Following on the success of “Ghostbusters: Afterlife: which helped refresh the franchise, Illfonic has released Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed which allows players to work with one another as a new generation of Ghostbusters.
Picking up after the events of the movie, Winston (Ernie Hudson) has used his business success to restart the Ghostbusters and with the help of Ray (Dan Aykroyd), and their assistants, recruit a new trainee into the program
Players will go through the training paces of using their gear, exploring the headquarters, and customizing their characters before they head off on missions.
With cross-play options there are always plenty of games and players must work as a team to locate the ghost and cleanse a location under haunt. Locals include a prison, a hotel, a museum, and a sports bar which offer plenty of places for a ghost to hide and NPC characters to scare.
The gameplay requires players to locate the ghost and then using their Proton Packs; guide the ghost into a trap for collection. This is not as easy as it sounds as there are rifts that must be located and closed which allow the captured spirits to emerge again. The longer a ghost remains free, then the chance of a total haunting becomes likely and the round ends with a loss.
Playing as a ghost offers a unique perspective as players can haunt items, scare individuals, slime the Ghostbusters, and do any number of attacks depending on their energy level which can thwart capture efforts and even require Ghostbusters to revive players who have been slimed or reboot their packs.
Causing damage to a locale does hinder the bottom line and players can upgrade their gear over time after so many missions the storyline of the game will advance when they return to the station.
The game is fun to play but does have graphics that are on the dated side but that is quickly overlooked during the fun as taking down the ghosts is always a fun experience. The biggest issue that I had was a lack of maps as after a few hours of play the game does seem a bit redundant and my upgrades really did not impact my gameplay greatly. The storyline seemed short and ended rather abruptly so hopefully more will be coming in a future update.
For now, the game is an enjoyable outing that can be enjoyed and returned to again and again but does not likely hold enough content for extended play sessions for many gamers which makes it a fun diversion from time to time.
3.5 stars out of 5
