Review: Ghostwire: Tokyo

Developer – Tango Gameworks

Publisher – Bethesda

Platforms – PC, PS5

Ghostwire Tokyo tells the tale of a night gone wrong in Tokyo. It isn’t zombies or monsters, but spirits that have taken over the entire city. Akito, the main protagonist, is near death due to an accident and a spirit named KK possesses Akito. KK grants Akito a second chance at life, and the two quickly decide it’s in their mutual best interest to work together.

Regardless of the setup, the campaign is a visual spectacle to experience. Hub-sized locations and perspectives have been replaced with a first-person open-world experience. Tango’s vaunted survival horror heritage is back and brings the dead to life in some visually fantastic ways. The brand-new look is what helps bridge the gap between Evil Within and Ghostwire.

Seeing famous Tokyo locations rendered in real-time makes the entire experience feel fresh. New fans will get to explore this strange phenomenon in a fantastic city and various other locations and will be blown away by the variety and beauty of every new room, building, and scenario they come across.

Some of those stunning looks are used to great effect in terms of visual set-pieces. Every single attack, location, and the enemy does a fantastic job of completely upping itself at every corner.

In terms of looks, it doesn’t matter what platform you play it on, as they all look and perform excellently. My campaign play through was on the PS5 in performance mode.

Gameplay-wise, Ghostwire slightly struggles to maintain interest over the length of an open-world game. You play in the first person, and it features much more combat and exploration than their previous games. While this game ditches the slower-paced, first-person style of most survival horror, they also don’t go right back into full action mode either. This game features a blend between intricate hand weaving and spiritual attacks and city-wide traversal. It’s all well and good the first few hours, but repetition sets in after the first several hours.

Open world quests range from formulaic to some of the game’s most interesting content. Finding spirits and exorcising demons can sometimes bring about interesting short stories. Traversal is okay, but you never truly gain the freedom of movement you’d expect from the powers you wield in combat

The main issue with the story is it takes too long to give the player motivation between Akito and their sister, who is captured by the villain early on. KK and his real identity are well done, but it feels like the player and Akito are just along for his journey.

The campaign will take around 12 hours to complete if you skip all the side content. It took me around 34 to complete just about every side quest and collectible. The game does feature cosmetics, including a set from Fallout, that should make vault fans happy.

ACCESSIBILITY

Ghostwire Toko is much better than the Evil Within series for accessibility. The UI is very clean and informative. All of the information is well presented and thorough.

Mission-related timers can be disabled which is a tremendous boon to my experience. The overall combat, while simple, is easy to navigate and use. Enemies mostly come from one direction, and they are easy to track.

Hearing-impaired players beware though, as subtitle options are severely lacking. Thankfully, the entire HUD can be freely customized and individually adjusted for size.

Haptics is nice, but the haptics for combat can clash with haptics used by the environment. This will make it difficult for those who rely on vibration for gameplay feedback.

Ghostwire Tokyo is an interesting sort. The open-world and combat variety don’t hold up by the end mark. Tokyo and its many stories and secrets are incredible to experience, especially the first time through. I just wish Akito’s journey had more agency as a protagonist.