Ever since I saw the original Ghostbusters movie as a kid, I instantly fell in love with the characters and the universe that Ivan Reitman, Harold Ramis, Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray, Ernie Hudson, Annie Potts, Rick Moranis, and Sigourney Weaver created and brought to life. It was a movie for nerds by nerds and it helped shape who I am today.
Flashforward 38 years through two sequels, a reboot, an animated series, multiple games, and comics. Now we have a brand new game set in the Ghostbusters Universe. Small studio Illfonic has teamed with Sony Pictures, Columbia Pictures and Ghost Corps (the studio in charge of the Ghostbusters franchise) to deliver a fast paced 4V1 Ghostbusters vs Ghost survival game. Enter Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed.
So what is Spirits Unleashed about? Taking place after the events of 2021’s Ghostbusters: Afterlife, the Ecto-1A has made it back to New York City and its old Firehouse home. Winston Zeddemore and Ray Stantz have taken it upon themselves to restart the Ghostbusters and they need new Busters to ‘Answer the Call’. This is where you come in; you can create and customize your Ghostbuster anyway you want. As you make your way through the game and level up, you can unlock new suits, accessories, and hairstyles for your character. Then you make your way to the practice range where you get to dawn the proton pack and shoot some proton streams at some cardboard ghosts. After learning the basics of particle throwing, using your PKE meter and trapping some “ghosts”, it’s time for you to take on your first “job”. After your first few jobs, you can go back to the Firehouse and Ray’s Occult Bookstore. If you go into Ray’s store, he will introduce you to the book ‘Tobin’s Spirit Guide’ and this will introduce you to the ghost role of the game.
Now the “jobs” are fairly the same – you can join a public match or a private match with friends. Once the match begins you are split up into two factions: The Ghostbusters and a Ghost. Four players take on the roles of their own Busters and one player takes on the role of the Ghost. The job of the Ghost is to scare all of the citizens of the location you are in and fully haunt it. The Busters have to track the Ghost, destroy dimensional cross-rips (gateways to the Ghost World), calm the citizens down, and finally capture the Ghost. While these jobs can feel a bit repetitive, they are a lot of fun, especially if you have a good team of Busters with you. If you have a player who is good with the Ghost (as I have encountered in quite a few matches), it can also be quite challenging.
If you’re worried about how the game looks and plays, don’t worry! The game looks fantastic! Yes, it looks a bit cartoony, but the characters look like their on-screen counterparts. The designs of each map are simple and easy to navigate, but they will change over the time you spend on the job. I once saw a normal fireplace with a regular fire, but when I came back not 30 seconds later, the fire was slimy and purple. It goes to show you how much things can change during the haunt. While we are talking about how the game looks, let’s talk about the equipment too. Each piece looks like it was taken right from the movies. The Neutrona Wand on the Particle thrower looks and sounds movie accurate and the particle beam looks fantastic. The PKE Meter and Ghost Traps all look and sound great too. Now for the Gameplay. It’s pretty simple and straightforward. You use the kits that you are given to either bust the Ghost or Haunt the location that you are at. That is pretty much it, but I will say that the controls are pretty responsive and there is little to no delay between commands and actions. Between the look and gameplay, it’s so easy to get lost in this universe.
All and all, I LOVED Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed. It’s a fun and unique return to this universe that has helped shape so many of our lives. It’s an incredible love letter to all of the stories that have come before (yes, including the 2016 reboot. In my opinion it gets a really bad wrap, but that is for another discussion).
Review Score: 8/10
Image from: Ghost Corps
