The campaign itself is among the shortest I’ve ever experienced.  I completed the title at around 6 hours and 30 minutes.  Yeah, really short.  The only thing that makes this okay is that the story never feels over-explored.  The storyline is a little thin, so spreading it over a 12 or 13 hour experience would have probably taken more away from the game in the long run.  Yet, even with that said, you’ll reach the end of the game and feel a little deflated by the length.

The gameplay is a point that will likely have gamers arguing when it comes to quality.  Hell, even within Crave’s ranks, Erik Norris and I have been violently arguing over whether or not it’s enjoyable.  I sit in the camp that the gameplay is what you make of it.  Sure, you could probably spend 75% of your time simply using the Proton Stream to wrangle ghosts.  But I found the fun came from using a combination of weapons to defeat ghouls.  For example, I’d freeze the ghosts with the Stasis Stream, tether them to the ceiling with the Slime Tether and watch them slam into a wall… from there it’s another tether and they’re Slime Dunked into the trap.  I can see how the gameplay could be considered a little repetitive as you’re simply catching or destroying ghosts over and over again.  That’s what the Ghotsbusters franchise is, though.  Moving from point to point, blasting the hell out of the environment and unleashing fury on haunts.

So, yes, in a sense the gameplay is a little limited.  But you get out of it what you put into it in the first place.  Commit to only using one weapon and it’s going to get stale really fast.  One thing that really is lame is the extent of the upgrade system.  I had everything completely upgraded around halfway through the campaign.  Sort of defeats the purpose of earning money as you get past the halfway point.  Trapping ghosts is still rewarding, though.

The hunting element in GTVG is awesome.  In quiet and leery areas you’ll be prompted to whip out your PKE Meter, a tool used to detect spooks and paranormal activity.  In a game of hot and cold, the meter will light up and react when you’re closing in on supernatural stuff.  This goes for ghosts, hidden ghosts and collectibles.  The PKE moments provide a very cool and claustrophobic effect to certain areas of the game.  It really raises the level of suspense and enjoyment when it comes time to use the device.  Once you do encounter an object you can scan it for information.  The info received in a scan is almost always funny, so read up as you get it.

As a note, the tutorials in this game are not done all that well.  You’ll pretty much be told how to take the PKE Meter out almost constantly, but you’ll never be told how to dodge or dive.  Odd that some things were seemingly overlooked when it comes to teaching players how to play.

The multiplayer experience in GTVG will probably feel like something simply slapped on for a lot of gamers.  Yes, it will extend the life of the game once you get into it as it presents a money earning spin on objective based co-op “jobs”.  Basically, link up for a match on LIVE with friends or strangers and be challenged to destroy a haunted artifact, protect a busting tool, survive waves of ghosts or catch as many as you can in a time limit.  You’ll pick one weapon specialty in the pre-game lobby.  You’ll have an infinite supply of the weapon that you pick and as you advance in-game, the weapon is automatically upgraded.  You can cruise the stage areas to grab pick-ups that give you the other weapons or provide physical enhancements.  It does feel a little small at first, but once you actually submerge yourself in working together towards busting ghosts the online section is great.  And for those wondering, no, you cannot play the main campaign cooperatively.

In the end, Ghostbusters: The Video Game is a wonderful answer to the prayers of fans.  It is the best Ghostbusters video game ever released, and that’s a testament to the work of Terminal Reality as well as Aykroyd and Ramis.  Fans of the franchise will find all sorts of nods to their beloved series in the dialogue, in-game environments (Like the Firehouse! Oh man, the Firehouse…) and in-game text.  This game was a love affair for the folks at Terminal and that’s seriously apparent.  Faults like a short campaign, flat in-game cut scenes, spotty lip synching and the PS3 version keep this one away from being the best it could be.  But I cannot recommend this game for Ghostbusters fans enough.  It may be over fast, but Ghostbusters: The Video Game is just plain fun.

Crave Online Rating: 8.0 out of 10.