Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed is IIIFonic’s third asymmetrical game
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Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed was announced and it’s a 4v1 game set after the events of the 2021movie Ghostbusters: Afterlife. I’ve always appreciated games with an asymmetrical formula and it looks like the developers at IIIFonic are back to take another spin of the concept, but this time to make it a more accessible game to reach a wider audience.
With it being a Ghostbusters title alone, the tone is already polar opposites to their previous games - Predator: Hunting Grounds and Friday the 13th, both licensed titles that are also 4v1 and are more about survival and its signature gore. In Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed, it’s already interesting to know that the lone player isn’t just tasked to literally take out the opposing team as they are required to do a few things to secure that W.
When playing as a Ghost, you need to scare civilian AIs in the stage to a point that they will run out in pure terror as this will increase how haunted the building is. Once you’ve fully haunted the place the Ghost player has won. Sounds easy enough, but you do have 4 players constantly searching for you, calming civilians down, doing what they can to undo what the ghost player is doing. Ghosts will also have to worry about rifts which serve as the ghost’s lives because once you get caught by the Ghostbusters, you’ll use up one of these rifts.
These rifts will be hidden in objects within the stage and Ghostbusters can also find them and destroy them, leaving the Ghost player less chances to stay in the game. Ghosts can relocate these rifts to hide them better, so there’s a lot to worry about already.
Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed is flipping the script as instead of 4 players hiding from the strong and capable lone player, it’s the one player that needs to hide and outsmart the team. It looks like a fun but complex game of hide and seek as Ghosts can hide by possessing any object in the game.
IIIfonic isn’t going for the scary route. Ghostbusters was never about being scary. It’s not about it being a multiplayer horror game but simply a fun online game that can be picked up easily by fans of the franchise. The developers have stated that at launch Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed will feature AI for the Ghostbusters side or the Ghost side, making it more accessible already because not everyone wants to be competitive in games like it, or simply don’t want to play with random players.
Interesting stuff, but with IIfonic’s track record of not holding a solid playerbase for their past titles, I’m left a bit skeptical if this game will come out of the gate running. The studio does have the support of Ghost Corps and Columbia Pictures – those responsible for the movies and anything related to the franchise — so that’s a good start.
Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed is slated for a fourth quarter release in 2022 and will be available on PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC (Epic Game Store exclusive).
