I played Ghostbusters on the Play Station 2 and Play Station 3

Or at least I tried to. My PS2 has stopped spinning disks completely so I can't play any games on it at all. That being said I have played Ghostbusters on the PS2 before and am willing to share my thoughts on it. This won't be a review of that game, as I can't dive deeper into it right now. But I'm still going to compare it to the PS3 copy that I did play.

A little background, when this game first came out all I was was a PS2. Trusting the company that made the game to not have two drastically different versions of the game released. I was wrong to have the kind of trust.

What I can say most of the PS2 version is this. It was a demo I paid full price for. It had half the content of the full game and even while playing it you could tell there was supposed to be more. Chunks of the story were missing, the pace was royally messed up, and at best it felt unfinished in places.

I'm not going to harp on the graphics, they weren't bad. Besides, the story element was so hacked to pieces that it overshadowed any other problems I could remember.

That's not to say that they screwed everything up, the controls were alright, and there was a solid concept in the game. It just didn't deliver. I angrily bought the game for the PS3 the moment I had a PS3 just to get the rest of the game. And I didn't return the PS2 version, because even if I don't like a game, I don't get rid of it.

On to the one I did get to play this week. Ghostbusters on the PS3.

As a general view, this was everything I was hoping to get from it. This was worth the cost of the game for me. Maybe not both games, but definitely worth the cost of the PS3 version.

This game was to serve as Ghostbusters 3, because Bill Murray said that nobody wants to see a bunch of old guys busting ghosts. And it really had me feeling like I was starting up a movie when the game began. Especially with the Columbia logo.

Not gonna lie though, I kind of wanted the Ghostbusters singalong I got with the SMS version.

It's worth mentioning that Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis did write the script for this game, and being a game they actually had greater freedom to do what they wanted with this than with a movie as many of the filming limitations were removed due to an entirely CGI setting.

The game starts with a little tidbit of story acting like a hook. You see a commercial for the Ghostbusters service playing, and as the view pans out you find it's in a security office for a museum. As ghostly activity starts happening you find out that they currently house a collection of artifacts from Shandor, mad genius metallurgist architect and Gozer worshiper.

With the hook set you're pulled to the Firehouse and talking to Ray and Egon, there's a little talking where you're reminded that you're playing a game and not watching a movie before a PKE wave passes through the building. Now it's time to move around and play the tutorial.

Though you'll come back many times, I'd suggest that you check out the firehouse each time you're there. There's Easter eggs, references, and jokes all over. As you collect things in game these are added to what you can find in the firehouse. And it turns out that they couldn't finish Vigo off in Ghostbusters 2 as his painting is just propped against the wall by Jeanine’s desk for anyone to talk to. And you can talk to it.

Take all the time you want on the tutorial, clearly it's not dire as Venkman's just playing video games while Egon and Ray are encouraging you to hurry up. (Maybe check out the messages on the machine your next time here, Egon and Ray will talk over them and you could miss a joke.

Basic catching, wrangling, and trapping take some getting used to, and kind of made me feel like I was playing Luigi's Mansion when I had to slam the ghosts around. Apparently beating the crap out of spirits is vital to the catching procedure across franchises. Who'd have thought.

Getting them in the trap is definitely more difficult than in the SMS game as the trap can get hard to see even with a little spike of light coming out of it, so don't throw your trap until you're ready. Though I do have to say, slamming a ghost into the trap is satisfying.

Egon will remind you to not cross the streams. So don't, even though there's an achievement for doing it. It hurts. Or maybe do, and get that achievement.

You'll notice that your pack has bells and whistles that proton packs normally don't have. Turns out that you were hired to be a guinea pig, and test out all of the newest equipment. Yay Egon and your total lack of human ethics.

One thing you'll notice throughout the game is that there's a ton of cut-scenes. More evidence that this was supposed to be a movie rather than a game. That being said, this is a movie I would gladly pay to go see.

Onto your first real mission, you'll see a familiar hotel lobby and hear a familiar voice (I absolutely love that it seems they got all of the original actors to reprise their roles.) Turns out Slimer went back to an old haunt. (No pun intended, but I'm going all in on it anyway.) The highly destructible Sedgwick Hotel awaits your busting prowess.

You'll notice a monetary number pop up occasionally as you break stuff. This is the cost of the damage you do. It doesn't actually cut into your funds and I try to get that number as high as possible. At least for now.

When you pause the game you can navigate to your stats and see how much total being claimed on your insurance. In less than half an hour I managed 11.5 grand in damages and was averaging $60 in damage per step I took. (Shortly after leaving the Hotel this skyrocketed to over $200 per step. Maybe I was a bigger danger to the city than Gozer.)

I highly encourage going off the beaten path and exploring, particularly using the PKE meter as there are collectibles that give you money to purchase upgrades that Egon doesn't just give you to test out. Even when these are upgrades to things you are testing out. These guys are on a budget and can't just give you everything you might need. Not to mention, some of the descriptions are pretty funny.

Among other uses for the PKE, it can sometimes point you in the general direction of what you're looking for, and scan residues and ghosts. Getting a good scan of a ghost (green ring when looking at the ghost) will give you information about them, including their weakness and how to handle them. The thing is, you don't catch every paranormal thing you encounter, some of it will be handled by beating the stuffing out of them. (Or just blasting them until they fall apart.)

Once you handle Slimer in the ball room, another ghost quickly takes his place and you have to go back up to deal with the situation.

This game has some real polish to it. The level design is quite good and fitting for each scenario you're in. Even when the design of the level changes suddenly it's interesting to look at and pulls you into the paranormal aspect of the game.

And the enemy design is creative and involved too. Much like in the movies, the ghosts can be exaggerated versions of what they could have been, or they're fairly normal looking. Giving you the eclectic range of ghosts from the movies that should probably be familiar by now. Some of the creative designs even improve game play as some enemies are particularly good at hiding in their environment, so be sure to keep an eye out.

As I cleared out the hotel of ghosts, and whatever else I could possibly destroy, there was another cut-scene with a familiar white face with sailor cap. Yep, Stay Puft is back, and he's looking for something. The plan is to catch him this time, and there's been a nice upgrade to the Ecto to do so. A massive ghost trap on top of the roof. (Sounds a little like the Vacuum from the SMS version to me.)

One of the funnest things for me while going through the streets, running from and attacking Stay Puft, was slamming ghosts into the top of the car for an instant capture. I don't know why that was so satisfying for me. Obviously another was causing as much damage as possible.

I don't want to give away too much of the story as that is one of the biggest draws of this game. And in this version it's the whole story, and paced well because of it. The game isn't really difficult, though you can make it harder, but if you just want the story: set the game to casual and enjoy your movie.

This is a thoroughly enjoyable game, and with Harold Ramis and Dan Aykroyd heading the script writing team (6 people worked on it) it was a real pleasure to see the Ghostbusters again. The music had many classics from the movies and music made for the game that would have fit in easily with the movies from the 80's.

Much like with the last Ghostbuster Game review I did, I want to toss out these little bits. Pulled directly from Wikipedia this time:

The project allowed Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis to explore some aspects of the original films that they otherwise had not been able to in the past, such as the history of the Librarian ghost, and pursue some of the ideas left out of the original script, including the appearance of Ivo Shandor as Gozer, who was intended to appear in the finale of the film as the ghost of a man in a business suit. Other concepts used in the game, such as the alternate dimensions that open up during the latter half of the game, are based on the original Ghostbusters 3 concept Hellbent which was in development hell during the 1990s.

Bill Murray made several demands, including equal screen time for all Ghostbuster characters, but was fully committed to the project.