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Ghostbusters: Spirits UnleashedPREVIEW
Ghostbustersis Illfonic’sthird licensed,
4v1 multiplayer game after Friday the 13th
and Predator: Hunting Grounds. While the
first two have come and gone while Dead
by Daylightkeeps on trucking and
Left 4Dead 2settles intoold age, I
don’t think Ghostbustersis really
trying to supplant either.This time
Illfonic’s really doingits own thing,
making an asymmetrical game where one
team never getstorn limb from limb.
Illfonic told me that one of the most
common bitsof feedback fromplayersis
how it’snot fun to get taken out earlyin a
match, sothey modelled Ghostbusters
after the scene in the first film where the
’busters chase Slimer through thehotel
(and blast housekeepingcarts and
chandeliers along theway). Slimer’s just
causing mayhem, so in the game the
ghost’sobjective is to scare hapless NPCs
while the Ghostbusters try to catch them.
As a ghost I couldn’t kill the
Ghostbusters, butI could use abilities to
slime them, messwith their protonpacks,
or brieflyscarethem into an incapacitatedstate. Ihauntedobjectsto spook NPCs
while trying to manage myectoplasm
meter. I couldchill out in a vending
machine or a statue to regenerate,but
staying there too long meant Iwas risking
a Ghostbuster coming with their PKE
meter raised tosniffme out.
The ghostis slippery, but if a couple
Ghostbusters team up youcan quickly be
pulled into a trapand caught. But dying
once as the ghost isn’t the end. Youhave
three ‘rifts’hidden around the map to
respawn from. There’s a clever cat and
mouse twist here, in thatthe
Ghostbusters can find anddestroy your
rifts, too. The ghostcan move their rifts,
while the’busters have to split their
attention between hunting the ghost and
calming down anxious NPCs.THAT’S THE SPIRIT
Playing first-person as a Ghostbuster, the
proton beam has the physicality it doesin
the movies, writhing likean angry energy
snake. Elsewherethere’s still fine-tuningto
be done. I had to use the mouse wheel to
shorten or lengthen the beam to position
a ghost over a trap, butI kept swiping the
wheel before fullyensnaringa ghost
and swappingto my PKE meter
instead. As theghost I had trouble
spotting objects I could inhabit: I
wouldn’t have minded ghost-o-vision
highlighting everyinteractable.
There’s toomuch button mashing to
evade a trap or shake offa ghost’s slime:
those couldhave more interesting
mechanics. Spirits Unleashedfeels abit
generic in some of these finer details, but
Illfonic still has ample timeto work on it.
The developer promises arange of
ghosts, along with a progression system
that lets you unlock bothcosmeticsand
equipment for the Ghostbusters and
alternateabilitiesfor theghosts. There’s
also a storyto follow,delivered by original
actors Dan Aykroyd and Ernie Hudson. It’s
hard to judge howmuch staying power
Spirits Unleashedwill have, but it feels like
it could become a recurring weeknight
Discord pick: the lighter, less intense game
you pile into when you need a break from
your main squeeze. It’sa pleasant surprise
that a new Ghostbusters game in 2022 is
a smartuse of the licence, not just a
nostalgic cash-in.
Wes FenlonI
’m no ghost scientist, but there are a few
things I’m confident ghosts do: spin
office chairs as a gag, fry electronics at
the worst times, and make soda
machines eject cans like fizzy ballistic missiles. I
was able to do all three in Ghostbusters: Spirits
Unleashed, so at the very least it passes my amateur
ghostology test with slimy colours.
A slimy but surprisingly clever
take on 4 v 1 multiplayer
GHOSTBUSTERS:
SPIRITS
UNLEASHED
AS A GHOST I COULDN’T KILL
THE GHOSTBUSTERS, BUT I
COULD SLIME THEM
RELEASE
2022
DEVELOPER
IlllfonicPUBLISHER
In-houseLINK
ghostbusterssu.com