Ghostbusters: The Video Game Progress Report
Greg finally confronts the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man.
April 10, 2009 - Since the first time I played Ghostbusters: The Video Game, I've been chasing the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man. The big guy's been smashing in stairwell walls, grabbing at lovely ladies cowering in high-rise offices, and sending burnt and gooey mini-minions after me and the boys -- but the sailor has never stepped up to go toe-to-toe with my Proton Pack.
Until now.
Yes, earlier this week I winged my way out to New York to scope the latest build of Ghostbusters and was pleasantly surprised to find myself playing sections of the game that filled in the gaps around the areas I've already seen. For starters, I got to see the main crew of 'busters -- sans Winston -- fooling around in the firehouse when the rookie you'll be playing enters the building. The cadet gets a Proton Pack, Egon and Ray explain that they'll be using him to test some of their newest gadgets, and then you get a second to wander the complex. Upstairs is the pool table and equipment you'd expect, you can take the fire pole to the lockers on the main floor and scope Janine's desk and the talking Vigo painting, and a trip into the basement finds the reconstructed containment unit -- although still a wall unit, it's a bit bigger than the device in the first film and looks a little bit more like the structure from The Real Ghostbusters.
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About this time, Slimer busts out of the containment unit and lets a couple of specters get loose. The guys shut down the breach and chase the ghouls into a darker, danker part of the basement. Slimer is up to his old tricks -- flying around the space scarfing food -- and the other ghost is pretty much hiding from his would-be captors. Seeing as how this is the first time you turn on the Proton Pack, this serves as a tutorial with a partner guiding you though the acts of blasting with your trigger, sending out a capture stream with a separate shoulder button, and wrangling a ghost into your trap's yellow cone of light.
Trapping ghosts has been one of the most interesting things for me to watch evolve in this game. Back when I first got my hands on the game -- back when this was still a Sierra property -- trapping was a bitch that required you slamming a ghost into the floor multiple times before desperately trying to pull the beast to your capture station. Now, you still need to slam the ghost, but the process needs to be done once and then the spirit moves pretty easily. Last time I saw the game, I commented on how it was nice to see the new facial animation for the rookie as he struggled with the ghoul and turned his mug away from the fight, but this time I actually saw the ghost pulling to the right or left of the trap's cone of light and understood that I needed to pull the right analog stick in the opposite direction to keep the ghost headed toward the box. Before, the ghost's moves were either too fast or nonexistent because it seemed like I'd lose specters for no reason.
With the other escapee bagged, Slimer fled the scene and the boys deduced he'd be headed back to the Sedgewick Hotel seeing as how that was the first place he had ever manifested. This led to the section of the game I wrote about last time where the Ghostbusters bagged on the concierge and took on the spirits of some bellhops. I didn't get to see how Slimer got dealt with then, and I didn't get to see it here because the demo jumped ahead to a later part of the Sedgewick experience where a pirate ghost had taken over an upstairs floor. The staircase connecting the area with the rest of the hotel had been destroyed and left the Rookie on his own looking for a way to reconnect with the crew. What was left of the floor was flooded with ankle-deep water and littered with ghostly barnacles and coral reefs.
![[IMG]](http://ps3media.ign.com/ps3/image/article/971/971810/ghostbusters-the-video-game-20090409072152369-000.jpg)
That doesn't look good.
Dark and gloomy, just about every one of the ocean-themed hallways looked the same and I needed to equip my PKE meter -- which drops the point of view into that of a first-person pair of Ecto goggles -- to follow the pirate though the twisting halls. Of course, there were some possessed chandeliers that kept springing to life and coming after me, but the proton stream make short work of them. Eventually, I followed the pirate into a dining room of some kind, the guys joined me, and the ghoul sucked up a bunch of furniture in the room to become a walking tank. I needed to use the dodge button and wear the baddie down before ripping the spirit out of the structure and saving the day.
At least for the moment. See, with Ray, Egon, and Peter patting the rookie on the back -- even commenting that his wanton destruction of a five-star hotel made him fit right in -- Winston phones in to let the group know that an old friend named Mr. Stay Puft had returned to town. The game jumps to a cutscene -- again, the ones that have been polished look really realistic and awesome -- where the team moves to the outside, regroups with Winston and the Ecto-1 and sees the big guy ripping up the city.
Ray grabs Egon and says "It wasn't me this time; I swear."
Back to gameplay, the group starts weaving through cars on the deserted street (Would you hang out in your Taurus if you saw Stay Puft chilling at the end of the block?) and towards the big man. A few ghosts pop up along the way, and it's up to you, Peter, and Winston to wrangle them and deposit them in the trap on top of the car Ray and Egon are driving. Eventually, some gargoyles combust and come to life, and your team has to zap them and slam them to the ground. This goes on for awhile, you pass a truck with an old-school Doritos logo (Remember, it's 1991 in this game.), make your way through a haunted Laundromat, and clear a path for the car with your proton stream and a conveniently placed gas truck.
You'll battle a few more spirits and encounter "black slime," a substance so evil Egon and Ray haven't figured out a way to conquer it yet, and then come to Times Square. Here, Stay Puft's making a scene. He's smashing the hell out of one building at the end of the block, and this has led to another maze of abandoned vehicles. Ray and I broke off from the group to try and make our way to the building, but Stay Puft caught wind and started hurling cars and his flaming minions at us. We'd blast the little guys, dodge the cars, and fire Boson Darts (condensed proton blasts that pack a lot of punch) into the jolly white giant's face.
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This was my first time seeing Stay Puft up close, and I have to say the guy actually looked really good. He has a bunch of facial animations, his stomps look deadly and will rock your world if you're up close, and he moves like you'd expect the movie villain should. There was some slowdown during the heavy parts of the Times Square action, but this is of course a preview build so hopefully that'll be amended by June.
Eventually, Ray and the rook make it to the building Stay Puft was so interested in, and it turns out to be the architect level I've written about so many times. I played that part, was united with Alyssa Milano's character and Gozer expert Dr. Ilyssa Selwyn, and bested the construction worker ghosts on the roof. As usual, Stay Puft lumbered up the side of the building and I knocked him back with some proton blasts, but this time I actually got to play the part that came next. With the Venkman and Stantz holding me steady via a tether tied around my waist, I crawled over the side of the building and began blasting the marshmallow man as he tried to crawl up the structure. Every now and again, I'd have to nuke some of his minis that were being hurled at me or were making their way up the walls, but I finally got the upper hand and watched as the big boy plummeted to the street and liquefied on contact.
From there, it was back to the firehouse where I was free to wander the building but was treated to a cutscene when I stumbled upon the guys testing Dr. Selwyn. Yes, she was wearing that tricked out colander Louis Tully rocked during his interview late in the first film, but the bigger news was some explanation of just what's happening in the story. Seems the doctor is in town to help the Natural History Museum host its "World of Gozer" exhibit and the Ghostbusters were snubbed when the invitations went out. Ever since the plans for the feature were put in motion, strange stuff has been going down at the building and in the doctor's life -- not the least of which being a marshmallow man trying to punch through a building to get to her. Before anyone could get too many details, Walter Peck burst onto the scene with the new mayor. Seems that the mayor was elected on a pro-Ghostbusters campaign so he wants to make sure the guys are on the up-and-up; thus, Peck is the city supervisor that'll be monitoring the team's every move.
Yeah. That should be fun.
![[IMG]](http://ps3media.ign.com/ps3/image/article/971/971810/ghostbusters-the-video-game-20090409072147447-000.jpg)
Making a belly button is tough.
Sadly, that's where my demo for Ghostbusters: The Video Game ended. It was by far the most I have gotten to play of the title, and it was nice to see it all in context. Zapping and trapping is still fun -- Am I the only one that is thrilled you pick up your traps after catching spirits? -- the action looks really good, and I'm excited to see where the story is going. Sure, the Times Square slowdown was cause for pause, there were a few times when I was just waiting around for an NPC to say something and advance the scene, and I still worry 'busting ghost after ghost could get repetitious, but the fact remains that this was a preview build of the title and that there's a ton of Ghostbusting I haven't seen. We've all been burned by franchises we love coming to the videogame arena, but Ghostbusters: The Video Game is looking solid and provides plenty of reasons for fans to get excited.
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