Ghostwire Tokyo (PS5) Review
Coming off of The Evil Within and The Evil Within 2, Tango Gameworks set a high bar for its follow-up title. When Ghostwire: Tokyo was announced, what it promised was a strange, paranormal action game mixed with light horror adjacent elements. Is it everything that we had hoped for? That's a little complicated, not even considering the caliber of games released all around it like Horizon Forbidden West, Tiny Tina's Wonderland, the very Chad Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin, or the hugely successful elephant in the room; eating up everyone's time, Elden Ring.
Ghostwire: Tokyo opens up with Akito in an accident with KK, a ghostly presence taking over his body. Akito starts fighting back against KK, and they agree to save Akito’s sister and stop the bad guy. That's the story boiled down to its simplest. Ghostwire: Tokyo does a great job building the mystery of who is attacking Tokyo with this fog that sucks everyone's souls up. However, the biggest misstep of the game is surprisingly its story. There comes a moment in the game's final act where everything builds to this fantastic crescendo. Without spoiling it, things get big, and the action is on point. Then out of seemingly nowhere, the emergency brake is pulled and brings everything to a standstill, forcing the player into this walking section that lasts around half an hour. Let me tell you, by the end of that, I could not be less interested in what happened. It's really unfortunate because, as I mentioned, they do an excellent job of building intrigue. The mystery surrounding all of Tokyo (basically) dying is fascinatingly told, and then as things are being revealed, they pull the brakes almost as if they don't trust the player with the stakes at hand.
Combat and general gameplay in Ghostwire are, well, to put it lightly, WILD. Starting off, the spells at Akito’s disposal are mediocre and boring. Still, by the start of Chapter 3, which happens to be the halfway point, there is enough variation in the spells, abilities, and enemies that there is a real strategy to fighting. The attacks on hand are each for different scenarios. The wind spell is meant for weaker rapid-fire damage, the water spell is excellent for groups of enemies, and fire is for tanky enemies. Speaking of enemies, they are all TERRIFYING from Slenderman-type businessmen, giant scissor-wielding women, and what I can only describe as Hair Demons just to name a few. They all have their own abilities and reactions to how they will gang up to take you down.
Speaking of abilities, Ghostwire: Tokyo is an RPG at heart; killing enemies, doing quests, and exploring will all give experience. As you level up, you get more health and 10 skill points. There are other ways to get a more abundance of points. You use these points to gain particular abilities like carrying more arrows, casting faster, etc... The biggest issue with the skills is that there is nothing here that is interesting.
The real miss here is the incredibly dull boss fights, which is a big bummer because the designs of the bosses are incredible. I can't describe them without giving away big spoilers, but one is a bad, prolonged forced stealth section. When the main focus of your game is not stealth, don't do this. It's a clunky section and too long. The other stand-out boring design involves a run-of-the-mill giant monster with glowing parts. The downside is aiming your spells is almost too slow to keep up with how fast the shining points sway. I wasted too much spell energy, and the only time I ever ran out of Ethereal Energy, which is quickly replenished, just added another step to this frustrating boss fight.
Where Ghostwire: Tokyo shines in a weirdly unexpected spot is in its humor. Without spoiling anything, the banter between KK and Akito is sometimes hilarious, same with the situations for the sidequests and how you get introduced to some of the Yokai around Tokyo.
Overall, I come away feeling two ways about Ghostwire: Tokyo. The combat and the design are, for the most part, fun and impressive, but the story weirdly just kind of ends, and there is no real explanation for certain things. I hope that if we get a Ghostwire: Tokyo sequel, they cook the story a little longer and flesh the abilities out a little more. Ghostwire: Tokyo has some solid ideas and even implementations of those ideas, but its story just kind of fizzles out.
SCORES
GAMEPLAY - 8/10
VISUALS - 8/10
SOUND - 7/10
CONTROLS - 7/10
REPLAY VALUE - 5/10
OVERALL - 7/10
A copy of Ghostwire: Tokyo was provided by the publisher for review on the Playstation 5; the game was played on the pre day 1 patch.
For more reviews be sure to check out the Guardians of The Galaxy review written by Alex. For other features check out the games of excellence for the year 2021, which includes everyone at Forever Classic Games’ feeling toward games from 2021.