3.5/5 ★ – DavidSlack1105's review of Ghost of Tsushima: Iki Island.

Not as strong as the original game but this is still a solid expansion with the amount that it adds in terms of context as well as content as it essentially takes the aspects of the first game that made it work so well and implements them here along new activities that work in adding more to the world such as the animal sanctuaries. The strongest part of this expansion for me is the way that it fleshes out more of Jin's backstory and how this led to the character we meet in the present day, specifically focusing on the death of his father and the guilt he felt over doing nothing about it when he could have helped. This was a good way to continue to develop Jin as a character and to detail even more his struggle with being the Ghost when he feels like he should be living up to his father's legacy and clan instead. I also liked how during the animal sanctuary activities, we got little pieces of dialogue about Jin's mother to add even more to his backstory. My main issue with the expansion, on the other hand, would be that its villain, The Eagle, and her tribe of followers, feel underdeveloped as while The Eagle could have been a really interesting villain considering she focuses on gaining people's trust by 'helping' them face their fears as a way of conquering Iki, she instead just feels like a vehicle for Jin's backstory to be explored and concluded rather than an individual character herself. This isn't really helped by the fact that she isn't given a whole lot of screentime, with her main presence in the game being a narrator when Jin has visions caused by her poison before eventually having the usual boss battle duel with her to end the game meaning she doesn't really evolve beyond the typical villain archetype. Other new characters such as Fune and Tenzo don't necessarily have the same impact as the ones we met previously in the main game as not only do they have much less time to develop than those characters but they also don't get a whole lot of time here, especially because they could have been explored a lot more but they're still decent additions. However, Iki Island does make up for that with how big it is as well as how much side content it offers to allow for time spent away from the main quests and like the main game, the graphics do not disappoint. While this isn't as strong as I would have hoped it to be, Iki Island is still a good expansion to Ghost of Tsushima, particularly in how it expands upon the character of Jin, as well as the threat of the Mongols at that time but it is weakened by its lack of strong new characters, particularly evident in its villain, The Eagle.