Reviews
‘Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed’ Review – A Satisfying Experience That’s Not Without Its Flaws
In 2009 I was enamored with Ghostbusters: The Video Game. The long awaited video game follow-up to Ghostbusters 2 provided the ultimate power fantasy by letting players suit up in the iconic beige jumpsuit and hit New York City’s ever growing ghost population with the original Ghostbusters right by your side. Now in 2022 I’m getting that same sensation with Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed… though with a few caveats.
Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed is the new 4v1 asymmetrical multiplayer game from Illfonic (the Friday the 13th: The Game team). In it players are able to create custom ghostbusters and team up with 3 others to take down a ghost player whose goal is to completely haunt one of the maps inspired by certain settings from the films. Where Spirits Unleashed differs from the quickly oversaturated 4v1 market is that it can be played entirely offline and solo, which is how I spent a bulk of my time with the game. The game also features a brand new story that picks up some time after the end of Ghostbusters: Afterlife’s post credits scene.
With the Ghostbusters’ firehouse back to full operation, players are asked to create a custom character and take on jobs. When on a job, players have to explore one of the self-contained maps in first-person view using the recognizable PKE meter. Using this, they’re able to flush the ghost or “ghost rifts” out of hiding. Ghost rifts allow the ghost to respawn when captured but there are only 3 allowed to a level so spectral players are encouraged to protect and hide them from the Ghostbusters. In addition to exploration, it’s up to the Ghostbusters to calm down civilians in the area using a skill check system, not unlike Dead By Daylight’s, to keep the building’s haunt meter down.
Ghost players are dropped into the level in third-person view to cause as much mayhem as possible using one of the multiple ghost classes. From haunting various objects, to scaring civilians, and even outright possessing objects to recharge their spectral meter to cause more frights. Ghosts come with 3 skills to defend themselves from Ghostbusters that I would compare to abilities from a typical hero shooter. For example: one ability allows the ghost to summon a slime tornado when surrounded to make a quick getaway.
Ghostbusters are able to customize their gear in the game’s hub area: the iconic firehouse and the adjacent Ray’s Occult Books, all recreated right down to meticulous details (keep an eye out for an appearance from an appliance from Ghostbusters 2). In this area players are free to upgrade their gear from XP they earn over use, test out said gear in the alley way, customize their Ghostbuster with new unlocked cosmetics, and take on other jobs be it online or solo. I grew fond of revisiting the firehouse after a job to wind down, and tinker with my setup by adding things such as faster cooldowns or less recoil from the aggressive proton pack. Firing up a piece of iconic Ghostbuster gear always feels instantly gratifying in ways that previous games were unable to capture. From the start up stream of the proton pack to throwing out the ghost trap and opening it up at the right moment and picking it up after a successful capture.
The firehouse and Ray’s Occult Books are also where story cutscenes play out. The game tells a new story post-Afterlife that has you play as a new recruit Ghostbuster under the guidance of Winston Zeddemore and Ray Stantz (voiced here lovingly by Ernie Hudson and Dan Aykroyd); soon enough, of course, spectral hijinks ensue. The story gets a new update every 5 or levels so players are encouraged to go out and complete jobs to progress the story which I found to be a worthwhile goal not seen in other 4v1 games that for the most part feature no story aspect at all. The problem starts to appear when jobs soon become repetitive and I found the story, while charmingly written and voice acted, to ultimately be lacking in substance. Though it does hint at where the Ghostbusters story could possibly be heading in a world post-Afterlife. It’s enjoyable, but expect to complete all the story elements in five hours or so.
At the end of the day Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed provides a satisfying experience of bustin’ ghosts either solo or with a group of friends while at the same time giving the player a chance to experience the other side as a spectral tormentor. It’s not a game marred down by a mediocre shooter experience such as 2009’s Ghostbusters: The Video Game, but doesn’t tell a story nearly as gratifying as the one from that game. Overall with the lower barrier to entry, I can confidently recommend Spirits Unleashed for die-hards, fans, and people looking for a good multiplayer time. Hopefully the experience can be improved overtime with some much needed content updates but ultimately “bustin’ makes me feel good”.
Disclosure: Review code provided by Illfonic.
Reviews
“AHS: Delicate” Review – “Little Gold Man” Mixes Oscar Fever & Baby Fever into the Perfect Product
‘AHS: Delicate’ enters early labor with a fun, frenzied episode that finds the perfect tone and goes for broke as its water breaks.
“I’ll figure it out. Women always do.”
American Horror Story is no stranger to remixing real-life history with ludicrous, heightened Murphy-isms, whether it’s AHS: 1984’s incorporation of Richard Ramirez, AHS: Cult’s use of Valerie Solanas, or AHS: Coven’s prominent role for the Axeman of New Orleans. Accordingly, it’s very much par for the course for AHS: Delicate to riff on other pop culture touchstones and infinitely warp them to its wicked whims. That being said, it takes real guts to do a postmodern feminist version of Rosemary’s Baby and then actually put Mia Farrow – while she’s filming Rosemary’s Baby, no less – into the narrative. This is the type of gonzo bullshit that I want out of American Horror Story! Sharon Tate even shows up for a minute because why the hell not? Make no mistake, this is completely absurd, but the right kind of campy absurdity that’s consistently been in American Horror Story’s wheelhouse since its inception. It’s a wild introduction that sets up an Oscar-centric AHS: Delicate episode for success. “Little Gold Man” is a chaotic episode that’s worth its weight in gold and starts to bring this contentious season home.
It’d be one thing if “Little Gold Man” just featured a brief detour to 1967 so that this season of pregnancy horror could cross off Rosemary’s Baby from its checklist. AHS: Delicate gets more ambitious with its revisionist history and goes so far as to say that Mia Farrow and Anna Victoria Alcott are similarly plagued. “Little Gold Man” intentionally gives Frank Sinatra dialogue that’s basically verbatim from Dex Harding Sr., which indicates that this demonic curse has been ruffling Hollywood’s feathers for the better part of a century. Anna Victoria Alcott’s Oscar-nominated feature film, The Auteur, is evidently no different than Rosemary’s Baby. It’s merely Satanic forces’ latest attempt to cultivate the “perfect product.” “Little Gold Man” even implies that the only reason that Mia Farrow didn’t go on to make waves at the 1969 Academy Awards and ends up with her twisted lot in life is because she couldn’t properly commit to Siobhan’s scheme, unlike Anna.
This is easily one of American Horror Story’s more ridiculous cold opens, but there’s a lot of love for the horror genre and Hollywood that pumps through its veins. If Hollywood needs to be a part of AHS: Delicate’s story then this is actually the perfect connective tissue. On that note, Claire DeJean plays Sharon Tate in “Little Gold Man” and does fine work with the brief scene. However, it would have been a nice, subtle nod of continuity if AHS: Delicate brought back Rachel Roberts who previously portrayed Tate in AHS: Cult. “Little Gold Man” still makes its point and to echo a famous line from Jennifer Lynch’s father’s television masterpiece: “It is happening again.”
“Little Gold Man” is rich in sequences where Anna just rides the waves of success and enjoys her blossoming fame. She feels empowered and begins to finally take control of her life, rather than let it push her around and get under her skin like a gestating fetus. Anna’s success coincides with a colossal exposition dump from Tavi Gevinson’s Cora, a character who’s been absent for so long that we were all seemingly meant to forget that she was ever someone who was supposed to be significant. Cora has apparently been the one pulling many of Anna’s strings all along as she goes Single White Female, rather than Anna having a case of Repulsion. It’s an explanation that oddly works and feeds into the episode’s more general message of dreams becoming nightmares. Cora continuing to stay aligned with Dr. Hill because she has student loans is also somehow, tragically the perfect explanation for her abhorrent behavior. It’s not the most outlandish series of events in an episode that also briefly gives Anna alligator legs and makes Emma Roberts and Kim Kardashian kiss.
“Little Gold Man” often feels like it hits the fast-forward button as it delivers more answers, much in the same vein as last week’s “Ava Hestia.” These episodes are two sides of the same coin and it’s surely no coincidence that they’re both directed by Jennifer Lynch. This season has benefitted from being entirely written by Halley Feiffer – a first for the series – but it’s unfortunate that Lynch couldn’t direct every episode of AHS: Delicate instead of just four out of nine entries. That’s not to say that a version of this season that was unilaterally directed by Lynch would have been without its issues. However, it’s likely that there’d be a better sense of synergy across the season with fewer redundancies. She’s responsible for the best episodes of AHS: Delicate and it’s a disappointment that she won’t be the one who closes the season out in next week’s finale.
To this point, “Little Gold Man” utilizes immaculate pacing that helps this episode breeze by. Anna’s Oscar nomination and the awards ceremony are in the same episode, whereas it feels like “Part 1” of the season would have spaced these events out over four or five episodes. This frenzied tempo works in “Little Gold Man’s” favor as AHS: Delicate speed-runs to its finish instead of getting lost in laborious plotting and unnecessary storytelling. This is how the entire season should have been. Although it’s also worth pointing out that this is by far the shortest episode of American Horror Story to date at only 34 minutes. It’s a shame that the season’s strongest entries have also been the ones with the least amount of content. There could have been a whole other act to “Little Gold Man,” or at the least, a substantially longer cold open that got more out of its Mia Farrow mayhem.
“Little Gold Man” is an American Horror Story episode that does everything right, but is still forced to contend with three-quarters of a subpar season. “Part 2” of AHS: Delicate actually helps the season’s first five episodes shine brighter in retrospect and this will definitely be a season that benefits from one long binge that doesn’t have a six-month break in the middle. Unfortunately, anyone who’s already watched it once will likely not feel compelled to experience these labor pains a second time over. With one episode to go and Anna’s potential demon offspring ready to greet the world, AHS: Delicate is poised to deliver one hell of a finale.
Although, to paraphrase Frank Sinatra, “How do you expect to be a good conclusion if this is what you’re chasing?”
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