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WACO, Texas (KWTX) - Release Date| 02/13/2023 Platforms| PS5, Xbox Series S/X and PC

Reviewed on PlayStation 5 | Code provided by publisher

The game industry has been full to bursting with, reboots, remasters, remakes and sequels for a while now. So, every so often a game comes around not to reinvent the industry but to be something new and refreshing. Banisher’s Ghost of New Eden is just that, an ethereal breath of chilling air. The first moments of the game set up the theme so well doing so simply through character moments that allow us to see the basic thesis of each motive and the storytelling only gets more enticing as the game goes on. Don’t Nod has successfully taken me off guard with an adventure game about 1600s American ghost busters. A drama filled, romantic action romp dripping with fantastic concepts, intelligent writing and emotional heart. It’s honestly so nice to see this kind of AA game being made in the ever-expanding glut of AAA games. There is so much stellar work here conceptually, from working as a corporeal to ethereal detective team, with excellently executed investigation mechanics to the incredible way they handle ideas of death and love. I wasn’t a fan of Vampyr, Don’t Nods previous attempt at an action rpg, so I was pleasantly surprised when Banishers clicked for me. Of course, Banishers isn’t without flaws, a good chunk of its gameplay is just riffs on other game’s mechanics or ideas. Where the game thrives is outside the battles, in the quieter more contemplative moments trying to define justice in a morally grey area. A solid action game about ghost therapy full of colonial drama, true love, philosophic grey areas and some talented voice acting all culminating in a world and characters that ironically are hard to say goodbye to.

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Love can overcome anything even death(Don't Nod)

Banishers Ghost of New Eden begins simple enough, two ghost-n-ghoul hunting Banishers are coming to assist with a particularly nasty bit of death lingering. Red Mac Raith and Antea Durate are lovers, mentor and apprentice and partners all rolled into one. Antea is strong willed, but a far more by the books, practical woman. Which counters and entangles with the more heart on his sleeve mentality of Red. They set upon the town of New Eden to begin the investigation, one thing leads to another and the evil being, a ghastly specter known as the nightmare ends up killing Antea. Now, the pacing in the first two hours of the game feels sluggish and weird until you go on your first big hunt. For the most part the rest of the game’s story follows Red and the now transparent Antea making their way back to the town of New Eden to take on the Nightmare and save the colony from this darkness. But along the way you have a secondary oath to uphold. Antea’s own spirit has the chance to be restored or given a proper ascension. Red, a man racked with love and grief is willing to do whatever it takes to bring her back, but ultimately that choice falls on you. Will you sacrifice and kill those whose actions lead to hauntings or will you spare them by simply banishing or ascending the ghosts themselves. At first glance this seems an easy enough choice, especially given how likable and believable the couple are, but I promise you the Haunting cases you investigate along the way are not so cut and dry. For me this is where the excellent range in writing stands out. The Haunting cases are side quests where an NPC is being haunted by a ghost from their past, a brother whose brother died in the woods where they are trapped, an abusive relationship that extends beyond death. None of these stories are so cleanly taken apart, so the choice can be legitimately harrowing when all is said and done.

Before I go into the anymore details on the story or characters, let’s talk gameplay. Because Don’t Nod has taken an interesting approach to its game design. Though a clean take on the souls-like action-adventure game, much of what makes up Banishers gameplay is cobbled together parts of other games. It’s traversal and level design are reminiscent of both Tomb Raider and God of War. Encounters are respawnable after resting a campfire much like the soulsborne games and it’s puzzle solving feels a bit like using ghost detective vision, which to be fair, is basically what you are doing. Combat wise, the initial sword play is clunky with inconsistent hit boxes, input lag, and chunky feeling movement. Fortunately, adding in the zest of death in the form of Anteas ecto punches is just what this game needed. Each tool added to our power couple’s repertoire began to create something that felt less familiar and mostly landed its loftier idea of swapping between living and dead combat. Unfortunately, the game still struggled to keep encounters outside of big boss battles or the ritual fights from feeling stagnant. Ultimately this comes down to a few things. First is the lack of combos and alternate move sets that could have kept the core sword slashing interesting. Secondly, while there is a skill tree it lacks any substantial upgrades or ways to shake up your fighting style. Which is disappointing, because how cool would it have been to see your darker actions unlocking more demonic abilities or getting some angelic looking powers to reflect your merciful ways? Lastly the enemy variety comes down to a few different types of ghosts, wolves and melee attacking possessions. Which sucks because outside of the normal encounters, I found the designs of the boss fights to be incredible even when the fights themselves mostly boiled down to shoot the glowing weak point. All in all, there isn’t a lot of revolutionary gameplay at hand in Banishers but I think that’s okay. What is here is mostly solid and is certainly serviceable enough to stay in it for the stellar narrative.

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Every ghost comes from some kind of trauma(Don't Nod)

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Don’t Nod has always thrived on vividly detailed worlds with empathetic and believable characters and Banisher Ghost of New Eden is perhaps the best example of that. I thoroughly enjoyed my time with just about every resident of New Eden I interacted with. Wonderfully written dialogue goes a long way to endearing us to our protagonists and their love, above all else romance. Quick on the wit, the ghost bashing pair’s banter sells a friendship that has seen the test of time. In the quieter moments you can subtly feel that their love is still fresh, and Antea is reluctant to drop all her barriers even in death. In a lesser game, the focused and compelling narrative flares would begin with them and end on their foil, The Nightmare, but Banishers goes the extra mile in delivering excellence through all its characters. While the NPCs sometimes had more expressive and explosive emotion in the voice cast than on the actual character models, every line is delivered with authenticity. I adored solving the case of the beast, seeing all the sides of characters you’d met along the way, which often saw a facade on the surface and a more depraved inner. There isn’t any history making quests but using what it has at hand, Banishers delivers haunting and resolute storytelling.

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Graphically Banishers looks the part of a triple A game, gorgeously rendered landscapes, dense foliage, and some great use of the dead world. Red and Antea stand above the rest of the cast from a rendering perspective, clearly receiving the most love and attention giving their looks the most complete feel. Sadly, repeating and often boring locals that wind to close together make some of the trek a little tedious lead to a sense of gamey-ness to the world. The overuse of squeeze through areas doesn’t help this problem either. I had no idea America was so full of man sized crevices and crags that early colonials had to constantly navigate through. But hey the visual boringness in the encounter spaces make sense when you’re talking northern America. My review was done on the PlayStation 5 and I primarily played in performance mode, which true to its word does mostly maintain the promised 60 fps. Mostly. I ran into a couple of places such as the snowy fort area where I encountered numerous and consistent drops in frames. But other than that, the game runs smoothly and looks excellent. The 4K 30fps mode does seem more stable although I did have a game crash while playing in this mode. Which really sucked as I was mid cut-scene following a hard boss fight and the game had not saved yet. All taken, Don’t Nod pulls off the look a high-end cinematic game, and make the most of it’s assets to deliver a decent experience.

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Banishers Ghost of New Eden lands most of the tricks it tries out, while stumbling over the building blocks of mechanical Frankensteining, delivering something just rejuvenating enough to justify the full play through. While it may be a little rotten from stale combat, this AA gem is certainly far from dead. Supported by an incredible cast, compelling story telling with a message about death, life, guilt and letting the ones we love go, Banishers Ghost of New Eden has a world worth diving into. Life to the living, death to the dead and an 8 to Banishers Ghost of New Eden.