​We Already Have A Third Ghostbusters Story, So Chill Out Internet

Last week the internet appropriately freaked out to news that Paul Feig would be taking the helm of a new, female-led, Ghostbuster reboot that he would write with his partner from The Heat, Katie Dippold. As you can imagine, there were both cheers and boos.

Personally, I feel like once Harold Ramis passed away, any hope of seeing middle-aged men strapping on proton packs and making sarcastic comments to each other dried up—and probably for the best.

More importantly, let's not forget there's a superior Ghostbusters 3 product already right under our noses—2009's Ghostbusters: The Videogame.

The mythology behind how the game was created is its own epic. In 2006 a developer named Zootfly began production on a Ghosbusters game they'd begun developing without the proper licensing, and leaked the footage online.

The footage had a bizarre, snail's eye-view camera setup in what seemed like a dark futuristic setting, but it showed a lot of promise and it got people talking. Despite this initial buzz, the Ghostbusters license ultimately went to developer Terminal Reality based on a military tech demo they'd originally showcased for Sierra.

Terminal Reality, though never quite a household name even with hardcore gamers, developed the mostly forgotten Monster Truck Madness series for Microsoft, a reference that will release serious nostalgia endorphins if you're of a certain age. Terminal Reality's biggest legacy is the Infernal Engine, which is a cross-platform development engine they had been developing for almost 15 years.

Time has been quite good to Ghostbusters: The Videogame, which is both an amazing showcase for developers who were firing on all cylinders and for Infernal Engine. The lighting effects, particularly on the proton packs, still hold up five years later.

Reportedly the game cost  between 15 and 20 million dollars, which seems like pennies compared to Activision reportedly spending 500 million dollars on Destiny, but at the time was actually a pretty massive investment. The money is all up there on the screen, though, and Terminal Reality clearly put a lot of heart into making this game.

The gameplay is extremely derivative of Gears Of War, but so was basically every game in 2009. You play as an unnamed and mute rookie of the team, not any of the original Ghostbusters, who are all present in different story-based configurations. It essentially plays out like a squad-based third person shooter with computer-controlled allies. What this game excels at is feeling. When you power slam a ghost into a trap with Spengler at your side, you really and truly feel like a Ghostbuster. It's a feeling that doesn't deteriorate as the game goes on for its roughly 15 hours.

There are some obvious game-padding levels, though, including a few re-used locations. The final few hours are unfairly difficult, especially Particularly a section towards the very end where you have to slingshot exploding kamikaze cherubs into a graveyard gate so Ecto-1 can get through (it makes sense in context). Also very 2009 are the incessant ragdoll physics, which I made fun of even back then.

There are moments where you need to wait for a member of your Ghostbuster team to do something—be it slam open a door or solve a puzzle. It's a smart level design in theory and forces you to stick with your team and not run too far ahead. That being said, it can lead to moments where you're standing around unsure of what to do next. Minor quibbles aside, this is still a fantastic gaming experience and a true love letter to the Ghostbusters.

Most importantly, the story is credited to Dan Akyroyd and Harold Ramis. The story begins during Thanksgiving 1991, two years after Ghostbusters 2. In other words, the video game has the semblance of the film we've all been waiting for. As previously mentioned, your character is a classic mute lead who accompanies Aykroyd, Ramis, Ernie Hudson (thankfully given much more to do than in any other Ghostbuster movie) and, of course, Bill Murray—who are all rendered era appropriate.

At the time of release much was made of Bill Murray's performance being sloppy and bored. While he is certainly lackadaisical at points, the fact that he even agreed to do the game in the first place still blows my mind. He's nowhere near as bad as you've been led to believe, but Aykroyd and Ramis truly shine and get some genuine laugh out loud moments within the gameplay. You return to The Sedgewick Hotel and re-trap Slimer, Stay Puft shows up and tries to destroy New York, while Annie Potts is still as sarcastic as ever.

What follows is a relatively deep story involving spectral political corruption, Alyssa Milano in a mostly useless role as Bill Murray's love interest (their scenes together are arguably the worst in the game), William Atherton's welcome return as Walter Peck, and New York once again representing the centre of paranormal activity in the world. Even as a child I remember disliking the pandering of the second movie and this one feels much more in tune with the first, with a mean streak and feelings of genuine danger.

The game didn't quite become the massive success that Terminal Reality thought it would. There were publishing mixups after Vivendi (the original publisher) and Activision merged in 2008, which ultimately ended with Atari publishing the game in North America and Sony publishing it in the UK. The terrible box art and marketing campaign at the time are probably key factors why this didn't reach a larger audience. As a result copies are scarce and fetch almost $100 in stores and on Amazon, but it is available on Steam.

In the end, the game feels like a great test run for a film sequel that would have been perfect. While this Ghostbusters instalment isn't a perfect game, it is probably the last, best Ghostbusters experience you'll ever get with the original gang.