The Ghostbusters franchise has been a carefully guarded one since the second movie came and went, but the gang has reunited for Sierra’s upcoming Ghostbusters video game. The preview build at Comic Con 2008 showed promise but there are some flaws that may detract from the experience for people who don’t own their own ghost trap.

Ghostbusters will be a third person action title, with heavy emphasis on using the proton pack and its energy stream to battle spirits and their various manifestations. Fortunately, this is the most fully realized part of the game. It’s satisfying to unload on the undead, and the strong blast (secondary fire) and snare beam are welcome gameplay elements.

If only the game would let you know they exist. Ghostbusters seems to have a big problem with telling the player anything. It’s one thing to let people figure things out for themselves, but it’s another altogether to leave them out of the loop. There’s a scene where you fight a monster that is comprised of library books, which makes sense since the level is set in the New York library. This hulking behemoth of information is, of course, vulnerable to the energy stream, but to finish the creature off you have to use the secondary fire. The game doesn’t even give you a combat tutorial – we watched a man play this part of the demo for 15 minutes before giving the controller away to the next person in line and walking off in visible frustration.

Another interesting addition is the inclusion of a scanning device, much like the one they use in the movies, that the ’busters use to examine environments and objects. There’s a segment very early where scanning a glass case will bring the ghost out of hiding, but there’s not trail or indication of that. Most demo players aimlessly search the massive library foyer until they happen upon it by chance, or give up and move on to another game. It’s a good idea, but the game needs to do a better job teaching players how to utilize it.

The game has a lot going for it in terms of presentation, though. All the main players are back to reprise their roles aside from Rick Moranis, so expect to hear Bill Murray’s cocky sarcasm in full throttle. Dan Akroyd (Ray) has written the game with Harrold Ramis (Egon), and Akroyd has said the game is essentially "Ghostbusters 3." It’s set two years after the last movie. The player is put into the shoes of a nameless rookie Ghostbuster.

Also, the level design is pretty solid, but the game does a poor job indicating where to move onto next. The demo has you searching large rooms and convoluted hallways for open doors frequently. It is admittedly nifty, however, to be walking through the library closed stacks from the first movie and have the bookshelves violently move to close paths off.

Ghostbusters will likely be accepted by fans, but if Sierra needs to do something about its confusing navigation, or at least include a tutorial to teach gamers the game’s features, otherwise it won’t reach the audience it could have.