I beat the game last night, and then played a bit more of the online co-op with Steve, so now its on its way back to Gamefly.
I was tempted to purchase it. It was a very fun game. The campaign mode was great, and was supported with an awesome storyline and combat system that actually made you “feel” like a Ghostbuster. The online mode was differentiated enough to warrant many playthroughs, as the random modes and maps made each round unique.
However, in the end, there were a few things that stopped me from making the purchase. First and foremost, I was not keen on dropping $40 for a game. But also, I was a bit disappointed at times with the campaign. For starters, why the heck not make it co-op. For about 95% of the game there is always another character on the screen with you. Just make it so that someone else can play as him. If the campaign did have co-op, I would have made the purchase without a second thought.
Also, the campaign mode was very short. It was a bit too quick to get through, and only had something like five stages (I forget exactly how many). While it was an awesome story, it could have been longer. Thus, the lack of co-op and a short playthough make the game, to me, have a low replay value. While the co-op mode is interesting, it is not expansive enough to warrant making the purchase solely on that.
For example, with Resistance 2, there is the single player campaign, and the co-op consists of several different missions across something like five maps. So even if the campaign sucked (which it somewhat does, compared to the first Resistance), the co-op is so awesome and the replay is so high that it warrants a purchase just for the co-op. Unfortunatley, Ghostbusters does not fit into this catagorey, so while the co-op is fun, it is not fun enough to convince me to purchase the game.
So I want to take this time to thank the Ghostbusters game. For about two weeks it instilled me with a lot of fun times, both online and offline, with myself and with friends. And Im sure that if I happened to walk into Gamestop sometime in the very far future and find a copy for $20 or so, I will most definitely pick it up. But for right now, it is my sad opinion that Ghostbusters does not warrant purchase. There are other games with higher replay values out there that should be purchased in its stead.
Dont take this the wrong way though. Ghostbusters is an awesome experience, and should not be missed. So go out and rent it, or if you have some extra cash squirrelled away, then go out and buy it. Its not a game you can hate, but one that may leave you a tad disappointed, as there were such little, simple things that could have been included to make it the game of the year.
