Ghostbusters Level Pack Review
I went into the Ghostbusters Level Pack with tempered expectations after the lacklustre Back to the Future Level Pack. That pack was a recreation of a classic movie that should have been a perfect fit for a LEGO game, but the results were less than ideal. Thankfully, the Ghostbusters Level Pack is a much better adaptation of its source material that, while still evidently flawed, is an enjoyable and worthwhile experience. Dimensions has a simple and fun take on Ghostbusting that carries on throughout other levels and worlds. Ghostbusters fans will find a lot to enjoy in this pack.
The level in this pack is an abridged retelling of the first movie. It has two main parts, with some lighter filler segments to pad it out a bit. The first of the key bits covers the Ghostbusters’ first real job, where they deal with Slimer at the Sedgewick Hotel. First you need to deal with some minor ghosts, which is how you’re taught the game’s ghostbusting mechanics. The busting plays out like a Luigi’s Mansion-lite – after hitting a swarm of ghosts with your stream, they’ll start to move around. You need to direct your stream so the clump of ghosts sucks up the other ghosts flying around in the area. When you’ve got them all captured, you’ll need to throw down the Ghost Trap toy. It’ll open up and suck up any ghosts flying around, rewarding you with studs when you do so. It’s not on par with the official Ghostbusters game, but you wouldn’t expect it to be in a LEGO game. Instead it’s a nice change from puzzle solving and is enjoyable when it pops up in different levels and adventure worlds.
It’s especially fun in this particular level because the other Ghostbusters are present in the level as well. You can’t switch between them, but they’ll add their proton streams to yours which makes things feel extra hectic, and there’s some banter between the group like there is in the movie. The hotel sequence is just as chaotic and fun as you’d expect it to be, with ghosts flying around and proton beams spraying all over the place and wrecking everything.
Don’t cross the streams!
The other main section of the level is when the team work their way through Dana’s apartment building, ending in a climactic battle against Gozer. This battle has multiple stages and is by far the strongest ending out of all the Year 1 Level Packs. However, in addition to these main bits of the level there’s also some filler that’s more hit-and-miss. Some of these are ok – there’s a relaxed sequence where you set-up the containment unit so that it’s ready to store Slimer and the other ghosts from the hotel, which I enjoyed. It added to the experience of being a Ghostbuster by capturing the feeling of the day-to-day bits of the job. However there’s a couple of dull sections in here that feel like they were only added to make the level feel longer. These sections see you driving to or from a job, and are totally linear trips around New York. Occasionally you’ll be stopped for a simple puzzle or to catch some ghosts, but there’s no hidden collectibles or anything in these segments – they’re just kind of… there. They lack the care and charm that’s normally present in LEGO levels.
Some ghosts block the path on the way to Dana’s apartment
All in all the level is a good adaptation of the movie considering they had to condense it so much. The presentation is a bit wanting due to having to use archive audio. It’s understandable why they did – it would be impossible to reunite the whole cast – but the LEGO games that use archive audio rather than recording new dialogue or giving it the silent movie treatment always feel a bit off – more like “____ recreated in LEGO!” videos on YouTube than something official. The dialogue and the way it’s delivered doesn’t always fit with the tone and pacing of the gameplay, and because it all serves to just recreate the movie it’s not as funny – you’ve heard these jokes before, you want to see an original take on things. LEGO The Force Awakens used new dialogue fantastically to retell the move while bringing something new. There’s also a lot of odd omissions in this pack – a fair few iconic lines are missing (No “He slimed me!” or “Are you a god?”) and Winston’s presence in the events is almost non-existent. But if you’re wanting to play through the events of the movie and bust some ghosts you likely won’t be disappointed.
Let’s roast some marshmallow
Playing as Venkman outside of the level will allow you to melt gold LEGO and, of course, bust ghosts. He’s normally used in conjunction with the Ghost Trap toy because without it you can’t trap the ghosts, and can only clump them together and move them away. You’ll need to have the trap on hand because a full one can be used to power certain devices. It’s not something you’re likely to keep on the Toy Pad for extended periods though because trapping ghosts is its sole purpose (or perhaps that should be ‘soul’ purpose in this case). A cool feature unlocked by completing the included level is to be able to swap to any of the other three Ghostbusters at will, who have their own voices and animations (but no new abilities).
The Ghost Trap’s rebuilds aren’t especially useful as its primary use is always to trap ghosts. Its second form can be used to trap all kinds of enemies in addition to ghosts, but only if you remove it from the Toy Pad when they’re nearby. Doing so will reward you with hearts, but it’s a bit too gimmicky to be of any use. Its final form is to turn it into a giant proton laser. This seemed like a good idea because now any character could use a proton stream on ghosts, but as soon as you change the turret back into the ghost trap the ghosts get freed, which makes it a bit pointless. In this form it can also melt gold LEGO but since you can already do that much more conveniently with Venkman this isn’t a big deal. The Ecto 1 vehicle fares much better in this regard. Its first form is just a standard car that can activate Accelerator Switches, but it has an incredibly definitive bonus ability – it will turn on the iconic siren if you hold down the left bumper. In its second form it turns into a fire truck-like vehicle that can pull tow bars and spray water (an ability that’s quite rare) and in its final form it becomes a submarine that can blow up silver LEGO above and underwater. The physical LEGO is great too, I have both of them on display.
The Ghostbusters Adventure World is accessible through two other Fun Packs, but you can also get it through the Ghostbusters Level Pack. It throws you into a spooky New York, with a river of slime running underneath it and dark clouds in the sky above a certain apartment building. Oh, and the Titanic arrived – it’s wedged firmly through the centre of the city. It’s a great Adventure World for fans of the series as you’ll get to visit key locations and interact with different characters. You can co-operate with the Grey Lady in the library to solve a puzzle, and help Vigo assemble an army of evil in what is one of my favourite quests in the game. You can’t go inside the Sedgewick Hotel though, which was a bummer. The puzzles are comparable to other worlds, but the world won’t stand out much to those who aren’t fans. The issues I had with this world were that the races weren’t great and a lot of areas look really similar so it’s easy to lose your way.
Ray… we’d like to shoot the monster. Could you move, please?
While it is padded out a bit, the Ghostbusters Level Pack is a run retelling of the classic film. It adds some entertaining ghostbusting mechanics into various levels and lets fans experience the world of Ghostbusters in a new Adventure World. If you’re not big into Ghostbusters then you’ll still be able to enjoy the ghostbusting puzzles, but the Adventure World isn’t likely to leave much of an impression.
This review was written based off a game or game content bought with the author’s own money. Review scores are designed to be directly compared with other expansions in the same series, not other series. We use the full 10 point scale 🙂
