1. AbeBarnes

   3

   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.… Expand

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2. Old_Biff

   3

   I'm a huge Ghostbusters fan and even I hate this game. It's so boring. The story is awful and the characters are so lame. They talk via text and the things they say are so darn stupid and seem like they were written by a 5 year old. The "cut scenes" are done via comic style panels and suck. They are drawn poorly and add nothing to the game. My basic summary of this game is you go to one room and shoot ghosts then a door opens, go to next shoot ghosts and so on until you fight a stupid boss. The only cool levels are the driving ones but there are only two and they are short.… Expand

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3. Miz3k

   1

   When I first read about another Ghostbusters game, I was stoked. Then I read a little more, it was to be a top-down download-only arcade shooter. Why? The first current-gen Ghostbusters game was both a critical and commercial success, why not give the Ghostbusters fans more of what they want, a proper sequel. Instead we get this garbage, a shoddy attempt to grab quick cash from the pockets of fanboys like myself. The game is a four-player co-op shooter with an isometric view. There is no drop-in drop-out gameplay so if someone wants to quit, and they will, you have to start the level you are on over. You fight different ghosts using different settings on your proton-pack that correspond to the color of the ghost you are battling at the moment. Basically you move from room to room, get locked in, battle a set of ghosts, lather, rinse, repeat. Your character is controlled via the dual-stick method like in Geometry Wars or similar games although to a less successful extent. When a player gets knocked out another must come over and quickly mash buttons to revive him, which works ok if you are playing with friends, but if you're alone depending on the AI get used to restarting a lot. The AI is terrible here, standing in corners, running in circles and generally not doing any of the things they should be doing to help you bust ghosts and stay alive. Graphics are terrible, last-gen bad and sometimes worse, and believe it or not, a game that looks this bad has framerate issues. The story is told through poorly drawn comic book style static panels. I have a large 1080p LCD TV and I found it hard to read the text sometimes, I can imagine how impossible it must be for someone with an SDTV to play this game. The theme song is there, that's a plus, and its about the only thing cool about this game. You play as four new paranormal exterminators, not the original cast which makes this game even less exciting than it could have been. All in all this game fails on all levels. It is boring, has a terrible story, terrible graphics, broken gameplay and is a slap in the face to the fans. Don't waste your money, while the game is relatively cheap, its not worth it.… Expand

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