I’m somewhat of a Ghostbusters fanboy. I grew up with it – I love the characters, the setting, the soundtrack, the sequel (yes, seriously). Hell, I even had a soft spot for the last game Atari released, despite everyone else screaming out that it was a no better than a tub of slime.
So when Sanctum of Slime was announced – a top down twin-stick shooter – I was quite excited about it. This could be the Ghostbusters equivalent of Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light.
Sadly, it somewhat misses the mark.
Plot-wise, the game fits in pretty well with the established universe. The characters we all know and love are ageing and, as a result, have hired a bunch of rookies. From here the game goes on to tell their story.
All of this is set up during a number of comic book-styled cutscenes, and for me this was where I began to have a few genuine fears for what was in store.
At first glance the cutscenes look perfect – sadly though, they skittle through the proceedings so fast you’ll barely get a chance to read some of the speech bubbles.
This problem is further exacerbated by the fact the cutscenes do not take full advantage of the screen available – it’s almost as if they have been rendered for a 4:3 screen, and the developers haven’t bothered to adjust the ratio – as a result the font looks small.
It sounds like I’m nitpicking, but I was playing the game on a 50″ TV – so either the text is genuinely too small, or I need to have my eyes tested.
The game itself appears to have the same level of attention – while the environments are fitting for the series they quickly become too familiar, and before you know it you’re trapped in another room fighting off the spooks until the door unlocks itself. And that is the main problem with this game – it repeats this mechanic again and again and again.
Occasionally it will throw a boss or two at you, but it doesn’t require any major change of tactic, just shoot and hope the spiritual sucker goes down. Eventually it may give you option to use a trap, and when it does you’ll have to press a random combination of buttons to trap the bugger.
As you progress through the game your weapons are “upgraded” – sadly though, a number of them are unresponsive, and quite often I found myself going back to the trusty proton pack.
The game also puts quite a bit of emphasis on teamwork, giving you the opportunity to revive fallen Ghostbusters and them the opportunity to return the favour (most of the time).
Visually, the game does its job pretty well, and is quite impressive for a game that clocks in at under 300mb. However, it is marred by a number of bugs – such as characters disappearing and then reappearing (and I’m not talking about the ghosts here).
The sound also helps create a nice amount of atmosphere, with the odd ghoul howling in the background. One thing that could of helped the game would have been a bit of voice work.
Ghostbusters: Sanctum of Slice is not a great game, and at 800 Microsoft points it’s probably one best left for the fans. Usually busting makes me feel good – but this just left me feeling bored.
Verdict: 5 out of 10
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