It's not surprising that Activision has chosen to release a Ghostbusters game right in time for the movie reboot or that it's a four-player cooperative twin-stick shooter. Really, the only thing truly surprising about the game is how clueless it seems to be about its own genre and license. Ghostbusters is a nearly full-priced release that feels more like a budget bomb.

To put that in context, I actually like the last-gen Ghostbusters games, including the similarly themed four-way, very arcade-like, Sanctum of Slime. It's slight and disposable, but it nailed the old-school multiplayer groove. It wasn't a particularly good game, but it was far and away better than this one.

This new Ghostbusters has none of the redeeming qualities of its predecessor. This romp takes place after the events of the new movie. You don't play any of the that film's Ghostbusters though, instead taking the role of a squad of rookies (just as in the previous game). They're a bit more diverse than usual, at least--two women and two men fill the team--but they're standard archetypes for a multiplayer twin-stick shooter: the big guy is a mini-gun carrying tank, while his buddy is the assault rifle-carrying smart guy. The two ladies offer up proton pack versions of a shotgun and dual pistols.

With a full compliment of human players at the controls, they make a fairly well-rounded team, even if their personalities fail to make a meaningful impression. The game takes you all over New York City and, eventually, beyond. There are treks through a graveyard, cruise ship, hotel, and other haunted locales across 10 stages. Each level plays out the same way: you fight a bunch of the same, smaller ghost baddies, then some larger ones who require switching to the traditional proton beam to weaken them further so you can trap them, and eventually a pattern-based boss ghost. This formula is serviceable at first, but it doesn't take long before you start to feel like you're merely going through the motions, completing uninspiring chores.

You can also switch to the P.K.E. meter during non-combative moments to find secret goodies hidden throughout the level. This dual set-up is the standard boilerplate twin-stick shooter template, which isn't necessarily a terrible thing. The problem here is that Ghostbusters somehow manages to suck the life out of both its own license and gameplay.

To be more specific, Ghostbusters is mind-numbingly boring. Levels are huge--too large for this kind of game--and filled mostly with empty space and confusing, seemingly random designs. Some levels can take over an hour, devoid of interesting environments or fun challenges--it's enough to put you to sleep.

There are half-baked elements that might have improved things with better execution. The upgrade system lets you increase weapons and stats of each character, but the characters start out so ponderously slow that increasing their speed becomes a priority. Even after these upgrades, though, the controls are unresponsive, and shooting ghosts remains cloying.

While each level tends to introduce a couple new enemies, there's very little variety overall. You encounter the same larger mid-boss opponents ad nauseam as the drawn-out levels progress. Even with that sense of repetition, you spend most of your time aimlessly walking around more than actually battling spirits. There are huge arena-sized areas with virtually nothing in them. The P.K.E. meter may initially inspire you to search every corner of a level, but there's little payoff when you do.

And although Ghostbusters uses the Unreal 4 engine, its aesthetics don't redeem its poor accompanying factors. It's trying hard to summon the cel-shaded animated look of Borderlands, but isn't up to the task. The mundane looking ghosts are uninspired and landscapes are basic. The soundtrack, however, evokes the proper nostalgia, making it one of the only standout qualities in an otherwise substandard game. The overall score is surprisingly dramatic, making it much better than any other aspect of the game.

In the end, Ghostbusters has rare moments when it doesn't feel like an utter waste of time. But it's mostly a bizarre slog through mostly empty, overly cumbersome levels full of extreme repetition. Even for devoted fans of the films and four-player co-op shooters, Ghostbusters is a disappointment.

The studio Spiders has long been to Bioware what the SyFy Channel is to Hollywood: it takes a popular big-budget concept and creates an eager but far less grandiose adaptation. All of this remains true of its latest game, The Technomancer. It could be seen as a kind of prequel to an earlier Spiders game, Mars: War Logs. The Technomancer takes place on a colonized Mars, where corporations vie for control against a seedy, crime-filled background. Players take the role of one particular Technomancer--an elite agent with magic-like electricity-based powers--on a quest to discover the secrets of a grand conspiracy. The game is more Total Recall than Mass Effect, but is clearly inspired by Bioware RPGs and CD Projekt Red's Witcher games.

There is a lot to do in The Technomancer. There's an in-depth crafting system wherein you can create new weapons, armor, and items, and then create modifications for each item to increase their power and usefulness. There are multiple fighting styles, each with its own skill tree, which allow for a wide selection of combat strategies. There's a morality system, lots of missions, and an large variety of locations to explore. Indeed, everything--on paper, at least--points to an expansive, if not terribly original Western role-playing experience. There's a lot of activities at your fingertips, but options alone can't save The Technomancer. The problem is simple: the game does a lot of things all at once, just none of them particularly well.

Combat allows for a lot of variety, but pacing is haphazard. You have the option to switch between a staff, shield, and single-handed weapon, or the rogue-based dagger and gun. You can also unleash brilliant blue electrical hell on opponents. Unfortunately, in a game where fighting off multiple opponents at once is the norm, combat just never feels smooth or intuitive. Controls are jerky with almost no subtlety of motion, and overstepping targets happens far too often, leading to missed attacks and frustration. The concept of simply "knocking" enemies out after bashing, stabbing, and electrifying them is especially out of whack.

Unlike Spiders' previous game, Bound by Flame, you can only play as a single male character. The game allows you to customize his look, but it feels like a cheap omission to not allow more variety in how you shape your Technomancer. Though you aren't technically alone on Mars you might as well be. Enemy AI is barebones, exhibiting some decent pathfinding, but enemies mostly just stand around mindlessly attacking. Sadly, ally AI is even worse. They seldom manage to take an enemy down on their own, even when given better gear. At best, they are useful for briefly distracting opponents when you get mobbed, but even then, it's hit-and-miss.

Likewise, the game's presentation is all over the place. Some of the creature bosses look terrific. There are occasional impressive vistas and other sights to see, but close-ups of characters are strangely creepy and reminiscent of pre-Skyrim Elder Scrolls games.

Dialogue and voice acting are frequently awkward, characters are generally stiff in both appearance and behavior, and the morality system really comes down to whether you choose to outright kill defeated (human) opponents or knock them out; nobody bats an eye when you kill creatures and suck up their essence--which acts as a form of currency on Mars.

There's a lot to nitpick about in The Technomancer, but the game also fills a specific niche. This is the B-list version of a big budget RPG. It's almost inspiring how plucky Spiders is in its execution of The Technomancer. It's clearly trying to emulate the range of worlds and playstyles of games like The Witcher 3 and Dragon Age in a sci-fi setting, but isn't quite up to the task. It's buggy, flawed, and, frankly, kind of cheap. This is absolutely a SyFy Channel-grade RPG, with all that implies. Is the Technomancer a good game? Maybe not, but it still manages to have a decided measure of charm anyway.