Who You Gonna Call?… or haunt?
Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed is an Asymmetric Multiplayer video game based upon the storied Ghostbusters franchise. It is developed and published by IllFonic (Friday the 13th: The Game).
Players have the option of playing as part of a team of Ghostbusters, freshly recruited by veteran-turned-leader Winston Zeddmore (Ernie Hudson), or—in a franchise first—a pesky ghost. Ghosts can phase through walls, possess objects, and summon minions in order to get the upper hand, while Ghostbusters have a bevy of gadgets, including the classic proton pack and ghost trap, to catch their opponent. Dan Aykroyd also returns as Ray Stantz.
The game was released on October 18th, 2022. It is available for PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S and Nintendo Switch.
Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed contains examples of the following tropes:
- Abandoned Hospital: MOROS Medical Facility, a map which was released in the first DLC.
- The Alcatraz: Rock Island Prison, a map set in one of these turned into a museum.
- Asymmetric Multiplayer: 5v1. An usual mission from the franchise: four-to-five Ghostbusters against a single ghost. The twist here? One of the players IS the ghost!
- Bland-Name Product: In the fire house and other levels there are boxes of "Yellow Cake Log" and "Crackers" instead of Twinkies and Cheez it.
- Continuity Nod:
- The restored Ecto-1 is being used by the current Ghostbuster team.
- Ray is still running his occult bookstore, much like he was in Ghostbusters II and Afterlife, though it's been moved to be next door to the firehouse. He is also shown presenting the player with Tobin’s Spirit Guide, a reoccurring source of information throughout the franchise.
- One of the skins for the "Ectoplast" ghost is Slimer, who is essentially the franchise's secondary mascot.
- The Terror Sentinel is basically the game letting you control a Terror Dog, a popular kind of hellhound first seen in the original movie with Zuul and Vinz Clortho.
- The ghost world looks notably similar to the one presented in Ghostbusters: The Video Game: a cloudy void full of floating pillars and mortal-world detritus.
- On a similar note, the default player character before the player makes any customizations looks a lot like the rookie from Ghostbusters: The Video Game.
- Phoebe Spengler from Ghostbusters: Afterlife is directly name dropped by Ray in a conversation and mentioned to be Egon's granddaughter, along with her fondness for "lame" jokes. There is also a Shandor Mining Company sign from Summerville hanging on a wall in the Firehouse.
- Also from Afterlife: the Ghostbusters returning to business in the same firehouse (which had become a Starbucks between II and Afterlife) can be attributed to Winston Zeddmore and his financial backing. In the film, during Phoebe's call to Ray, the latter mentioned that Winston had gone into finance and coined a fortune after the events of the original films.
- Winston has been unable to use the subway since 1989 due to a "traumatic incident". Whether it's specifically the ghost train or being pulled into the river of slime is unclear.
- Samhain from The Real Ghostbusters is revealed as the main villain and master of Nameless with the Ecto Edition release.
- Creepy Doll: One of the haunted objects is a dirty doll missing hair and an arm.
- Hell Hotel: Hudson Canyon Lodge becomes one of these as the haunting meter fills.
- Insufferable Genius: Eddy Chan and Tobin both consider themselves much smarter than everyone around them.
- Menacing Museum: Whitestone Museum doesn't start out as one, but becomes one as the haunting meter fills up.
- Mission Control: Catt and J.H. Tobin serve as this for Ghostbusters and the Ghost, respectively.
- Mythology Gag:
- Winston is basically the leader setting up the new generation of Ghostbusters, much like Egon did in Extreme Ghostbusters, while also working out of the original Firehouse. Played With, in that he considers himself the Ghostbusters' financial backer.
- Some of the color choices for the suits reference the ones the team had in The Real Ghostbusters cartoon. Later DLC releases would include the hairstyles of the team and Janine along with her and Egon's glasses and being able to make your gear look like it's from the show.
- Another DLC update would include hairstyles of the team from Extreme Ghostbusters and their gear as customization options.
- Said DLC also added jumpsuit patterns based off of the Kenner Real Ghostbusters "Power Pack Hero" line of Figures.
- Passing the Torch: Winston outright states that this is his goal with setting up the new team of Ghostbusters in the trailer.
- Shout-Out:
- One of the haunted objects appears to be a certain ancient book bound in human flesh.
- On PC the game's data folder and exe are named SwayzeGame.
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Suspiciously Similar Song: The music in the game is all in the style of the movies, but none of it is actually from the movies. The Firehouse Theme is reminiscent of the movie's main theme, the spooky music that plays in Ray's shop is similar but distinct from an atmospheric piece used repeatedly in the movies, and the music from the end of the Samhain expansion sounds like a licensed song used in the first movie, but is a different piece entirely. - Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Eddy takes Egon's place as the scientifically minded person who makes the Ghostbusting equipment.
- Villain Protagonist: Players have the option of controlling a ghost to make trouble for the Ghostbusters.
