Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed Review

Much like Friday the 13th and Predator: Hunting Grounds before it, Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed is developer Illfonic’s love letter to a beloved property. It still retains the asymmetrical multiplayer framework that Illfonic has become known for, but also builds on lessons learned from those prior titles. Without question, it’s the most fully formed of the developer’s releases and does well to capture the spirit of Ghostbusters, but it struggles with some of the same issues as well.
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As mentioned in our Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed preview, the setup of the game pits four Ghostbuster recruits against a solo, player-controlled ghost. The Ghostbusters’ goal is to capture the ghost a total of four times, or to destroy the rifts that it uses to respawn, while the ghost must completely haunt the map by horrifying its citizens and then survive a brief concluding timer. From the moment the Ghostbusters enter the map to the moment the match ends, there is a lot more going on, but the concept should be familiar to fans of Illfonic’s games.

The Ghostbusters team is equipped with the standard kit seen in the movies. Each Ghostbuster has a PKE Meter for tracking ghosts and rift artifacts; a Particle Thrower for tethering ghosts or damaging rifts; a Proton Pack that regulates the intensity of the Particle Thrower and its cooling; and a Ghost Trap that does exactly as its name implies.

Illfonic has created mechanics that fit the Ghostbusters milieu extremely well. Essentially, the team of four Ghostbusters is on its own ghost hunt throughout match, using their tools to first find and then capture the haunting apparition. However, finding and capturing the ghost carries its own challenges with another human at the helm.

As the Ghostbusters team is on the hunt, the ghost is simultaneously doing its requisite haunting or hiding as inanimate objects a la Prop Hunt. With a basic attack and two…

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