The best part of playing the ghost is possessing objects in the world. Scaring AI civilians also increased your haunt meter faster. Haunting objects causes them to fly around the room and speed up the haunting percentage. The game loop is quite addictive and fun on the Ghost side. Your energy slowly fills as you fly around but if you “possess” an object in the world it refills your energy faster. While haunting in a match you’re given “ectoplasm” which serves as your energy resource to use abilities, haunt objects, and sprint. Once it reaches 100 percent the enemy team has a very limited window to find and capture you in order to make a comeback and snag the match win. The more you do in the match the faster the haunt gauge fills. You win by just wandering around doing things which increases the Haunting gauge.

Playing as the Ghost it is your job to haunt objects, scare civilians, and of course slime Ghostbusters. Of course, the Ghosts also have some tricks up their sleeves. If you manage to destroy all the rifts or capture the ghost three times before the Haunting reaches 100 percent (which acts as a sort of reverse timer to finish the match), you’ll trigger the final capture event. These are fun little distractions that play into the game loop, but for most of the match you’ll be locating the rift objects and capturing the ghost. While hunting ghosts is the main goal there are side goals like collecting fungus that awards additional XP and calming down civilians. You’ll find the ghost and rifts in the level using the PKE meter and teamwork. Every time you successfully capture a ghost, a rift is used to respawn the ghost player. When playing as Ghostbusters, your job is to locate, capture the ghost, and destroy rifts in the level that are hidden in objects that act as extra lives for the ghost. I won’t spoil anything major here, but it’s nice to have some type of story to progress in an engaging way in what’s mainly an online-only experience. These cutscenes unlock automatically from just playing the game. While there isn’t a story or campaign mode to speak of, the game does have a plot you follow complete with well-animated cutscenes that drive the narrative forward. Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed does have a delightfully engaging narrative with new and old characters alike. I was quite surprised to find that Spirits Unleashed has a captivating story that you’d expect to find in an episode of The Real Ghostbusters. I was expecting a few lines here and there but they have a lot to say and both actors seem invested in their parts - unlike the dry, bored Bill Murray we saw in 2009's game. I have to say I was surprised just how big a role both actors play in the game. Ernie Hudson and Dan Akroyd reprise their roles of Winston Zeddemore and Ray Stantz, respectively. Right away you’re taken into a tutorial that explains the basics from the new firehouse crew, controls and more. You and up to 3 friends go on jobs around the city to capture and dispose of player-controlled demons, spirits, and slimers that are causing trouble for local businesses. Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed is a 4v1 asymmetrical online game. In Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed, IllFonic has attempted to bring a true competitive online Ghostbusters experience to the table. It focused more on its story-driven narrative. While the 2009 Ghostbusters: The Video Game was well received, the online mode was less than stellar. The last big Ghostbusters game was released 12 years ago. Now, the dream of busting ghosts with a group of friends has been fully realized by IllFonic with a 4v1 multiplayer experience in Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed. We’ve had outings on the original NES, Gameboy, a cult favorite on the Sega Genesis, some mobile and VR games, and of course the highly rated Ghostbusters The Video Game in 2009. It’s been quite a long time since Ghostbusters graced us with a AAA video game experience.

Ghost giant review