with mixed results of course, for various and unfortunate reasons.
 
For some companies treat this act as an opportunity to get their hands on a boatload of cash, which means that some of the re-dos that come out are subpar, and really don’t offer the fans anything new, and that’s always disappointing when all is said and done. But thankfully, there are some companies that want a remaster to go the extra mile and deliver everything they intended to when the game first came out. And recently, I finally had the opportunity to play one of the better remasters out there by way of the updated re-release of Ghostbusters: The Video Game.
 
Now this particular game, which originally came out in 2009, is one that I firmly believe was supremely overdue for a makeover, so it made me supremely happy to know this one was finally getting a quality update because this one deserved it for so many reasons. The first one being, this was quite the epic adventure with the Ghostbusters, one that was definitely limited by the technology of the time and putting it through the cleanup process would likely allow for this game to look as gorgeous as possible, allowing for the player to truly settle in and enjoy a pseudo-cinematic experience and well, the quality of the graphics are precisely the first thing that once notices when playing this game.

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Because the cleanup and redo of New York City and for that matter the world that the Ghostbusters inhabit, is magnificent to say the least. For now, there is genuine detail everywhere that you go in the game, allowing for one to get lost from time to time as you admire the bright lights of Times Square, or the swirling clouds and vortices of the ghost world. But the cleanup of the background and the environment is merely the tip of the iceberg for this remaster. Because even the ghosts got a facelift, since they now feature incredible and haunting detail, and even your weapons have a new feel to them since the proton stream looks exactly like it did on the silver screen.
 
But all glamour and glitz aside, there are two key elements that truly made me happy about this particular remaster. First and foremost, I love the fact that the game now features detailed surround sound support, because that only further enhances the experience when you hear spirits in the darkness growl or enjoy the sound of proton beams cycling over your shoulder as you line with up with the boys to bust ghosts, and I’m also supremely happy with the tweaks present in the gameplay itself. Because from time to time, I couldn’t help but notice that trapping a ghost or getting a capture stream locked onto them was quite the chore in the original game. As was simply getting the proton stream to hit its target, and that’s all been fixed here.
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Which makes for a delightful gaming experience, one that feels complete and natural and of course, it is wonderful to revisit the world of the Ghostbusters once again and fight alongside the original cast and hear Venkman’s quips. But no game is perfect, and I suppose if I have one complaint when it comes to this game, it would have to be that they squandered a grand opportunity to include the missing Thanksgiving Day Parade level that was apparently cut back in the day, because it would have been awesome to have experienced a ghostly bedlam on Turkey Day. Outside of that however, this is a great remaster, one that injects a new level of fun into an old game and one that will definitely tide the fans over until Ghostbusters: Afterlife hits the silver screen in 2020.    

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