Ghostbusters: Sanctum of Slime Review

Ghostbusters!

I am a Ghostbusters fan, a pretty big Ghostbusters fan. So by rights I should eat up anything spoon-fed that the IP throws at me. However, I don't think that Sanctum of Slime is worth 800msp or however much it costs on PSN and so on. It's a terribly generic game and combines a Smash-TV style mentality that doesn't quite capture the feel of that game.

It comes to something when the free Dead Ops game in Black Ops, is...better...

Story

You are one of 4 newly recruited noob Ghostbusters; you must deal with a newly risen demonic baddie and basically embark through level after level of the same old same old. The story is told in comic-book style cut-scenes (strips) and isn't really very engaging.

Gameplay

You embark with the other 3 new busters, to put this baddie back in his cage and save the city/world once more. It's a dual-stick shooter with an isometric style and it doesn't actually work all that well. You have 12 levels to go through and late game it gets so hard that we were left wondering if it is actually possible for a human player to defeat the game and win. Since some of these ghosts have the ability to take you down in one or two hits.

The fun level versus the frustration level is way out of balance, and sadly it's dipped towards the full-on frustration level for me and the other players I was with. You can play online and off, but it lacks drop-in and drop-out co-operative play which would have been a must in a game like this. Instead you have to restart the level again if you want a new player in, or if someone leaves you're often left back in single player with the AI taking over.

As the Ghostbuster noobs you must also learn to use the right colour proton pack for the right ghost, this would be great if the weapons actually felt responsive. Instead they just don't feel that great at all and often let you down when you really need them. You can revive other players and to do so, you need to press a button repeatedly when they go down. It's a tried and tested staple method seen in other games of this kind.

The level design is repetitious and the game is mundane/lacklustre, a true waste of a license really and it definitely needed more development time. It's a definite letdown for a Ghostbusters fan and a fan of this genre of game in general. Lara Croft: Guardian of Light, which got it right and managed to deliver some great play to boot, should have been the starting point for this development team when they looked into a good shooter style game.

So with its clunky controls, unresponsive weapons and mundane play...it's not really worth completing even if you are a fan of Ghostbusters.

Graphics

Basic, simple and barely effective are ways to describe the graphics in the game, that's about it though, they're bland and fairly uninspired. They repeat a lot and the textures give it a very simple feel overall.

Physics

There's some there I'm sure, didn't really see much of it in action though. The bustin' weapons don't seem to have the right feel compared to the recent other Ghostbusters game release.

Animations

They're not too bad, nothing to write home about though. The problem is that like the rest of the game, they're terribly generic and forced.

AI

The AI isn't bad, it can revive you if you go down, and it's much quicker than a human player. However it has terrible path issues when the amount of enemies increases. It will often make stupid mistakes and let you down when you need it the most. We even saw it freeze a couple of times as well as running headlong into a wall and getting stuck.

Sound

The sound isn't too bad; it's not exactly popping with atmosphere though.

Music

The game has a few music tracks, they're annoying mostly and they repeat way too often. It's amazing how you can get sick and tired of just 4 tracks on repeat pretty quickly.

Voice and Dialogue

None, the writing is pretty uninspired and clichéd.

Multiplayer

Offline and online co-op, no drop in and drop out though, badly thought out implementation of this feature really hurts the playability of the game.

Who you gonna call?

I'd call something else not Sanctum of Slime, save those msp and PSN cash. Get something else that's not as mundane or as frustrating. SoS is generic and bland at best, thoroughly uninspired at worst.