[ad_1]
In a sea of sequels, Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden has a wonderfully new story to tell. I didn’t know I wanted to play a ghost-hunting detective in a supernatural, alternate-reality version of 17th-century America, but developer Don’t Nod delivers such a compelling mix of death, drama, and romance that it made me wonder why. No. One had tried it before. It also mostly sticks the landing with the things it attempts beyond that story, from the excellent concept of swapping between your living and spectral protagonists, to its absolutely stellar investigation mechanics. That said, other parts of Banishers aren’t as original, borrowing most of its structure from many previous action-adventure games, but with stiff, repetitive combat that can’t resist those inspirations. Still, for those in favor of strange games filled with heartbreak and ectoplasm, there’s plenty to enjoy here.
Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden is the latest entry in a genre I’ve unwisely called “rift crawlers.” You know, those third-person games with a serious story and a slow pace, where two people walk around and talk to each other in hushed tones between combat encounters, and for some reason you spend a lot of time squeezing through the cracks to get it done. from one place to another? I’m talking about God of War, A Plague Tale, The Last of Us – the classic rift trackers. Anyway, while I quite enjoy the occasional sad duo whispering through the rubble, at this point the formula is also quite fleshed out. In the case of Banishers, it made the adventure feel more familiar than I would have liked (despite a refreshingly original setting), due to its firm adherence to that fashion model.
While it certainly doesn’t win points for innovation, Banishers executes this plan quite well, with solid writing, likable characters, and some good twists and turns in the story to create an enjoyable cross-country odyssey. Playing as Red, the overly emotional Scot with hair that’s too cool for the time, and Antea, the short-tempered master ghost hunter who is a ghost, you’ll travel around talking to all sorts of pilgrims to solve her hauntings. As occult experts called Banishers in a mystical 17th century alternate reality, your job is to search for ghosts, help them resolve their unfinished business, and then send them off to the afterlife, and that ends up being exactly as fun as it sounds. Seriously, who doesn’t want to be a ghost hunter and go around banishing spirits like an “Oops, all the ghosts” Geralt of Rivia?
As with many similar games, Banishers suffers from some pacing issues. There are many repeated story beats in which our heroes travel the same terrain as they process their grief and discuss their dilemma, and you will be asked to crawl through dark places, climb mountain sides, and wait in extremely slow elevators while your characters They talk about how annoying death is. Fortunately, most of the time the writing is good enough to justify that pace, but I admit that I started to get distracted the eleventh or twelfth time I had to listen to them chatter about spectral networks. There are also a lot of unnecessary little pauses that get boring, like when every time you rest at a campfire to level up or use a fast travel point, your characters stare at each other lovingly for a few seconds before finally standing up. foot. There were several times where I sat down to watch that only to realize I had fast traveled to the wrong campfire and had to go back and watch it again.
Beyond taking on disturbing cases and working to save the city of New Eden from its nightmarish fate, you’ll also be able to scour the map for optional combat encounters, puzzles to solve, and side quests to tackle, all of which are pretty solid. . Special combat scenarios offer an extra level of challenge for those seeking it by adding modifiers that require you to change your playstyle, such as one where only certain types of attacks deal real damage, and puzzles offer additional loot for help you. Upgrade your equipment by solving fairly simple environmental logic problems (simple things like “move this minecart here” or “shoot this magic target”). The side quests allow you to delve a little deeper into the characters you meet throughout the main quest, with some very quality writing and smaller stories to interact with, although you don’t have much incentive to tackle them other than learning a little more about the world.
The supernatural reinvention of colonial America is a fantastic backdrop for the story of love and loss at the center of things, with death and the afterlife constantly stalking our paranormal heroes. When Antea dies early in the story and becomes a ghost, Red finds himself working in tandem with the very thing he’s supposed to fight, creating a really cool dilemma where you’ll have to decide to stay the course and work. to achieve your goal. the definitive banishment of her partner or abandoning her duties in an attempt to bring her back to life. Wandering the countryside to help others resolve their own losses as the Banisher and uncovering the sordid history of New Eden gives you plenty of opportunity to decide what kind of ghost hunter you want to be, with plenty of morally gray situations to contend with. We will be asked to give our opinion.
However, it’s a little disappointing that, with all the interesting supernatural mysteries they create, you only have three unnuanced options to choose from at the end of each case. You can give the ghost its ascendancy, which is a friendly way of sending it to the afterlife, banish the ghost, which is basically an aggressive way of doing the same thing, or you can blame the living, kill them, and absorb their essence in your quest for power. . The only way to resurrect your love is to sacrifice as many people as possible, so blaming the living is mostly presented as an “evil” choice, even when some of these humans totally deserve to be caught. Meanwhile, banishing or ascending the dead is generally framed as two forms of right, even in cases where a living person is clearly wrong.
In many scenarios, having to choose just one of those conclusions feels like you’re being unnecessarily forced to choose a side or, worse yet, you’re simply choosing the option that will lead you to whatever ending you’re aiming for. For example, in one case I encountered two equally guilty twins, one who had been murdered while the other was still alive, and I had to choose between getting rid of the ghost or killing the living twin. It would have been nice to have the option to banish the ghost. and turn human beings into authorities, or address that situation in many more nuanced ways.
That doesn’t stop it from being great to step into the shoes of two ghost investigators, as you switch between your living and dead characters to make use of their unique abilities as you search for clues, track your quarry through the forest, and interview suspects. As Red, you can perform drug rituals to do things like see visions of the past through psychometry or force spirits to reveal themselves to you, while as Antea you can see invisible objects hidden in the world and use your incredible and somewhat terrifying . spectral powers to manipulate the environment, such as letting out a banshee scream to destroy barriers. Switching between the two perspectives to uncover clues, overcome simple logic puzzles, and solve mysteries is easily the best part of Banishers, and it made me eager to tackle each new disturbing case that appeared on my map.
The instant character swapping also carries over to combat, where you’ll fight with sword and rifle as Red or throw ghost haymakers and use ghost powers as Antea, and the concept succeeds there too. What starts out as a fairly basic system of dodging, parrying, and light or heavy attacks gradually evolves into something much more compelling as you unlock abilities throughout the adventure. For example, I love the unlockable perks that allow you to time swapping between characters in the middle of a hit combo to activate a special attack, which also provides a window of invulnerability when one character is replaced by another. In the end, I was able to switch between the two without interrupting my assault, triggering special maneuvers along the way, like Antea’s ability to jump across the map to punch someone in the face.
Similarly, there are a lot of interesting opportunities to customize your team loadout and skill tree perks to fit your playstyle, such as how I would take all the powers that gave me buffs at the cost of downtime. longer skill cooldowns, but then I supplemented them with equipment that made it easier for me. I was getting stronger for every power that was currently waiting on a cooldown. And since you have the ability to change all of your skills and equipment every time you rest at a campfire, you have a lot of freedom to completely change your playstyle as you progress without getting locked into a specific build or having to pay something obscene. Skill tree reset fee.
The combat definitely has some hiccups, however, as controlling your characters often proves quite difficult. The movement can be slow or completely unresponsive as it gets caught on the smallest things as it rolls. The camera can also move erratically at times, especially when trying to focus on something with the Banishers’ locking system. I was playing on the hardest difficulty and died on more than one occasion when the lock-on system didn’t work or I strangely pointed the camera away from the enemy. Spawn armies are still fun to take on, but the combat definitely lacks a certain level of polish that can be quite frustrating.
Enemy variety also became painfully sparse less than half of the roughly 30 hours it took me to complete the story, as there are only a handful of enemy types that are added too slowly to keep the combat fresh. The wolves, introduced early on, became especially boring when I was still watching them 20 hours later, and I can’t even begin to describe how many of those poor furry beasts I sent whimpering into the great beyond. That said, most of the monsters in the mix are at least interesting to fight, from wraiths that dive into the corpses of other enemies to reanimate them, to skeletal marksmen that keep their distance and try to take you out with a rifle. I just wish I didn’t have to see the same undead faces so often, because eventually even my favorites had become irritations.