If there’s something strange in your neighborhood, let it be Ghostbusters: The Video Game. Developed by Terminal Reality (Xbox360/PS3/PC), this trip down nostalgia lane is quite a treat to fans of the original movies. At the New York Comic Con this year, I was able to get my hands on the demo presented at the Atari booth in which they faithfully had it dressed up in the attire of the franchise. Many thanks goto Atari who has picked up this title after losing its original publisher and in danger of being lost in back shelves of the development studio.

Ghostbusters is a fairly standard third-person shooter and resembles and feels much like how Dead Space functioned. You’re proton-pack is your “HUD” which keeps you centered into the game without the distractions of other items around the screen. It is fairly detailed and while playing you don’t have to do much to keep it under control. You’re PKE meter acts as you’re all-seeing eye into the paranormal world that you wouldn’t see otherwise, seeing ghosts that you might have missed somewhere. It also tracks the path of the ghost giving you a heads-up on where to travel to in the next area.

The demo had me (The Rookie) and the Ghostbusters team walking through a high-rise skyscraper in New York City. Ghosts were popping up everywhere and with your handy traps at hand, you have to strangle them down and capture them. The team sends you in first since you’re the go to guy testing out the new equipment that Egon and Winston no longer have to use themselves. The new equipment is quite interesting and plays different roles, or so I’m told, throughout the game.

As you walk through various hallways, ghosts pop out of nowhere like the Tickers in Gears of War 2. Some of the ghosts are rather simple to defeat with the use of your proton laser while others required a bit more strategy and had to be thrown into the trap.  The Stay Puft Marshmallow Man was there to break into the action every once in a while as he walked through the city. But, damage didn’t seem to affect him much when targeted. The destructible environments worked well and you don’t do things the easy way here, everything is about that proton-pack on your back. You don’t die in the game which is interesting because, as in the movies, if something shocks or hurts you, you just get thrown back to the floor only to get back up again.

As far as you’re fellow team members, everyone provides has witty and funny commentary that they bounced off each other during the demo. Nothing seems too out of place except when you get to the destructible environments and then things get a little iffy, but that can all be fixed  before release. The graphics and voice acting work in conjunction with each other and the script seems to be fairly well written from what I could hear of it while playing the demo.
Overall, it was a pretty exciting experience playing Ghostbusters: The Video Game. The demo provided just enough to get one excited. Terminal Reality seems to know what it's doing in creating the ultimate Ghostbuster experience. Although you don't get to play as one of the original Ghostbusters, it's just as exciting to be working with them then playing as one of them.