Ghostbusters: Sanctum of Slime Review

Written by Ryan Johnson Wednesday, 30 March 2011 11:00

I am glad I took a week to review Ghostbusters: Sanctum of Slime. You see, I am seeing quite a few negative reviews of this game. This saddens me, because at heart I see a great game.

I was a bit disappointed at first with Sanctum of Slime, mainly because of the high regard I placed on the last game. For me, it was as if the developers of Arkham Asylum had taken the license and made the next game in the series a kart racer: even if it were the best kart game in the world, it just wouldn't seem right. The original game was a love letter to the movies.

I then realized, however, that Sanctum of Slime is a different beast, with a different purpose. This game is intended to introduce a new generation to a fresh take on the property. It succeeds in this: an affordable introduction to the idea behind the core series. It reminds me of when Transformers makes a new property: same idea, new take on it. It also needs to be taken for the downloadable arcade game it is: it is fast, fresh and fun. It's not intended to be some monumental epic that takes hours to defeat and invokes life-changing thoughts.

The game is fun, as it harkens back to a greater day of quarter munching. A cross between Smash TV and Gauntlet, you blast your way through hundreds of enemies before taking down a boss. People complain of repetitive gameplay, but classic arcade games were nothing but just that! There is a plot, but in the end, this game will make people come back to it for gameplay. When you put this game on to run through Xbox Live, I doubt many people will be wanting to sit through the story again; they'll want to bust some ghosts!

So, to counterpoint a lot of the negatives I see: the game is meant to be an arcade game. People complain that "you aren't playing the original team", yet you didn't in the first game either. "Ghosts aren't supposed to dissipate, you're supposed to trap them"....same thing happened in the last game to lesser enemies. "You can cross the streams..you're not supposed to do that".....funny, I noticed THAT in the last game as well. Sure, it'd be nice if Egon gave a little blurb somewhere about how he's fixed that problem since the 90's, but hey....it's a game. The frantic nature of the game doesn't allow that alleged canonical stuff, let alone the complaints are around things that arose in the last game. No further liberties were taken. At its core, it is a twin-stick blaster, meant to draw you in and get you playing fast.

Looking at the game as a sequel to the previous one, it is difficult to compare. However, the developers never intended it to be a sequel, merely a fun arcade shoot-em-up. Thank you for including not only online, but local multiplayer as well. Too many games these days forget that integral part of getting a group together huddled around a single television for some teamwork. My attempts at getting online for multiplayer haven't seen many people going online as of yet, but I know sadly that many Live-ers are stuck on their current FPS and not trying the new stuff at this moment. Hopefully my article will get a few more of you on there to play with me! :) Thank you for adding humor that feels in place with the rest of the series. Again, some complain about this not feeling right, but I feel it's just people who are so ingrained in the original that anything fresh will feel odd (this is one of my primary concerns for when Duke Nukem finally comes out, by the way).

I only have one major problem with the game and unfortunately, I see this in a lot of games. While I really enjoy the storyline advancing cutscenes done in a classic comic book style, the font size is minuscule. In a lot of this generations' games, I feel as if developers assume that everyone has an HDTV, sometimes making us with old tube TV's feel left out. I had this same problem playing Transformers: War for Cybertron.  The font size, used throughout the game, is preventing me from advancing. I'm sure it's crystal clear on an HDTV, but on my 32 inch tube TV, I can't see the storyline. Luckily, I have a VGA cord and was able to move it to my computer monitor to see what's going on, but in my first run through on my main TV I gave up on reading the story. Simply the ability to zoom in on story panels or even make those animated pop up boxes able to show bigger would prevent me from being alienated. Please take this into consideration for future titles, all developers out there. I want to be able to use my regular TV until the console I buy no longer supports it.

Blurry story aside though, it is well written (once I hooked it up to my computer monitor) and a fun read. Some people want voice overs, I think that they are unnecessary. With a comic coming out as well, it allows these artists to shine and get us interested in the future of the franchise and like classic Final Fantasies, allows you to imagine your own voices and subtle attitudes of the characters.

So, long story short: get over the presumptions of what a Ghostbusters game HAS to be. Take this game for what it is, an awesome, chaotic, blow-everything-up-then-charge-for-it blastfest. You'll see a much better game than some other sites are making this out to be. (Plus, this game has the first premium Avatar content I've ever succumbed to!) If you are looking for another story and gameplay level of the last Ghostbusters game, expecting the over-the-shoulder epic that it was, you may be disappointed. A true Ghostbusters fan, however, will not be. This game has one thing resonating true within it: the heart of the Ghostbusters franchise. Don't miss out on it!

Don't forget to check out my interview with the developers here!