Ghostbusters: The Video Game Remastered

I went in half-expecting a nostalgia cash-in and came out genuinely surprised that the core game still holds up as well as it does. The 2009 original was built on a foundation that most licensed games never bother with: an original script co-written by Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis, full voice and likeness work from Bill Murray, Aykroyd, Ramis, Ernie Hudson, Annie Potts, and William Atherton, and a setting that picks up two years after Ghostbusters II. That foundation is completely intact here, and it remains the single strongest argument for the game's existence in 2024. At its mechanical core, this is a third-person action-adventure where you play a mute rookie field-testing the team's most dangerous gear. The proton pack is your primary tool - hold fire to wear ghosts down, then wrestle them toward a trap using a wrangling mechanic that involves physically dragging and slamming spectres into position. A PKE meter shifts you into a first-person scanning mode, highlighting haunted artifacts and hidden ghosts. The firehouse serves as a hub loaded with easter eggs, you'll revisit the Hotel Sedgewick, face off against Stay Puft in a full set-piece rematch, and encounter a new threat tied to the Cult of Gozer. The AI teammates can revive you if you go down, which takes some of the edge off harder difficulty runs. The whole campaign clocks in around seven to eight hours - short, but mostly focused. Here's where the honest accounting comes in. Saber Interactive's remaster is light work by any meaningful definition. Textures received some upscaling, proton streams look a bit more vivid, and lighting got a mild bump - but pre-rendered cutscenes were left untouched, foreign language tracks were quietly removed, and the online multiplayer mode that was promised never shipped (it was quietly cancelled). The game's structural issues - linear levels that grow repetitive, a ghost-capture loop that can feel more like a chore than a climax, and a mute protagonist surrounded by one of the most charismatic casts in comedy history - were all carried over untouched. The mute rookie problem is the most persistently awkward: Venkman spends the game ribbing a character who can't respond, and the dynamic never quite lands. Who is this actually for? Franchise fans who never played the 2009 game should come in with low expectations on the remaster quality but real warmth for everything else - the writing, the performances, the fan service throughout are all genuine. If you played it back in the day and are weighing a revisit, temper your expectations significantly; you are essentially replaying the same game with marginally cleaner visuals. Genre tourists looking for a solid third-person shooter will find the mechanics functional but dated, and the experience is too short and too niche to recommend on gameplay alone. The Steam community sits at 90% positive, which tells you the fanbase loves it - that positivity is honest, but it is a fanbase score, not a design score.

Alex · Scout Team

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