Ghostbusters Rise of the Ghost Lord preview – beaming with joy

The concept of a Ghostbusters VR game seems like a no brainer – after all, an FPS is probably one of its most popular genres, and the universe of Ghostbusters is one multiple generations look at fondly thanks to both the original 80s and the modern day movies.

However, when developer nDreams were making Ghostbusters Rise of the Ghost Lord, they knew they wanted to make something more substantial than the ‘experience’ type Ghostbusters VR projects that had come before. And I’m pleased to report that after a brief hands on with the new game ahead of the Ghostbusters Rise of the Ghost Lord release date on PSVR 2 (and Meta Quest 2 and 3 headsets) later this year, they’re certainly on the right track.

Myself and three of my peers started our time with the game first being welcomed into the hub area, Ghostbusters HQ. However, rather than take place in New York like the movies, the game is set in San Francisco. While this may disappoint those who wanted to relive the movie, it actually feels like a smart move, as the team are free to play in the same universe without being beholden to the events of the movies. As Ghostbusters, you’ll be sent on missions in various locales – bustling with plenty of ghosts of course, and generally helping out the city from the supernatural grip it finds itself in.

As soon as the headset is on and you’re out on those missions, you feel immersed in that world – you have a proton pack on your back that you reach over your shoulder to get out, and of course those trusted tools the PKE Meter and Ghost Trap on your belt. If you’re of a certain age and always wanted to be a Ghostbuster, it’s a joy to live out that fantasy as you bust out your gadgets and start blasting ghosts with your beams. The game’s clearly made to be played with friends, and chatting with your team mates using the voice comms really makes you feel part of a ghost busting team. The fact that cross play between VR headsets is also supported further reinforces this idea of Ghostbusting being a team activity.

The actual act of busting ghosts is fairly straightforward. Most of the early ghouls can be vaporised by just pointing and shooting with your proton wand with a tap that sends out a short, powerful blast. But others you’ll see flying around have health bars, and must be worn down by holding down the adaptive triggers for a longer, more sustained beam. But just like a fishing game, the longer you hold the beam on them the more they struggle, and you’ve got to pull against them to tire them out and wear them down. Then, when they’ve tuckered themselves out, you throw out your trap and try to corral them over to the trap’s beam and capture them in a flash of light. The PSVR 2’s haptic feedback on the controllers really is the star here, as you pull against the poltergeists as they try to resist your efforts.

But then other types of missions mix things up a bit – for example, in one mission we had to scan objects with our PKE meter to get a ‘trace’ of a ghost as it were, and then explore the level and listen to the device’s beeps as they led us to another object hidden somewhere in the environment that had ghostly energy, in order to bring it back to the objective. Sometimes, these items would be hiding a surprise – specifically those tiny Stay Puft Marshmallow men from Ghostbusters Afterlife. If this happens, then you have to pick them off yourself before you can get back to what you were doing, and in a fun twist emphasising that teamwork – our fellow players could help get rid of the ones on our backs that we could see. Picking them off is a joy too, as you can hold them between your fingers and watch them try and wiggle free before you squish them with the adaptive triggers.

Back to the mission then, and once we’d acquired all the special items – it spawned a huge boss-type ghost that required all four of us to concentrate our fire on to take down. It actually was quite a challenge and took us a while to bring them down, (jokingly at one point I even referred to it as a Dark Souls boss) all the while avoiding their attacks and – should a member of the team go down, helping to get them back up and into the fight with a crisp high five. It was quite an effort, but the feeling when we finally won was immensely satisfying.

It’s clear that nDreams isn’t treating Ghostbusters Rise of the Ghost Lord like a gimmicky, one off experience either – given the game’s full length campaign. You’ll earn money from successful missions which you can then use to upgrade your equipment, and even unlock new gadgets like remote turrets, decoys and more. And the team’s already told us they have a fairly extensive DLC plan in place for both free and paid content, so the team definitely want this to be a game you come back to on a regular basis, and not just something you pull out at Christmas to impress the family.

In fact, it’s fair to say that even from just the relatively short time I’ve had with the game so far, Ghostbusters Rise of the Ghost Lord feels like the closest approximation to the ideal Ghostbusters fantasy yet – with one small caveat. We asked if there was any penalty for crossing the streams, but perhaps sensibly the team decided that might be a bit too hard to prevent in the heat of the moment when so much is going on, so you can cross them as much as you like.

Regardless, we’ll have to wait for the release of the full game whether the joy of the Ghostbusters fantasy can maintain its allure across the entire game. But at least for the moment I can say that when I took that headset off after our hour or so of gameplay, bustin’ made me feel good.

Ghostbusters Rise of the Ghost Lord is currently scheduled for release via the PSVR 2 on PlayStation 5 as well as Meta Quest 2, 3 and Meta Quest Pro this October 26.

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