Ghosthunter

Ok, so the premise might remind some of you about the movie Ghostbusters and it should.  This really is a single player action adventure Ghostbusters style game.  The game is setup in a 3rd person perspective with you running around exploring new areas and fighting the ghosts.  In fact as another acknowledgement to Ghostbusters you will need to capture the ghost in one of the devices that you start the game with.

The controls are very simple and the game is easy to pick up and play.  You explore different areas in the stages and when you find a ghost you’ll need to fight the ghost.  When fighting the ghost the only way to defeat the ghost is by capturing them in your ghost trap device.  You can shoot the ghost over and over again but it will only slow them down.  But you have to trap the ghost to get rid of them.  During the demo I was able to lay the trap by pressing one button on the controller and then shooting the ghost with another button.  Once you’ve weakened the ghost enough the trap will then suck the ghost in. 

During the demo I was able to explore several different rooms in the game and ultimately going outside the school.  While outside you can see Lazarus’ car and he mentions that he should get his shotgun out of the car.  It didn’t pinpoint where the shotgun was in the car, such as in the backseat or the trunk.  This caused a little confusion when trying to find the shotgun and still fight another ghost outside of the school.  Also the camera angles would get a little confusing at times but you have control over the camera at anytime.  Another issue that came up during the demo was tracking ghosts flying through the air.  The ghost you fight outside the school was a flying specter and it felt as if you were always a few seconds from keeping up with the ghost.  In fact while chasing after the ghost I was stuck inside a fountain display because I couldn’t see that I was stuck inside of the fountain. 

Ghosthunter looks to be an interesting action adventure game.  The graphics were well done with a very cool morphing effect happening when trapping the ghosts.  The graphics inside and outside the school were ok but nothing that will blow your socks off.  Actually the game isn’t even developed by Namco; it’s developed by one of Sony’s teams from Europe, Sony Computer Entertainment of Cambridge.  The game has already been released in Europe and Namco is publishing the game in the United States.  Look for Ghosthunter in August 2004.