Coming from the makers of Primal, Ghosthunter unsurprisingly looks a lot like the it, but plays a rather different combination of shooting action, stealth, exploration and a sort of grown-up Luigi's Mansion type ghost hunt (think: solo Ghostbuster without the overalls). Heavily influenced by just about every horror movie ever made, the cinematic styling of Ghosthunter combines top production values with solid gameplay, and draws you into a macabre, supernatural setting full of amazing looking ghosts and ghoulies.

The Ghosthunter of the title is Lazarus Jones (that'll be you), a Detroit cop turned supernatural demon hunter. Whilst on a routine check on a derelict High School, Lazarus and his partner (Anna Steele) stumble across the ghost research laboratory of Professor Peter Richmond. Whilst mooching around the spooky old building Laz accidentally releases a multitude of ghosties and supernatural monsters that unsurprisingly begin to wreak havoc. One of the ghosts abducts Steele and whisks her off to an unknown location, and another fuses with Lazarus - she's a cute blonde called Astral and you get to control her too. Laz is drafted as the world's new ghosthunter by the Professor's amazing computer array thingymachine, and off he sets to save Anna and find out more about Astral and Richmond….

   

Lazarus is controlled in a standard way. Left stick moves him and the right stick directs the camera or your view if you switch to first person (for some reason you can't move around in first person though, like MGS2). R1 fires the selected weapon and R2 throws Lazarus's cool grenade (it's not a grenade at all, it's a trap a lot like the ghost traps in Ghostbusters). Once a ghost is weak enough the trap will suck 'em up, and you can then examine them and even tease them on the array when you get back to the lab. Laz gets a selection of weapons; his Police issue pistol, a shotgun and a selection of sci-fi weapons designed by the Professor.

The ghostly creatures range from ethereal and insubstantial blue spooks to monstrous Revenants (who roar a lot and tend to scare the living daylights out of you). If you get flanked you can do a handy 180° quick turn with a double click of R3. Some look like people and some (poltergeists) are invisible - you'll have to figure out ways of making them appear so you can weaken them and trap them. A zoomable set of goggles helps spot certain ghosts at distance, and later even allow you to see poltergeists, but annoyingly this feature can only be used in the first person view. The levels are nicely varied and occasionally manage to scare almost as well as the Silent Hills, and every now and then you'll have to fight a boss character - but these are rarely all that tough to defeat and along with the basic puzzles you genuinely get a feeling that Studio Cambridge want you to see the whole of their impressive game.

   

Well, as you can see from the screens Ghosthunter looks great from start to finish. Spooky derelict school buildings, swamps, hi-tech installations, a junkyard and a prison (part of which looks remarkably like Rainbow Six 3's Alcatraz) are all highly detailed and convincing. And although Lazarus can't swim (maybe he could go get some lessons with Tommy Vercetti?) the rippling water effects in Ghosthunter are remarkable; along with the flowing fabrics they're easily the best we've seen in an adventure game. Laz is well animated and the weapon effects and the ghosts themselves are stunning to behold - the distortion effect when you trap a ghost never fails to impress.

The rare stealth sections in which you have to avoid the adversary are quite well done (if you back against a wall and press X then Laz will 'wall hug') and sneaking and sniping sections all add a nice amount of variety. At certain points you will be able to summon Astral; she can float around just about anywhere and gains certain abilities from various other ghosts that Lazarus captures (although sadly she isn't one of those ghosts that can handily walk through walls and doors).

   

The nice variations in gameplay (echos of Tomb Raider, Splinter Cell and Luigi's Mansion), superb graphics, excellent voice acting (including Sir Michael Gambon as the arch-baddie) and music mean that you'll want to play Ghosthunter right to the end. Only a few minor camera, graphical and sound hiccups, and the fact that idiot icons flash up to tell you what actions are possible even on the final level, long, LONG after you need them to ("Wall Hug") spoil the sheen of a truly spectacular game. If you liked Primal you'll love this game - if you were disappointed with Tomb Raider Angel of Darkness (and who wasn't?), you'll probably like Ghosthunter too.