We tend to overuse the word ‘iconic,’ but if one movie franchise could fit the term, it’s Ghostbusters. IllFonic, the developer of Predator: Hunting Grounds and Arcadegeddon, is now making a Ghostbusters 4v1 asymmetric multiplayer game called Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed, which sees four highly-customisable eradicators take on one poor ghost haunting a building. It is set for Q4 2022 on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PS5, PS4, and PC. We were joined by IllFonic’s CEO Charles Brungardt and creative director Jared Gerritzen for a 30-minute demo of the game. If we took anything away from our time with the pair, it’s that IllFonic is going to try and get every centimetre of a PKE Meter correct, every Proton Pack looking straight off the big screen, and every Slimer looking suitably gunky. Moreover, IllFonic is dedicated to using all of its experience to make this the studio’s best asymmetrical multiplayer game yet. How does Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed work, then? Well, you will drop into a five-player match set in a vertical, varied arena. In our demo, it was the museum level, but Brungardt assured us there would be many unique locations. Gameplay is taking the “simple to pick up, fun to master” approach. The four ‘busters play with a first-person perspective trying to hunt down the third-person ghost player who, in turn, is trying to haunt the museum by surviving against the mean team of four, manipulating objects, and scaring the living daylights out of civilians. In an innovative twist, the ghost player has rifts that they can hide in a level which allow them to respawn. If all of those are destroyed, then the ghost player has one last life with which to pull out a win — if they get blasted again, it’s goodbye ghosty and hoorah to the Ghostbusters. Matches last around ten minutes, and feature cross-play support.Ghosts have a “Notice me” function that allows them to hide in and possess objects. This allows them to move smaller items around like in a game of Prop Hunt, boosting their haunt meter which, when at 100%, will win the ghost player the game. We see a ghost possess a mop bucket in our demo. Even looking on from afar, it gave me a small thrill seeing four fully armed Ghostbusters coming for the ducking-and-juking prize possession of the museum janitor. If caught, the team of four can whip out their Particle Thrower and blast the object into a million pieces, causing the ghost to pop out. Brungardt explained that the first-person perspective for the Ghostbusters was all about offering full immersion. The PKE Meter (a Geiger counter for ghost-hunting), he says, is vital to creating that sense of truly hunting down a ghost while building anticipation for your eventual encounter. The only modern addition to the original device from the Eighties is the Afterlife “stun function,” so you can freeze a ghost in place or stun a ghost out of a possessed object. The third-person perspective of the ghost is meant to allow you to easily manage the additional verticality of floating around. Returning to the plight at hand, the Ghostbusters are trying to protect civilians scattered around the map from this dastardly ghost. If they get too scared, the ghost starts winning, so it is in the best interest of the ‘busters to keep them protected from the mop bucket ghost. Vitally, Gerritzen says this isn’t anything like an FPS. The Ghostbusters are mostly equipped with “passive tools,” meaning that players can take up a role like calming citizens or guiding more active players with the PKE while feeling like (and being) a vital cog in the busting machine. If someone has the ghost tethered, then you can combine Particle streams to make the ghost close to submission. Again, these small tweaks to the traditional asymmetric multiplayer mean that even if you are a player focused on assisting others, you can still get involved in the heart of the action.The environments in Ghostbusters are dense, vertical, and packed with detail. In the museum, for instance, you can move up and down between exhibits, with smartly placed rails allowing for easy exploration, and there are items for the ghosts to haunt all over the place. At one stage, we see a dinosaur exhibit and a blue whale, which the developers confirmed could be haunted — bringing joy from my fellow press-mate watching the demo. In addition, the environments totally deteriorate as you play more aggressively, which will add to a bill you have to pay out at the end of the level. Aesthetically, this seems very cool. Seeing papers blasted upwards, the gashes ripped into walls by Particle streams, or paintings and other decorative objects being left askew is a delicious touch in these environments. So far, so much like a deep version of Prop Hunt with an accurate Ghostbusters sheen. However, what really caught my attention was the addition of rifts for the ghost. These are player-placed spawn points, basically. If the Ghost gets caught, back it comes through one of their rifts. The Ghostbusters can use the PKE Meter to hunt it down too, meaning they can start to cut the ghost off at source as the game progresses.Without having got a feel for match flow yet, it’s hard to tell, but this should result in a Rugby/American Football-style grapple for yardage around the map space. The ghost is constantly trying to deceive the Ghostbusters with their placement of rifts in objects and artefacts, while the Ghostbusters have to puzzle out what attack is coming next while simultaneously trying to find the next rift. It genuinely looks like a smart bit of design that will keep players hooked on playing as a ghost and as the Ghostbusters, as both sides are equally party to the hunter/hunted dynamic of the asymmetrical multiplayer matches. “We tried other modes — it was too frantic,” says Gerritzen. So, to get people involved in this kind of occasionally inaccessible intentionally lopsided game type, the developers have targeted “throwing [players] on a server, getting them in a match as soon as possible.” Brungardt goes on: “We built our own matchmaking system to support that. […] If a player wants to play as a ghost, they will get matched as that ghost against AI Ghostbusters, and then backfill those AI Ghostbusters with real players. Once they are all together, they can keep round cycling as long as they want.” You can party up with up to four other players and you will stick together as a group as you rotate through maps. If you are four players, you will likely match up against a ghost, as I understood it. Getting back to the game at hand, the ghost is out of the mop bucket and sliming the Ghostbusters, which makes them slow. Ectoplasm is your special meter as a ghost, allowing you to access sliming, pass through walls and Ghostbusters, as well as haunt objects. Possessing items helps you replenish the meter, but makes you vulnerable. “The objects the ghost are using range in gameplay mechanics. Some objects are super fast-moving but don’t offer much cover, other objects are slower, are louder when they move around, but can take a little bit of damage,” explains Gerritzen. “Some objects are super huge and take a lot of damage. [This helps] the ghost calm down and plan moves.”If you are downed as a Ghostbuster, you can revive one another, or pick yourself up at a slower rate. “Teamwork is huge,” says Gerritzen. “They are not running around rogue, they’re not trying to do anything other than catch that ghost, trap it, and calm the civilians. Calling out what’s going on, getting your team to be aware of what you’re doing is very important.” Therefore, IllFonic has added spatial voice communication to make it vital that you stick together. If you don’t, your teammates’ voices are going to fade away into the sweet goodnight of that dinosaur exhibit. It won’t help that the ghost will be able to hear every word you say, either. AI is much better than in its previous games, say the IllFonic leads. This is vital for asymmetric multiplayer because they don’t want people dropping out of games and one team being at a disadvantage or the ghost player suddenly leaving and ending the game. To keep players hungry for the loop no matter what side they are playing on — abandonment by teammates happened a lot in IllFonic’s Predator Hunting Grounds and in Turtle Rock’s Evolve — having good AI to pick up the slack before another player picks up the fight is vital. This will also help players who don’t ever want to play multiplayer because now they can play with a full squad of AI comrades. Then, if they so please, they can jump into player-populated sessions as they like. Gerritzen made it clear that creating a more even multiplayer/solo experience was vital to the experience. They showed us the Firehouse hub-world, too. This is the central space for getting your jobs, matchmaking with friends who will pop into your base of operations, customising your Ghostbuster, and a Containment Unit for all those ghosties you’ve caught. Customisation, Gerritzen tells us, will be as robust as the team can make it. “We really want to make sure people are projecting themselves into that Ghostbuster.” “We are basing all of our weaponry on the core Ghostbusters gear. So, the Proton Pack, Particle Thrower, PKE Meter, Ghost Trap… all of that is customisable as you progress in the game.” All of the core gear is customisable through rank systems, and then from there, doing certain achievements in-game will unlock different details to change. For instance, the grip and nozzle of the Particle Blaster, or all the bells and whistles on the Proton Pack. These can alter gameplay, as well as some of the equipment you can unlock, too. The progression system will unlock your ghost gear, different ghosts, Ghostbuster gear, and other equipment. The ghost will represent more of a hero class, whereas the Ghostbusters are more customisable. There won’t be any hero characters, but you can make them look very similar. Ghosts will be a mix of new and authentic, but don’t expect the Stay-Puft Man to be in the mix — he was too big and wouldn’t have had the longitude to work in-game. The team wouldn’t confirm all of the live-service elements of the game, but did hint that over time, more and more stories would be added, not unlike what we frequently see from the likes of Dead by Daylight or even Destiny. “Ghostcorp is someone we have worked really close with,” says Brungardt. “It’s a tight, family-orientated business. What’s been really good about them is that we got a chance to talk with [them], we are huge fans. […] Working with the group really helped us understand the IP from all the way back in those original movies to Afterlife. [Ghostcorp] has been a close partner for a number of years.” For an air of authenticity, “the timeline is shortly after the Afterlife film where Winston has reformed the Ghostbusters and you are one of the new hires.” The team got Dan Aykroyd playing Ray in his book store again. He has discovered a spirit guide that takes you to the ghost realm so you can jazz up your own haunted creature. Ernie Hudson is back as Winston Zeddemore, too. DLC might add others in the future. “We got these amazing actors to come, so we couldn’t make them hub masters. As you progress in the game, you get some story and some cinematics throughout.” On top of that, Gerritzen explained, the Ecto 1 will ferry you around to all of the maps in the game to give IllFonic’s title that feeling of belonging to the franchise. Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed is coming in Q4 of this year on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PS5, PS4, and PC. A massive thank you to the team at IllFonic for giving us a sneak peek at what we can expect from the game! What do you think of this new Ghostbusters game? Are you a huge fan of the series? Let us know in the comments below!
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