Title – Ghostbusters: Spirit’s Unleashed
Platforms – PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PC
Release Date – October 18, 2022
Developer – Illfonic
Publisher – Illfonic
MSRP – $39.99
ESRB – E for Everyone
Disclaimer – Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed is being reviewed on PS5. A review copy was provided by Illfonic for the purpose of this review. Gaming Instincts is an Amazon Affiliate and does gain financial benefits if you choose to purchase this product on this page.
Ever since the failed asymmetrical first-person shooter, Evolve, it was suddenly a good idea to adapt several classic movies into video games with the varying 4v1 formula. We’ve had Friday the 13th, Aliens, and now Ghostbusters with Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed. Though the multiplayer game has a few moments of fun tension and nostalgic callbacks, it’s ultimately an unbalanced, confusing, and annoying mess. Welcome to our review of Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed.
Barely a Story
Before we get into the multiplayer mechanics, let’s look at the game structure from a storytelling perspective. After the events of Ghostbusters Afterlife, Raymond Stantz re-opens the old Ghostbuster firehouse and invites you, the player, to join the Ghostbuster team. Right off the bat, the game precisely encapsulates the Ghostbuster feel, with the humorous albeit mysterious soundtrack we’ve grown to love and the return of familiar voices. That’s right, Dan Aykroyd reprises his role as Raymond Stantz, and Ernie Hudson plays Winston Zeddemore. It’s enough to make any Ghostbuster fan giddy, and they do a great job stepping back into their roles. Additionally, the act of exploring the firehouse, between multiplayer matches, is a walk through memory lane. If anything, Ghostbusters Afterlife gets some nostalgic points.
It’s too bad then, that there is barely a story here. There is 25 minutes worth of cutscenes interspersed between multiplayer matches. A ghost possessed Winston, and the team must remove the erratic supernatural being. That’s about it. There is little you need to do except walk to a spot in the firehouse and initiate a short cutscene. Most of the storytelling is done off-screen. Of course, minimal storytelling is expected from a multiplayer title, but it seemed unnecessary and tacked on. I guess, since they got the actors to return, they had to give them something to do. The story, though nostalgic, serves as a forgettable annoyance that interrupts the main part of the game: busting ghosts with your friends.
Busting Ghosts
There are two different gameplay scenarios: playing as the ghost and playing as a ghostbuster. Let’s take a look at the latter. As a ghostbuster, you must bust the ghost before it completely haunts the map. Visibly, as the building gets more haunted, it gets darker and covered in slime, which is a clever way to change the map atmosphere and build tension. Hopefully, you can stop that from happening by tracking the ghost down with your P.K.E Meter, tethering it, and dragging it into a trap previously set up by you or a teammate. The ghostbusters must capture the ghost and eliminate its three rifts, or respawn points.
To be honest, I’m not good at this game. I could never understand any of the strategies, and it was difficult to learn them. Quickly, I found that I was experimenting to find a strategy, failing constantly, and not having fun. The act of playing the game, experimenting, and learning the ropes, no matter how bad you are, shouldn’t be this frustrating or boring. A good multiplayer experience entices even the worst of players, whether it’s that one moment of collaborative gameplay, the quest to rank up, or the simple joy of playing. Ghostbuster has none of these. I can point one accusatory finger at the matchmaking, or lack thereof. It’s obvious that this game was meant to be played with a group of four humans, but almost every match I was in had at least one bot. Even just one bot can be a detriment to your game, for they are incredibly dumb, not placing traps, and sometimes actively working against you. I suggest entering any multiplayer match with a full roster of friends. The communication and banter will increase your enjoyment of Ghostbusters Unleashed significantly, however, the enjoyment will probably come from the friendships and not the game itself.
To be fair, there are brief moments of tension that get your heart racing, such as barely capturing a ghost before they fully complete their haunting. There is a percentage tracker at the top of the screen, which helps add urgency to the busting. Besides these brief frantic moments, most of the game is rather mundane. You will slowly walk around with your P.K.E meter, trying to find the ghost and calm down civilians with two timed button presses. That’s every round, and it’s just as boring as it sounds.
Once you do find the ghost, you or a teammate must put down a trap and activate it. The process of activating is unnecessary and annoying. When you should be chasing after the ghost, you are, instead, looking at the ground and walking back and forth like an idiot, trying to find the exact spot where the activate trap prompt appears. If you’re not working together with your team, the ghost is long gone before you even activate the trap. Most of the gameplay involves waiting for cool-downs and tapping/holding buttons. When you are slimed, you get out by holding down a button. When your proton pack malfunctions, you fix it by holding down a button. Even destroying rifts involves pointing at them and holding down a button. Essentially, the game is filled with annoying QTE events instead of more creative gameplay approaches to equipment management.
The ghost perspective is slightly more fun. You must completely haunt the environment by haunting individual items in the room and scaring civilians. It’s satisfying to see the haunt percentage increase as it gives you a constant sense of progression and encouragement. The best part of being the ghost is grabbing the rifts and hiding them in places unforeseen by the busters, and slithering through a wall to barely escape an onslaught of attacks. The basic ghost has several abilities, including making minions to distract the busters, a scream that scares civilians, and, if done enough, immobilizes the enemy, a giant ball of ectoplasm that covers the floor, and a giant ectoplasm tornado.
Unfortunately, these mechanics are marred with excessive cooldowns, and, just like the buster’s gameplay, there is some button massing involved. When you are tethered, you must repeatedly tap the button and move the analog stick away from the trap. Once you are in the trap, another button-mashing prompt appears that’s almost impossible, making the whole minigame unnecessary. It’s an uninspired mechanic that, just like many elements of the game, proves to be more annoying than fun. Additionally, the basic ghost is at a clear disadvantage. When bombarded with busters, there is nothing to do, especially when all your abilities are on cooldown, which they almost always are. With that being said, an upgraded ghost can quickly turn the tables. Gloom is a hulking ghost that can easily immobilize busters and recover quickly from stuns. Once as a buster, a gloom started hitting me out of nowhere, and before I could do anything, I was down for the count.
As one might infer, the powerful ghosts and enhanced abilities on both sides can cause problems for beginner players, as I was often pitted against players way above my pay grade. The biggest concern, though, is Ghostbuster Unleashed’s longevity. There is not much of a game here with only one mode and repetitive tasks for each match. After about five matches, the boredom surfaced, and I was inclined to quit.
A Whimsical Tone (audio and visuals)
I enjoyed how every choice, from visuals to audio, contributed to a whimsical and lighthearted tone. The music is constantly humorous and upbeat while encapsulating a ghostly atmosphere. The visuals are cartoony, and despite it not being the best-looking game, it works to capture the same lighthearted feeling of the Ghostbuster movies we fell in love with. My biggest complaint from a technical standpoint is glitches and some unfortunate circumstances. One time while trying to scare a human, he suddenly disappeared, an obvious issue that interferes with the ghost’s performance. There were also several times when I spawned in the middle of a game, and even worst, as a ghost, I once spawn right into a tether, got trapped, and lost the game seconds after entering.
The Final Verdict
The word annoying sums up my experience with Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed. Everything from spawning issues, constant cooldowns, lack of clear strategies, and unbalanced matchmaking soured my experience. There are some bright spots though. Ghostbuster fans will default to liking this game more than the average gamer because it successfully hits the nostalgic notes and perfectly captures the Ghostbusters atmosphere. Additionally, a group of friends can have fun collaborating and tethering ghosts in some frantic moments of gameplay. With that being said, Ghostbusters Unleashed gets a 6 out of 10. To put some language to the score, our definition of a 6 is below. “This is a game that is decent enough to rent or be looked into. Some people may enjoy it for what it is, while others will just plain hate it. The game has a passable game design, visuals, and audio and might be worth picking up once it’s cheaper.”
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