The biggest draw about the upcoming Ghostbusters: The Video Game has to be that most of the creative talent from the original films have returned to reprise their roles. The official Ghostbusters development blog recently published a lengthy look at how the actors approached returning to their beloved characters, which new characters were created to compliment the cast, why New York City is a character unto itself, and what Bill Murray had to say when he found out that an actor and her character basically share a name.
[Ilyssa Shepard is] in distress but isn’t really a damsel; she’s actually pretty tough, and knows what’s going on when Gozer returns. Ilyssa is a highly respected scientist, an anthropologist expert in Pre-Sumerian cultures and ritual. She knows the mythos of Gozer and the ways of his original worshippers better than just about anyone. She’s been called from her field research to NYC to guest-curate the Natural History Museum’s ‘World of Gozer’ Exhibition.
Societies become fascinated with villains, especially when the actual threat of harm has been removed. To the people of New York, Gozer is the ultimate villain, and there’s a craze for all things Gozerian sweeping through the city at the moment.
Two days before the exhibit opens, something goes wrong at the museum, and something old and terrible is set into motion. It threatens to destroy the Big Apple, for starters, and then take over the world. Ilyssa is used to taking care of herself, but she finds herself in the middle of strange and dangerous events and doesn’t know why. Enter the Ghostbusters to solve the mystery, save the girl, and, hopefully, set things right again.
A note about the name: we really didn’t have anybody particular in mind to play her part when the character was named ‘Ilyssa’ (I think Flint Dille or John Zuur Platten came up with that name, and it stuck through multiple iterations). When we were lucky enough to get Alyssa Milano for the part, ideally we should have renamed the character. But Ernie and Dan had already recorded, so we just kept the name.
Bill Murray called it out: “The character is Ilyssa, and she’s played by Alyssa? You’ve got some real deep talent at the keyboard, huh?”
I should probably reiterate how much I need this game to be good, but chances are that you already know that by now. Instead I'll just restate my hope that Ghostbusters: The Video Game shows every other developer and publisher out there how to create a proper movie tie-in video game and sets the example that keeps us away from quickie cash-in games developed on a rushed schedule. Overly optimistic of me? Maybe so, but I'm ready to believe it.
