Ghostbusters... Sanctum of Sigh

The initial announcement of Sanctum of Slime got me excited. I�m a huge Ghostbusters geek, and love almost everything Ghostbusters, including the old Commodore 64 version of the game. I even have a fond (although twisted) memory of Ghostbusters 2 on the NES. The sad truth of Sanctum of Slime, however, is that it made me wish I were playing one of those classics.

Ghostbusters: Sanctum of Slime was released a few weeks ago as a digital download, and I bought it for 800MSP (or 9.99 for the uninitiated). Loading the game up first brought back a lot of nostalgia, and good vibes despite other reviews I had read. The graphics looked pretty good, the music was classic, the comic-book style storytelling was amazing (and probably the best part), but then I was introduced to the Ghostbusters.

Who the heck are these guys? I know, it�s the �next generation� crap. That�s not what I signed up for, that�s not what I had wanted to see. I wanted Egon, Ray, Peter, and Winston. Even with no voice acting, I was hoping to play as those characters.

Negative thoughts aside, I loaded up my first game and started going to town. The two-stick controls are easy enough, and away I went with my proton pack, blasting away ghost after ghost. Ghost gone, a door opens, and� we go to another room. the camera centers on the new room, and we are all locked in.

This style of gameplay works well if you are going to have a SmashTV type of game, where you are rewarded after each room, and the game is basically nothing but wave after wave of character. In Sanctum of Slime, however, it felt rushed and awkward. Add into the fact that your shots can be blocked by your friends (with no friendly fire damage), and while the environment is somewhat destructible, there are areas where a person may be cowering, and can somehow withstand your shots at point blank range.

Death is nearly nonexistent. If your health bar runs out, you fall down and await for a friend to revive you. The game is only over if all four of you perish. While a good way to keep the action flowing, it tends to create problems when you are trying to keep ghosts off of those reviving others. Since your shots do not travel through fellow players, you have to maneuver around and hope to get your shot off on time.

The other extreme negative for me about Sanctum of Slime was the Rock/Paper/Scissors style of weapon usage. If it�s a red ghost, use your red weapon (standard Ghostbuster proton stream). Blue ghost? Use the blue burst shot that gets stronger if you bounce it off of a wall first. Yellow? A charge Shotgun-like blast will clear the area, but only of the yellow ghosts. It� snot a hard mechanic to follow by any means, but it feels awkward and clunky in practice.

I would add a bit of multiplayer review here, but honestly it�s the same as the regular game, just the other characters are controlled by humans, not AI. Whether you are playing with 1 person or 4, you always have 4 Ghostbusters on the screen.

This game would have worked better if it were made more like Gauntlet, or even put more into the third person. As it is, Ghostbusters: Sanctum of Slime isn�t worth the $9.99 unless you have absolutely nothing else to spend the money on.

As much as it saddens me to say this,Ghostbusters: Sanctum of Slime gets 2 Stars.

This review and more can be found on NoWorriesGaming.com