Pairing IllFonic asymmetrical multiplayer experts with a Ghostbusters license is a match made in the spirit world. The outings before Friday the 13th and Predator: Hunting Grounds, Jason and Predator pitted camp advisors and mercenaries with greats, but technical problems and uneven design choices held back surname. With Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed, the team applied everything they learned about the fascinating asymmetrical multiplayer feature into an attribute that fits the game style perfectly.
Four fully customizable Ghostbusters face a ghost across five maps, from an Alcatraz-inspired prison to a cozy motel. The main difference from other asymmetric games is that both sides are fun to play. You’re not just betting the time until you can play like a ghost. However, if that’s all you want, it’s easy to set your preferences and haunt random players online with virtually no wait (at least in our tests). me on launch day). The first active player base and full cross-play between all platforms combined to make this happen and it’s impressive to see such a smooth execution from the start. If you’re a Ghostbusters fan who doesn’t like online multiplayer, it’s easy to play with bots that aren’t too difficult and still experience all the content.
The match stream begins with Busters fanning out with PKE clocks drawn to track the ghost and its respawn score. These cracks are hidden inside objects, and destroying them will cost one of three “lives” of the ghost. If you encounter the ghost directly, you can take it down with your Proton Pack and wrap it in a trap for a kill. On the ghost side, you try to haunt as many objects as possible and scare the NPC civilians wandering around to increase the overall level of the map’s haunting. When the haunting reaches 100 percent or the ghost stops cracking, the end timer will finally begin. If the Busters catch the ghost within that time, they win. The map is officially haunted if the elusive ghost is caught, and Busters flee in shame.
Calling your bud when you spot the ghost and cramming it into a trap as a team is extremely gratifying. While Busters may be temporarily incapacitated with slime, no one is stuck on the sidelines watching the rest of the match unfold. There’s always hunting or blasting to do. The only low point on the Buster side is calming NPCs with the same VO as ad nauseam.
Five types of ghosts account for a variety of play styles. Do you want to be agile and cunning, attack with a God of War-style chain of attack, or use tricks for misdirection and control? All ghosts have a basic attack, minion summons (to capture Busters or scary civilians), an ultimate with a long cooldown, and a different unique action for every skin. . Possessing items is the key to escaping from Busters and recharging the energy you need to do anything. It’s also fun to experiment with how things handle things, such as a slick rolling beer barrel or a giant soft teddy bear. Although ghosts are extremely powerful and mobile, they are also easy to catch at any time. One minute you’ll be victorious taking down all four vandals and destroying their Proton Packs, and the next minute you’ll be frantically grinding buttons to escape the pull of springs and traps Deadly. It’s fun to hear your opponent’s confusion while you’re out of sight or their frustration as you envelop the entire team in a whirlwind of slime.
The vintage fireplace serves as a multifunctional hub when you’re not in the game. Several cutscenes tell a basic story in the early hours of the game. The story isn’t all that exciting, but hearing Dan Aykroyd and Ernie Hudson reprise their roles as Ray and Winston was great. As you level up you’ll find new cosmetics, gear parts that affect stats, collectibles, and contracts that reward special items and experience collisions. Daily and weekly routines also encourage you to check in regularly. I notice steady streams of gifts that have my team flocking to the closet to try on a new shirt or silly glasses in the middle of work. And the gear upgrades feel tangible, especially since your beader can stay idle for longer without overheating.
While the core gameplay is strong and engaging, I’m still concerned about the long-term sustainability of Spirits Unleashed. There’s only one type of combination, so if you’re tired of that, you’re out of luck. The current five maps are solid, but I’m ready for more (IllFonic claims to have more free maps and ghost maps coming in the future). The story and the unlocks keep things interesting during your first 30 character levels, but then the story comes to a tough stop. You will get all core unlocks before 50. Also, the current endgame includes completing high level contracts like “take target X 25 times” etc. Sometimes I find understand new aspects of the game that I hadn’t realized before, but other times I’d start bot battles looking for floor fools to shoot, or repeatedly throw out my traps and picked it up to check out some nasty requests.
The pre-release version of the game had some hard bugs and I also got stuck in the geometry like a ghost a few times until the end of the match. I can’t reproduce these issues after the first day patch, but it’s something to watch out for.
The ideal way to experience Spirits Unleashed is to go around your friends, cycle through the maps, take turns playing as a ghost, and do hoot and holler. If that’s not an option, pairing with random players is smooth and fast, and in-game markers make teamwork possible even when everyone is playing. no mic needed. The thrill of Ghostbusting is finally starting to wane, but it’s taking a while to get to that point, and updates in the near term could help keep those Proton Packs afloat.
Note: IlFonic Inc. provided the game code for this review.
