Now, this is a game that is a clear example of being sandwiched between two bigger releases; Banishers: Ghost of New Eden is a new IP that the marketing will tell you is from the same team behind the Life is Strange games; however, while that is true it’s from the same team under that company who made Vampyr a few years back, which one retrospective felt like a period-based Vampire the Masquerade spin off. That being said, it does have some of the hallmarks that were present in both of those titles: a focus on rich storytelling and engaging characters that you care about, and a gameplay system that is in-between being simple enough to get by and being too complex for its own good and become annoying.
The story takes place in 17th century America in the New England area, where the two protagonists come into the story, Antea, an experienced ghost hunter, and her apprentice, Red Rory. From the start, the game does something that I genuinely liked, and that is established that the two are an established couple; none of this will they or won’t they BS here, and it’s refreshing that a game can acknowledge that not all stories need to be fueled by trying to save a loved one, I said that to myself as the game was slowly starting to back its way out of the door. The two come to New England after receiving a message from an old friend about a ghost problem; they find the friend dead and start to piece together what happened to this small town. The introduction was quite good at getting you to terms with what is at stake; then you find the big evil of the town try to fight, and one of your characters ends up getting killed while the other is just wounded, and you and the corpse are thrown to the opposite side of the map and have to make it back to face the evil again.
This was when I started to see the issues pop up as after spending a good hour playing this game like a detective puzzle-like, it turns into a hack-and-slash affair that I enjoyed for a bit, bringing back memories of those early 2010 games that were made for 12-hour experiences and to see how much dust can be collected on the box after you finish it, and then the gear menu popped up and that’s when the goodwill slowly started to funnel out of me. Because this is not the type of game where you need to spend minutes to figure out which gear you need to equip to get the best out of the combat, when most of the time you can just spam attack and dodge roll like a maniac, and that will do the job, but the gear is there if you want to do the job 5% quicker.
As for the story aspect, which that is what this studio is mostly known for, it is hit and miss because throughout the game, you have the moral choice hanging over your head, and that is if you are going to bring back your dead partner and it would be more impactful if they didn’t spend the first hour constantly telling you that ghost cannot linger on passed their own death, but in this instance, it’s fine, so it’s a lot of mixed messaging. Then you have the tiny moments of moral choice, and they are either black and white or so gray that it can be mistaken for a normal day in London. One example had me deciding if I wanted to bring back a lumberjack that everyone hated and whose wife left him for another guy, and the other guy was the one who did him in. When I went to get the lumberjack story, it was revealed that he was a wifebeater and a terrible person overall, so in the end, I chose whatever because the moral of that one was “no matter what you choose, everyone will be a terrible person”
In the end, this was a game that I felt it overstayed its welcome, and I asked myself this when I hit the 15-hour mark. My first question was, why does this game need to be this long? and by the time I reached the ending, I was nearing a burnout, but I made it to the end and didn’t realize that the tiny choices I had been making throughout the game were deciding which ending I would get, and at that point, I realized that this is not the type of game for me. That is not to say that this was a bad game, far from it; it looks better than most games on the market, and I like when a studio steps out of their comfort zone, that being games out young adults dealing with young adult problems and do something different I have to commend them for it, even if it doesn’t stick the landing. But if this game at all interests you from the marketing or if you are a fan of Vampyr, then you might enjoy this game; as for me, someone who does like story-based games, it didn’t do it for me; too many issues at the end of the day for me to look pass to see the aspects that I did enjoy. But I hope this is a learning moment for Don’t Nod as they take what worked here and put it in a new game with all the fluff cut off; if they do that, then we might get something really good, but here we get a game that will last a weekend and be out of your thoughts by Tuesday Afternoon.
Score: 6 out of 10
Reviewed on PlayStation 5