Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden Review

Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden tells a brilliantly original story amidst a sea of sequels. I had no idea that I would enjoy playing as a ghost-hunting investigator in an alternate world set in the 1600s in America, but developer Don't Nod does such a great job combining romance, drama, and death that I couldn't help but wonder why this hadn't been done before. It generally succeeds in everything it tries to do outside of that narrative, from its brilliant idea of switching between your living and spectral protagonists to its really good investigation mechanisms. However, Banishers' other elements lack originality; most of its structure is lifted from other action-adventure games, and its fighting is too repetitive and stiff to match its sources of inspiration. There is still plenty to enjoy here for fans of strange games that are chock-full of ectoplasm and tragedy.

Screenshots of Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden gameplay

Banishers follows this formula rather well; it's not very innovative, but it has decent writing, likable characters, and a few clever plot twists that make for a fun cross-country journey. You'll travel around talking to various pilgrims to solve their hauntings while taking on the roles of Red, the overly sentimental Scotsman with hair that's far too cool for the era, and Antea, the ill-tempered master ghost hunter who is actually a ghost. It is your duty as occult specialists known as Banishers in a mysterious alternate reality from the 17th century to look out It turns out to be just as much fun as it seems to send spirits to the afterlife after helping them fulfill their unfinished business. Really, who wouldn't want to be a rad specter slayer and go around chasing ghosts away like Geralt of Rivia in "Oops, All Ghosts"?

Banishers does have some pacing problems, as do many similar games. There are numerous recurring story points in which our heroes revisit the same scenes as they work through their sorrow and talk about their predicament. You'll also be required to crawl through pitch-black spaces, scale mountain peaks, and wait in incredibly slow elevators while your characters lament death and how terrible it is. Fortunately, the writing is usually strong enough to support such tempo, but I must admit that by It was my tenth or twelfth time listening to them talk about spectral webs. In addition, there are numerous pointless tiny pauses that grow boring. For example, your characters always gaze at each other tenderly for a short while before eventually getting up from their positions when you stop around a campfire to level up or use a quick travel point. I had to go back and watch that numerous times after realizing I had fast-travelled to the wrong campfire.

Despite its pacing issues, the novel features well-written and endearing characters.

In addition to investigating eerie cases and trying to prevent the town of New Eden from meeting a terrible end, you'll have the liberty to explore the area in pursuit of optional combat encounters, solveable puzzles, and decent side missions. For those who desire it, special battle scenarios provide an additional degree of difficulty by including variables that force you to alter your playstyle, such as one where only certain While puzzles provide extra riches to let you enhance your equipment by solving very simple environmental logic issues (simple “move this minecart here” or “shoot this magical target” type stuff), attacks do no real damage. Though you aren't particularly motivated to complete side quests other than to learn a little bit more about the world, they do offer you the chance to go a little bit further into the lives of the characters you encounter during the main quest. Some of the side missions have some really excellent writing and shorter storylines to connect with.

The story revolves around love and loss, with death and the afterlife perpetually hovering around our paranormal heroes in this fantastical retelling of colonial America. Red finds himself working alongside the very thing he's meant to oppose when Antea is killed in the first scene of the story and turns into a ghost. This creates an interesting conundrum in which you have to choose between continuing to work toward your partner's ultimate banishment and abandoning your responsibilities in an effort to bring her back to life.You'll have plenty of opportunity to choose the type of ghost hunter you want to be as you explore the sordid past of New Eden and wander the countryside helping others deal with their own losses as a Banisher. You'll also be asked to weigh in on several ethically dubious scenarios.

It is a little frustrating, though, since at the conclusion of each case, you are left with only three bland options, despite the intriguing otherworldly mystery they have put up. You can either exile the ghost, which is really simply an aggressive way of achieving the same thing, or you can blame the living, killing them and taking their essence in your desire for power. Giving the spirit its ascent is a friendly way of sending it to the hereafter. The sole method to resurrect your love from the grave is bysacrificing as many people as possible, making the accusation of the living as the “evil” option prevalent, even when a portion of these people more than deserve to be killed. However, even in situations where a living individual is obviously at fault, banishing or ascending the dead are typically presented as two different interpretations of the correct course of action.

Having to select only one of those outcomes often feels like you're being forced to take a side, or worse, you're just selecting the choice that will bring you to the result you're aiming for. For instance, I once came across two equally culpable twins, one of whom had already died and the other of whom was still alive. I had to decide whether to kill the surviving twin or get rid of the ghost. Having the choice to deal with that issue in a variety of more complex ways, such as casting the ghost away and having the human report to the authorities, would have been wonderful.

I was eager to tackle every new haunting that popped up on my map.

Even so, it's still quite cool to put yourself in the shoes of two ghost investigators and switch between the living and the dead to utilize their special skills while you search for clues, follow your target through the woods, and speak with suspects. While as Antea you can see invisible objects concealed in the world and use your fantastic and sort of terrible ghostly skills to summon spirits to show themselves to you, as Red you can execute dope rituals to accomplish things like view visions from the past using psychometry or compel spirits to show themselves to you.alter the surroundings, such as shattering barriers with a banshee wail. The best aspect of Banishers, in my opinion, is switching between the two perspectives to find clues, answer straightforward logic puzzles, and solve mysteries. It also made me want to investigate every new haunting case that appeared on my map.

Combat also features instantaneous character switching, and it works very well. As Red, you'll be utilizing a sword and gun, while as Antea, you'll be employing ghost powers and phantom haymakers. As you earn powers during the adventure, what initially appears to be a very basic system of dodge rolling, parrying, and light or heavy assaults ultimately transforms into something far more engaging. For instance, I adore the bonuses that can be unlocked that allow you to When you switch characters in the middle of a hit combo, a special attack will be launched, giving you a brief window of invulnerability while the other character takes their place. Towards the conclusion, I was able to switch between the two without pausing my attack, which led to unique moves like Antea's capacity to leap across the map and slap someone in the face.

Like how I would take all the powers that granted me buffs at the cost of longer ability cooldowns, but then complement them with equipment that made me stronger for each power that was currently waiting on a cooldown, there are plenty of intriguing opportunities to customize your equipment loadout and skill tree perks to fit your playstyle. Furthermore, because you can change all of your skills and gear at any time,There's plenty of freedom to entirely change up your playstyle as you go without being locked into a preset build or having to pay some ridiculous skill tree reset fee. You can change out all of your abilities and equipment every time you rest at a campfire.

Combat does include several glitches, though, since it might be awkward to control your characters most of the time. As you become stuck on the tiniest of movements, movement can become slow or completely unresponsive.items that roll about. The camera occasionally moves erratically as well, particularly when Banishers' spot-on lock-on technique is being used to try to focus on something. I frequently perished while playing on the hardest difficulty because the lock-on mechanism either failed to activate or oddly pointed the camera in the enemy's direction. While fighting legions of apparitions is still fun, there is a noticeable lack of refinement in the combat, which can be rather annoying.

Less than halfway through, enemy variation also became excruciatingly rare.The story took me about 30 hours to finish because there aren't many enemy types and they're added far too slowly to make battle interesting. The wolves that are introduced straight at the beginning became particularly annoying when I was still seeing them twenty hours later. There were so many of those miserable fuzzy critters that I sent whimpering into the afterlife that I cannot even begin to tell you how many times. Nevertheless, most of the monsters in the mix are engaging to battle, ranging from specters that plunge into the bodies of other foes to bring them back to life, to skeletal marksmen who stay back and attempt to kill you with a rifle. By the end, even my favorite zombie expressions were starting to irritate me. I just wish I didn't have to see them so frequently.

The Verdict

An excellent paranormal investigation system and a strong idea combine to make Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden an enjoyable action game. Even though its pacing occasionally becomes slow and overindulgent, its story about finding it difficult to let go of loved ones in death is worth listening. The fighting system also tries out several interesting new ideas, most of which are successful except for the lackluster adversary variety and unreliable controls. However, Banishers is helped through its rougher moments by the writing and characters, and switching between the physical and ghostly realms instantly is just as cool during puzzle solving as it is during combat. That made saying farewell to them, with their deteriorating flesh and everything, fittingly difficult.