My old Ghostbusters 3 plot and game ideas, just for the fun of it.

This was my idea way before the announcement of GB3 was ever made. I don't know if they talked about the plot yet. This was my idea for what's really more of a do-over of Ghostbusters 2. Sorry for this thread being so random. I just thought some of you may dig it, at the very least, from a "what if" kind of way.

Ghostbusters 2 had the right idea, at the wrong time. Today, everybody has a cell phone. Everybody has seen expertly faked videos and pranks. It is so commonplace to see special effects so well done, people just assume everything too unbelievable is simply fake. That's where the remake of the GB2 plot comes in. People don't believe in the Ghostbusters because they think they're phonies. Everyone simply doesn't believe in ghosts.

The theme song would be an alteration, where the lyrics are at the start of the movie is "I don't in believe in no ghosts."

So in the first movie, they're basically boot strapping a new type of service. They basically succeeded in providing a unique service in a critical time of need. They were heroes. They should have been funded by lots of people, but this was RIGHT before the big tech boom. People simply forget about what happened, or didn't believe it. Perhaps creating lots of conspiracies (sounds familiar?)

So when the ghosts come back, sometime around present day, they're nearly broke and have to do everything themselves. They're slandered by the media. Things are just awful, but the ghosts are showing up again.

So the tech is improved and considerably more modern, but still realistic. They've improvised a lot, using things like wifi-driven Raspberry Pi units connected to ghost traps. The functionality of proton packs have grown. They've modified tazer guns to be single-use proton sidearms. The proton pack is much stronger than early prototypes. Now they resemble the size of automatic weapons. They're still bulky, but don't have the cable attached to a backpack anymore.

The ghostbusters are more like minutemen than plumbers for hire. They're recruitment driven, low pay, teams of often former cops, and other like-trained individuals. Taking out a ghost is no longer rolling up in an attention-getting hearse. They quietly approach areas, using techniques more like a SWAT team.

The ghosts and other-worldly beings are MUCH scarier than before. This is a dark movie. Dark movies sell. The team members will sometimes be nervous because of what they've heard about what they're about to face.

Towards the end of the movie, when society starts catching on that this is actually real, political activists groups start protesting the Ghostbusters. Some groups are calling for protection acts for ghosts. It starts as a growing debate, but gets occasionally violent when Egon (now a leading member of the organization) casually mentions in an interview that captured ghosts could be turned into a source of renewable energy. The churches get involved. Things get heated. Ghosts are starting to show up more and more.

One organization can no longer handle the quantity of ghosts. States are starting to create conflicting laws in regard to handling ghosts. Some are ignoring the problem, some leaving police to deal with the problem untrained and unequipped. Eventually the federal government starts getting involved, the center for disease control, everyone.

Video Game Design Ideas

The game starts out as a simple urban FPS game. You're a new recruit for the G.B. You can pick a background for perks. Maybe you were a cop trained in the war on drugs. As you progress through each mission, the story progresses as old main characters show up in different ways. Egon being the technical leader, Venkman is the management leader, Ray the visionary leader (who probably isn't doing very well emotionally through out this story), Winston finds his place as a leader in recruitment and training. He connects well with new characters, and is often who briefs you going into a mission.

Each mission allows you to invest in supplies, and your massive energy usage.

When you're off the clock, individuals approach you for jobs. Being an individual ghostbuster becomes increasingly challenging and requires you to be skillful with trap strategy.

As you struggle to keep up with the first chapter of missions, the team wishes the public would believe them. Ray realizes every single team member needs to wear devices like Go Pros and quickly and openly document cases as soon as possible in High definition. By sharing constant new HD video, there is no way a creative crew could fake THAT much material. A big part of debriefing a mission is getting the videos back to HQ as soon as possible to upload massive amounts of footage. The public starts believing again, but at what cost.

When the game starts out, the haunted areas are few and far between. The team travels a lot, which costs money.

As the public starts understanding, you have to deal with challenges like getting to a mission in time while protesters try to block your path. As the ghosts get stronger and stronger, your travel to missions can actually be interrupted as you're chased by possessed drivers, and attacked by individuals being haunted.

Once you get closer to the end game, outbreaks of ghosts hit specific (but not all) towns, creating complete havoc. Rioting becomes commonplace once fear and panic strike. You and your team have to head straight into haunted territory like storm chasers, only to get to a wrecked down town completely empty of all life. Sometimes on arrival, you actually meet haunted gangs, serving as guardians the now ghost town. (lol)

The problem with this game concept is that plot can make the scope of the game grow quickly. The key would be to focus on a slow boil, rather than having everything hit the fan all at once.

I doubt any of this would ever happen, either as a film or a game, but this thread was fun to write.

 

Hi,

I like the idea of everybody thinks these things are fake. It has big potential! The government could fuel these thoughts because they want to hide the truth.