3.5/5 ★ – JacccBlaccc's review of Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden.

Finished: Banishers Ghosts of New Eden Platform: Playstation 5 Pro Time: 35 Hours Verdict: GOOD Foreword: Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden is an Action RPG from the studio Don't Nod with a heavy focus on decision making and storytelling. The Gameplay is SOLID It has a relatively wide variety of gameplay components. From its Exploration, Combat, Hunting Cases to the Dialog Options. The Controls are SOLID. They feel alright but not as tight and precise as I would want that to be. The Exploration is SUPERB You can find loot, upgrades and side content in a very rich explorable world. It has that nice and neat reward sensation Banishers also has the DNA of a Metroidvania game in the sense of learning new progression bound abilities or finding necessary loot to unlock certain location sights that enhances that exploration. The Ritual Mechanic is SOLID It is a mechanic that requires resources and your attention. A wrong ritual, wastes resources too. It assists Red mac Raith to summon a brief look into the past, a ghost you can talk to, a boss, remove a curse or to open the gate to the Void. The Hunting Case is GREAT and the core of the game. It combines gameplay elements, stories and dialogs & texts to create wealthy adventures. You investigate NPCs and its environments about death cases and search for clues and a conclusion that climaxes with a choice you have to make at the end of each hunting case. Those choices pave different pathways of characters and communities. The Dialog Options are AMAZING. They define outcomes and change entire plot points, communities and so much more. They are crucial and revoke possible replays. The Combat is UNDERWHELMING. It has a lot of polish associated issues. The lack of weight feeling, the lack of physical collusion and the lack of satisfaction when dashing, blocking or parrying. All these major issues seem to be tech bound. The creative things are all fantastic and uplifts a lot of the annoying negative aspects. The dual combat component in which you can swamp seamlessly between Red and Antea. You can execute combined combos to enhance damage upon enemies and Bosses. Nonetheless, Antea can only be controlled as her Spirit Meter is filled up, which is done by Red through attacks, blocks and parries. It creates this tactical approach while fighting. Aside from the Spirit Meter, Red has also the Banish Gauge. Once filled up through combat activity, it can cause tremendous damage upon encounters. The Bosses are GOOD and by far the best encounters to come across in Banishers Ghosts of New Eden. They excel in designs and sounds. Their fights bring variations and some challenges to the table. Their arenas are solid. A few include minions during battle which is a massive minus and holds back any higher regard for me. The Enemy Types are DISAPPOINTING They are repetitive as there is barely any quantity. They are dull as there is barely quality in their movesets or designs. The Health Bar has some ideas for it. As an enemy type may summon another layer on top of other enemy types' health bar to aggravate the fight and ask to have a tactical approach in battle. The Main Quest Designs are GOOD. You encounter a handful of enemy types a little bit too excessive because of the low quality of the combat itself. Encounter bosses with the same issues. A good change of pacing with skill challenges that block roads to progress, held a bit back by its controls. You initiate investigations, have amazingly written and performed conversations with characters to gain knowledge and perspectives of or about fellow townsfolk. You search for clues and find specific items that are critical for you to make calls to close the hunting cases that cause fundamental variance in the world. You have to pick up artefacts to gain knowledge to continue reaching your objective. The Side Content is SUPERB. It withholds summon challenges to battle a horde for rare materials and XP, void challenges to confront mini bosses directly consequential of optional dialogs out of hunting cases. It has skill challenges to break unpassable locations The skill challenges are nice ideas on paper but tainted by the sluggish controls. You travel and climb and squeeze yourself through sections. Come across encounters whose unfortunately unavoidable and unescable. Interact with objects, environments and characters. Find collectables to break curses to gain rare items. Initiate memorable side stories, investigate intriguing cases, fight and make crucial decisions. The Upgrade Systems are SUPERB. The upgrade tree replicates the core of Banishers with choice making. As you can only pick one upgrade among two to choose from of each upgoing branch. Youre up to pick your preferred upgrade to use in fights or an upgrade that supports your build. The base of the weaponry, armor and Gear upgrades are loot material. They are findable through exploration, as rewards through battle and through purchase from merchants. The weapons, armors and gears have their own stats that can be used to build preferred builds. The Loot System is GOOD. There is all kinds of loot through battle, exploration, challenges and purchases. They are mostly for upgrade materials or upgrades themselves. They also can be used to sell. On the flipside, the merchants' economy is bad. Too expensive to buy, too cheap to sell. The Story in Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden is AMAZING. It is about a world full of supernatural beings. A threat that demands a counterpart - banishers. People trained in the technique to help deads to leave the place of the living. By free will or by force. As the plot proceeds, you come to understand that the sins and sinners may have summoned the bane that the people suffer from are their own. The Plot is GREAT Red mac Raith and Antea Duante, two Banishers that were commissioned to help the people of New Eden to Ban the curse that lingers in town. Once confronted by the Nightmare - it kills Antea and withholds her body while Red is left out to die. Yet, being saved to be given a chance to reclaim his late wife's body to help her to either return to life or to ascend to another journey. The Screenplay is AMAZING. It starts with the arrival in New Eden, where you get to know Red and Antea in their quest of a plea to ban evil in town. It uses brilliant pacing to let the story of the protagonists, antagonist and the people to ripen. The Background stories of Red and Antea are cleverly narrated by each other to each other, where you are the spectator as each character has gaps of each other's pasts as well as the player. As the procession continues, you learn about the Nightmare through vistas of other townsfolk. It's through those various lenses, each provides a handful of puzzle pieces for you to get it together and have an understanding of the Nightmares origin and the understanding of the Nightmare itself. The Characters are AMAZING. There are dozens of characters across the lands. They are believable and relatable. They have personalities with tendencies and secrets. They offer intriguing insights, storylines, and rewards. Their designs are fully believable and fit the tone of the game. Its amazing to get to know them, help them grow and find their peace or punishment. From the quantity to the quality, amazing. The Voice Acting is GREAT. The actors and actresses deliver pinpoint accuracy to convey the characters to life. Whether a coldhearted huntress who tries her best to make the strong survive and protect her sister. A sorrow plagued cobbler vegetates to insanity. A hopeless Captain who counts his last days. A freed slave who tries to find his footing in the new world. A mourning banisher with an attempt not to show his emotions to fulfill his late wife's wish. There is such a wide spectrum of characters and emotions throughout the game, its impressive to see the characters' introductions, growths and fates in that high vocal level. The Dialogs and Texts are AMAZING. They are interesting to listen to. Fantastically written for each character and fantastically incorporated with their personalities in all kinds of situations. They suit the language according to its alternative timeline. There's a ton of dialogs, not always important but always reasonable for being keystones to its world and background building. The Texts serve the same purpose. You get insights of its previous occurrences, lay of the lands and unspoken or dissimulated truths. The World Building is SUPERB. It portrays various scenery. A gloomy town. A populous growing village in the forests. A camp in the bleak of snowy mountains and mines. A townlet between vigorous fields and a dwelling well. The Level Designs are AMAZING. It doesn't have an open world but rather open sections. The dna core of the level design are straight out of the Playbook of God of War 2018. It uses not only horizontal levels to create landscapes but has a strong focus on vertical level designs to make the experience bigger and better. The world feels gigantic with the choice of that level design style. It has almost everywhere junctions in its open sections to explore and chart. The choices of expanded pathways are superbly chosen, the placements of objects, loot and points of interest are pretty much perfect with the exception of encounter placements, as they seem to be excessive from time to time. CGI / Cut-Scenes are GREAT. The cinematography, while dialogs are being performed, are great. It regularly alters camera shots and deletes the monoton DNA of that nature. The transition from the World to the Void and vice versa is super cool and reflects the understanding of the director about the camera work. The moment to moment story telling over CGI and Cut-Scenes have high standards from wide shots and close-ups. The action scenes are captivating and entertaining. The Graphics are GOOD. Don't Nod tries to compete with Triple A graphical standards and does surprisingly a good job at that. The Animations are AVERAGE overall. That aspect varies from much worse to a bit better. There is much room to improve on very crucial moments that would give the experiences the final touch. It's not creative linked but points out to be either a budget or proficiency problem. The OST is SUPERB The Audio Design is GOOD It translates the given sound backdrop very well. The working people at a campsite. The Fauna in the forests and distances. The Ques of the Ghost world indicating a ghost skill task or secret. Very GOOD The UI is SUPERB. It looks slick and clean especially, the Gear upgrade UI being dynamic of Red and Antea. Final Word: Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden reaches high standards in almost all creative aspects but falls strongly short in pretty much all technical elements and a videogame got to have both to have high praises. Banishers is sitting right at the fence of greatness and trash. There is so much creativity and inventiveness completely tainted by the lack of polish wherever rooted by budget or proficiency. Gameplay SOLID Combat UNDERWHELMING Bosses GOOD Enemy Types DISAPPOINTING Main Quest Designs GOOD Side Content Designs SUPERB Upgrade Systems SUPERB Loot System GOOD Story AMAZING Plot GREAT Screenplay AMAZING Characters AMAZING Voice Acting SUPERB Dialogs & Texts AMAZING World Building SUPERB Level Designs AMAZING CGI / Cut-Scenes GREAT Graphics GOOD Animations SOLID OST SUPERB Audio Design GOOD EXTRAS UI SUPERB UI - Gear Upgrade UI GREAT BREAKDOWN Gameplay - Controls SOLID Gameplay - Exploration GREAT Gameplay - Ritual Mechanic SUPERB Gameplay - Haunting Case AMAZING Gameplay - Dialogs Options AMAZING Story - World Premise AMAZING Story - Side Stories AMAZING