GhostControl Inc.

GhostControl Inc. is a ghost hunting simulator that blends managerial business simulation with turn-based tactical combat and RPG elements. Players run a paranormal elimination company, managing resources, expanding their base, and hiring/training a team. The turn-based combat, reminiscent of classic X-COM, involves weakening and capturing ghosts on client missions. Inspired by ‘The Real Ghostbusters’, the game features a retro pixel-art style, a charming sense of humor, and the unique financial challenge of paying for any property damage caused during ghostly confrontations.

GhostControl Inc.: Review

As a professional game journalist and historian, I have spent decades charting the evolution of genres, the rise and fall of studios, and the emergence of titles that, while perhaps not achieving blockbuster status, nonetheless carve out a unique and enduring niche. It is in this context that we examine GhostControl Inc., a 2013 indie title from German studio bumblebee. This is not merely a review; it is an archaeological dig into a game that represents a specific moment in time—the early days of Kickstarter-funded passion projects, a love letter to the strategy classics of the 1990s, and a conceptual gem that, for all its charm, bears the unmistakable scars of its ambitious, resource-constrained development.

Introduction

In the pantheon of great unrealized video game concepts, a deep, tactical business simulator set in the world of Ghostbusters has long held a place of honor. While numerous action-oriented titles have donned the proton pack, the dream of managing a ghost-hunting startup, balancing books and busting heads, remained largely unfulfilled—until a small team from Germany decided to take matters into their own hands. GhostControl Inc. is that dream made manifest, a turn-based strategy and management hybrid that boldly attempts to fuse the corporate satire of Theme Hospital with the tense, grid-based combat of the original X-COM. Its journey from Kickstarter campaign to Steam release is a microcosm of the indie development scene of its era: brimming with heart, referential humor, and a clear, passionate vision, yet ultimately hampered by the practical realities of budget and scope. This review will argue that GhostControl Inc. is a fascinating, deeply flawed, and ultimately endearing artifact—a game whose conceptual brilliance and undeniable charm shine brightly enough to forgive its significant technical and design shortcomings, securing its place as a cult classic for a very specific audience.

Development History & Context

GhostControl Inc. was born in the crucible of the early 2010s indie boom, a period defined by the dual forces of digital distribution and crowdfunding. Developed by bumblebee and published by Application Systems Heidelberg, the game was successfully funded through a Kickstarter campaign, placing it among a wave of titles that bypassed traditional publishers to connect directly with an audience hungry for nostalgic, genre-driven experiences.

The vision of the core team, led by Game Concept and Artwork lead Tassilo Rau and Game Designer Philipp Klein, was explicitly rooted in a deep affection for classic games. As noted in the game’s own description and echoed by critics, their inspirations were a veritable “greatest hits” of 90s strategy: the original X-COM: UFO Defense for its unforgiving turn-based tactics, Bullfrog’s Theme Hospital for its whimsical business management, and of course, the entire cultural footprint of Ghostbusters and The Real Ghostbusters animated series for its premise and tone. This was not an attempt to reinvent the wheel, but to craft a loving homage, a sentiment perfectly captured by Hardcore Gamer’s observation that this was “by and large what you’d expect the perfect Ghostbusters game to look and sound like if it came out when the film was relevant.”

The technological context is equally important. Built using the Unity engine, the team made a conscious aesthetic choice to employ a “pixelated hand-drawn” isometric style. This “retro look” was both a stylistic nod to the games they revered and a practical solution for a small team, allowing them to create a cohesive visual identity without the need for high-fidelity 3D assets. However, this choice came with its own constraints. The decision to render the core gameplay in a “window the size of a postage stamp,” as one critic pointed out, with a “dull grey gradient” filling the rest of the screen, speaks to the limitations of their resources. The development of GhostControl Inc. was a labor of love, a attempt to recapture the magic of a bygone era with the modern tools—and challenges—of indie game development.

Narrative & Thematic Deep Dive

GhostControl Inc. is not a narrative-driven epic. Its story is a lightweight framework designed to facilitate its core gameplay loops, but it is delivered with a consistent and often hilarious tone. The premise is simple: you are the founder and manager of a fledgling ghost-hunting company in a haunted version of London. The city is plagued by spectral pests, and it’s up to your start-up, “GhostControl Inc.,” to answer the call and turn a profit in the process.

The narrative is primarily advanced through two channels: the mission-generating phone calls and the in-game smartphone’s news feed. The phone system is a notable technical achievement, described by the developers as generating “about 70,000 unique dialogues” from a pool of “800 hand written crazy phone call lines.” This system creates the illusion of a living city with a endless stream of paranormal problems, from haunted toasters to spectral squatters. The writing here, and throughout the game, is packed with what Darkstation called “charm and little references,” including weapon names like the “Spookeball” and employee names such as “Bill Venkman” and “Mr. B.”

However, this strength is also a source of significant weakness. The critical consensus, particularly from Hardcore Gamer, was that the script was “littered with innumerable typos and grammatical errors, and almost every sentence sounds awkward and unnatural.” This suggests a potential struggle with localization, a common challenge for non-native English speaking development teams. The thematic core of the game is one of entrepreneurial spirit in the face of the absurd. It explores the mundane reality of running a service-based business, even when that service is capturing Class-5 Free-Roaming Vapors. You are not a superhero; you are a small business owner who has to worry about fuel costs, equipment repairs, hospital bills for your staff, and competitors snatching your contracts. This juxtaposition of the supernatural and the corporate is the game’s most compelling thematic through-line, even if its execution is occasionally undermined by its rough-around-the-edges presentation.

Gameplay Mechanics & Systems

GhostControl Inc.‘s gameplay is a bifurcated experience, split between a strategic business management layer and a tactical turn-based combat layer. It is in the synthesis—and occasional friction—between these two halves that the game truly lives and dies.

The Business Layer:
This plays out on a pixel-art map of London, where you manage your headquarters, purchase equipment, hire and train staff, and respond to incoming job offers. The comparison to a “minimal version of Theme Hospital” is apt. You must carefully manage your finances, as every decision has a cost: a faster car consumes more fuel, a larger office costs more rent, and, in a brilliant twist, any property damage caused during a mission—by either your team or the ghosts—comes out of your pocket. This adds a delicious layer of risk-reward to every contract. The presence of AI-driven rival companies that will snatch jobs if you’re too slow adds a sense of urgency to the strategic map, pushing you to expand and upgrade to stay competitive.

The Combat Layer:
This is the heart of the game and the source of its most direct comparisons to the “old X-COM games.” Missions take place on isometric, grid-based maps of locations like apartments, graveyards, and offices. Each of your hunters has two Action Points per turn to move, attack, or deploy traps. The combat system introduces several clever, thematically appropriate mechanics:
* Sanity: Replacing a traditional health bar, your hunters have a Sanity meter. As they take damage from ghosts, their sanity depletes, and there’s a chance they will panic and flee, removing them from the mission.
* Environmental Interaction: Light switches and doors play a crucial role. Darkness limits visibility, forcing tactical decisions about when to reveal yourself.
* The Capture Loop: Unlike X-COM‘s lethal combat, the goal here is capture. Ghosts must be weakened with various beams (which can push or pull them) before they can be sucked into traps. Each trap has limited capacity, and captured ghosts can be converted into Ectoplasm at your HQ for a resource rebate.

Despite these innovative ideas, the combat system is plagued by a lack of transparency. As Hardcore Gamer noted, “the only percentage that’s actually transparent is the base efficacy of a trap or gun.” The game obfuscates the hit chances and stat influences that are the bedrock of any great tactics game, leading to moments of frustration where a ghost with 0 health can linger for turns, evading a trap through an unseen dice roll.

The Flawed Interface:
The single greatest point of criticism across all reviews is the User Interface. It is described as “arbitrary” and “painful.” Key complaints include:
* A clunky, multi-window inventory system for each hunter.
* Unreliable tooltips that vanish with the slightest mouse movement.
* The game’s crucial smartphone menu being placed in the bottom-right corner, a notorious hotspot for Steam and OS notifications that can accidentally minimize the game.
* Visual clutter where environmental objects can obscure ghosts and traps, breaking the clarity essential for tactical play.

These UI issues represent a fundamental failure of polish that actively works against the game’s strategic depth, creating a barrier that many players could not overcome.

World-Building, Art & Sound

Where GhostControl Inc. soars is in its cohesive and charming audiovisual presentation. The world is built through a consistent commitment to its retro-futuristic, slightly goofy aesthetic.

Visual Direction:
The hand-drawn, 16-bit isometric pixel art is the game’s crown jewel. It successfully captures the look of the late-90s strategy titles it emulates. The ghost designs are varied and imaginative, and the London landmarks are instantly recognizable in their pixelated form. The art is “brimming with good fun,” as Darkstation put it. However, the budget constraints are visible here too. The environmental tilesets are limited and repeat frequently, and the decision to frame the core gameplay with such significant unused screen space feels like an unfortunate compromise.

Sound Design:
The audio experience is a highlight. The soundtrack, composed by Sound of Games, is a collection of “funky 80s-style chiptunes with a spooky edge” that perfectly complements the action. The sound effects are serviceable and thematic. The game also features “over 350 funny context sensitive shoutouts” from professional voice actors. While this adds to the charm initially, the extremely limited pool of lines—phrases like “Controlling makes me feel good!” and “There’s smoke in your eye!”—becomes grating with repetition, a point noted by several critics as a source of diminishing sanity for the player as well as their hunters.

The world of GhostControl Inc. is one of earnest, uncynical fun. It builds a universe that feels like a lost episode of The Real Ghostbusters, where the paranormal is a manageable, if chaotic, small-business opportunity.

Reception & Legacy

Upon its release in late 2013 and early 2014, GhostControl Inc. received a muted but generally positive critical reception. It holds a 70% average from critics on MobyGames based on two reviews, with Darkstation and XGN both praising its charm, nostalgia, and core concept. User reception, particularly on Steam where it maintains a “Mixed” rating (69% positive from 146 reviews), and Metacritic, where users gave it a 7.8, tells a more nuanced story. Players adored the concept and aesthetic but were frequently critical of the UI flaws, repetitive elements, and lack of mechanical polish.

The legacy of GhostControl Inc. is not one of broad industry influence, but of cult status and conceptual proof. It stands as a testament to the power of Kickstarter to bring niche ideas to life. It proved that there was an audience for a complex, tactical ghost-busting simulation, a premise that major publishers had long ignored. In the years since its release, we have seen a renaissance of turn-based tactics games (XCOM 2, Phoenix Point, Wasteland 3) and deeply engaging management sims, but few have attempted to blend the two genres with the specific, quirky charm of GhostControl Inc..

Its influence is subtle, residing in the continued willingness of indie developers to mine the past for inspiration and to serve underserved genres. It is a precursor to the ethos of games like Xenonauts and Phantom Brigade—titles that prioritize a specific, hardcore vision over mass-market appeal.

Conclusion

GhostControl Inc. is a game of fascinating contradictions. It is a title crafted with immense love and clear vision, yet it is undeniably rough around the edges. It features deep, engaging tactical combat, but obfuscates the rules governing it. It presents a wonderfully charming world, then hampers exploration of that world with a clunky interface.

To dismiss it for its flaws, however, is to miss the point. This is a game made by fans, for fans. It is a heartfelt love letter to the strategy classics of the 1990s, a successful Kickstarter story, and a compelling proof-of-concept for a genre mash-up that still feels unique. For the patient player, the one who values charm and ideas over polish and precision, GhostControl Inc. offers a deeply satisfying and memorable experience. It is not the flawless Ghostbusters strategy game of our dreams, but it is a brave, earnest, and often delightful attempt to build it. In the annals of video game history, it deserves to be remembered not as a masterpiece, but as a cherished cult classic—a little ghost of a game that, against all odds, still manages to feel good.