Ghosthunter

Ghosthunter is a third-person shooter in which players control the protagonist, Lazarus Jones, with the left analog stick. The right analog stick is used to move the camera, or adjust aim when in combat or first-person mode. When in default third-person mode, Jones has a full range of movement, but he cannot shoot. To do so, the player must enter combat mode, which places a crosshair on screen.

When in combat mode, Jones' lateral motion changes to strafing, and he moves slower. Jones can also shoot whilst in first-person mode, although he is unable to move. The game features two types of ammo; normal ammo for the handgun and shotgun, and "ghost energy" for the other weapons. Ghost energy can be collected in the form of orbs found throughout the game and dropped by defeated enemies.

The game begins at Montsaye High, an abandoned school in Detroit, where Detective Lazarus Jones (voiced by Rob Paulsen) of the Detroit Police Department is on his first day on the job. He is on a routine call with his partner, Anna Steele (Nan McNamara), to investigate reports of unusual sounds in the building. Steele explains that several years previously, a professor murdered ten students, and then disappeared. He was never found, nor was any murder weapon, and the coroner was unable to determine the cause of death of any of the victims.

After the two split up to investigate the building, Jones discovers a laboratory in the basement. He presses a switch on a machine, which seems to release a gas of some kind. He is knocked out and when he regains consciousness, he goes to meet Steele in the sewers. However, before he can prevent it, Steele is dragged into a pipe by a transparent man.

The origin of the game was SCE Cambridge Studio's desire to do "a very high concept dark adult, James Bond/Ghostbusters" type game. Each of the team looked to their favorite horror films for inspiration, as well as to other survival horror games. They were also particularly inspired by Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty.

The game was first announced on April 22, 2003, with SCEE revealing a plot outline, the main characters, and the basic game mechanics. It was also revealed that the game would run off a tweaked version of the Primal game engine, with new special effects technology used to produce the game's "cinema-grade effects." Playable demos of a 60% complete build were first shown at the August 2003 Games Convention in Leipzig, with a European release date slated for November. The game was also shown at the September 2003 PlayStation Experience in London.

Ghosthunter received "mixed or average reviews," according to the review aggregation website Metacritic.

Eurogamer's Ronan Jennings argued its only real positive attribute were its graphics, of which he wrote, "there are times in it where I have never seen anything so impressive in a game. As you'd expect, things like texture detail and animation are superb, but it's not these aspects that steal the show. Rather it's the combination of breathtaking lighting and wonderful art that do the trick ... In Ghosthunter, there are certain scenes that made me stop playing and mutter 'my god' to myself."