Just like everyone else who was born in the 80s, I grew up loving the Ghostbusters franchise. I saw the films dozens of times, I watched the cartoons, and I even had some action figures. So when 2009’s Ghostbusters: The Video Game came around, it was pretty exciting. Terminal Reality did Ghostbusters justice with a quality action game that maintained the feel of the movies. Here was a title that almost made me forget about how terrible some of the early 90s ‘Busters games were. That’s why it is so unfortunate to see the franchise take a dip back in the wrong direction with Ghostbusters: Sanctum of Slime.
Behaviour Interactive’s Ghostbusters outing is a downloadable title that kind of snuck up without much fanfare or marketing. As such, it would be unreasonable to expect it to have the same level of production values as its predecessor. The problem with Sanctum of Slime (SoS) is not that it is on a smaller scale, it’s that it has lost that Ghostbusters atmosphere which Terminal Reality worked so hard on incorporating into the last game. Slime plays like a generic twin stick shooter that fails to engage its audience and occasionally frustrates.
The very beginning seems interesting enough. We get a comic book style cut scene introducing us to Demazu the Destroyer (read: Vigo the Carpathian wannabe) and a twisted cult that worships him. Unfortunately this scene, along with nearly every other one in the game, goes on for far too long. It’s almost as if the developers realized that the story segments were overly long snooze fests, because they saw fit to throw in an achievement/trophy for anyone willing to sit through them all without hitting skip.
The story of SoS revolves around the return of Demazu. What it ends up feeling like though, is just one excuse after another for the team of rookie Ghostbusters to hit detours on their way back to HQ and encounter more ghosts. You read that right; you control a team of rookies in Sanctum. Samuel, Bridget, Alan and Gabriel are a forgettable group that lack the charm of Venkman, Stantz, Spengler and Zeddemore. The classic foursome do show up on occasion during cut scenes, but they play a background role to the controllable rookies.
Now it’s true that you played as a rookie in Ghostbusters: The Video Game, but the original cast was right there with you for most of the quest. Their disappearing act in SoS makes the game not feel like it’s really part of the Ghostbusters universe. Sanctum comes off as a spin-off at best. There is no spoken dialogue in the game, so it’s not as if they had to cut them because getting Murrary, Akroyd, and company to lend their voices would have put the project over budget. Regardless of what the decision was predicated on, it was a poor one.
As mentioned, there is no voice work in the game. There aren’t even any grunts or shouts. Additionally, the soundtrack is more background noise than anything else. The result is that Slime feels much too quiet and not in the eery, spooky kind of way either. Aside from the Ghostbusters theme playing in the main menu, the sound work fails to elicit those wonderful feelings of nostalgia that you would expect to feel during a Ghostbusters adventure.
I haven’t touched on the actual game play yet, and that’s because there isn’t much of interest to mention. You and three AI allies (or co-op players) traverse New York City blasting away at ghosts and ghouls from a 3/4 top down view point. Sanctum of Slime is not bad per say, it’s just dull. This goes double for the latter half of the adventure when you start revisiting the same locales from the beginning. There’s a decent amount of enemies, but they all require the same basic tactics to overcome. A few of the bosses have nice designs, but even they never require much in the way of strategy.
Standard foes come in three varieties: red, yellow and blue. Each type (actually color is more appropriate, because they’re just palette swaps) is weak against the corresponding beam in your arsenal. You can eventually take them down with any beam, but it takes forever if you’re not using the right one. I appreciate that they tried to inject a little variety into the game with this move. Trouble is, neither of the two alternate modes of fire are as enjoyable as the classic red beam. Yellow is particularly a nuisance to use, because it requires a brief charge before it fires. Aerial and some ground baddies move at a quick enough clip that it can be a real pain trying to hit them with the yellow beam.
The Ghostbusters should really look into developing some sort of ghost body armor, because they drop like flies in this game. A single hit from many bosses, and some of the more powerful regular adversaries, will knock you down. It doesn’t seem bad at first, but grows aggravating over time. Sitting back watching your AI allies run around aimlessly before coming to heal you makes for a stale experience. You’re certainly better off in this regard when playing with at least one other co-op player, but good luck finding people willing to play through Sanctum with you.
On-rails driving missions are sprinkled throughout the game in an attempt to break things up a bit. It was nice to experience some diversity, but these levels can grow tiresome as well. I’m also curious as to why there was a need to have a 4WD Ecto in New York City. It’s an excuse to provide a truck bed from which you can shoot while driving, but purists will undoubtedly miss the old ambulance Ecto.
Fans of the Ghostbusters franchise will be dissapointed with all of Sanctum’s departures from the source material. It’s never easy for a series to stay true to the original(s) while still feeling fresh, but that doesn’t excuse the missteps in this aspect. Ghostbusters: Sanctum of Slime is a run of the mill shooter that will alienate fans and make newcomers wonder what all the Ghostbusters fuss is about.
