Ghost of Tsushima Review

ever since assassin's creed started leaping around in time and space there has been a long-standing itch to see an open world stealth action game set in fuel japan consider that itch sufficiently scratched with ghost of tsushima sucker punch's latest is an absolutely gorgeous adventure through one of history's most strikingly beautiful landscapes which you get to liberate with one of the best blade blade combat systems the genre has ever seen there are some stumbles when it comes to stealth enemy ai and a few general minor frustrations but for just about every moment where ghost of tsushima falters there are plenty more word soars [Music] ghosts of tsushima is a fictional tale told with fictional characters but it's based on the very real invasion of japan by the mongol empire in 1274 that began on the island of tsushima you take control of jin sakai capably acted by the man in the high castles daisukesuji he starts off as a samurai before a disastrous defeat quickly teaches him that perhaps the honorable but restrictive ways of the samurai code might not be enough to deal with this new existential threat ghost of tsushima revolves around this inner conflict as jin's formative teachings push up against his need to save his homeland at any cost i've never seen a samurai fight like that it takes a little while to really get going but it's a compelling struggle even if gene himself isn't the most charismatic of protagonists the english voice cast is great all around though it's a shame that the excellent japanese audio track comes off as a comparatively cheap dub with wildly mismatched lip flaps it's not a huge issue as it's still well worth playing in japanese especially to check out the black and white kurosawa mode in all of its film green glory what isn't ever a bummer is the music which seamlessly shifts from quiet and ambiant shakuhachi flutes during stealth moments to thunderous taiko drums once blades start clashing it always enhances whatever emotion a scene is trying to evoke ghost of tsushima's combat it's like a witch's brew made with bits of the batman arkham series the pre-origins assassin's creeds sekiro shadows died twice and the entire library of kurosawa films and as witches brews tend to be the result is magical from the outset it's pretty basic light attacks heavy attacks a block button the dodge button etc all stuff that will sound familiar the glue though that holds this combat system together and allows it to remain interesting the whole way through is the addition of stances each of which is suited to deal with a different weapon type also wind stance can do this [Applause] shawn michaels would be proud when it's at its best combat and ghost of tsushima is fast chaotic tactical and feels true to the fantasy of being a lone hyper-skilled but outnumbered samurai the little touches also go a long way toward combat's exquisite feel in addition to bringing a little bit of visual spectacle you barely see the on-screen hud and the camera always stays really tight so you can get a close-up view of the actions enemies have clear audio tells so that even if you can't see them you know when to dodge or block and fatal attacks often end like this that's the last of them it's over but the most rewarding part is that there's no traditional level based stat progression which is great and here's why when you get stronger in ghosts of tsushima it's not because invisible numbers went up and now you deal more damage and take less when you're hit it's because your techniques got better and now you have new better ways of dealing with tougher enemies like blocking attacks that you couldn't block before learning to use those techniques effectively feels awesome as a result you won't ever run into that problem of wandering into an area or taking on a quest that you're under leveled for because you haven't done enough grinding you'll never get one shot by an archer who's five levels higher than you or have to spend five minutes chopping down a sword equivalent of a bullet sponge this system really impressed me because ghosts of tsushima's difficulty always manage to feel appropriate no matter what point of the campaign i was at enemies do get tougher and you do need to improve your gear by upgrading your sword armor and charms to meet the difficulty curve but the stat improvements from gear always felt secondary to the skills that you accumulate and the challenge always felt fair even when i bumped the difficulty up to hard mode which makes enemies more aggressive but it never took away from the lethality of my sword it's a good thing that the blade-to-blade combat in ghost of tsushima is so good because jin's ninja inspired stealth does not hold up its end of the bargain it works on a very basic level but the real problems arise once you get spotted enemies just don't know how to handle it it's like if you do anything other than just fight once you break stealth the ai just throws up its hands and shrugs gin stealth tools are also very rudimentary and don't allow you any sort of creativity that might make stealth a little more exciting none of the flexibility and versatility of the melee combat is found in stealth gameplay fortunately ghost of tsushima offers a way to make going loud right out of the gate just as advantageous as picking off a handful of enemies unnoticed and it does so in the best possible way by staying true to its samurai cinema roots at the beginning of most combat encounters you can trigger a standoff which allows you to target one of your enemies in a classic showdown where you've got to wait for them to make a move to attack and then strike with one of your own to take them down in one hit you can even chain standoff streaks to take out more enemies by the late game i was taking 5 enemies out at the start of every fight of course there is risk involved if you lose your health is drained to almost nothing and you're surrounded by a bunch of angry men with sharp weapons so it's an all-around fantastic mechanic that not only fits with the samurai theme but also takes the fun but typically disastrous tactic of just waltzing in through the front gate of an enemy encampment and makes it potentially just as rewarding as stealthily clearing out a bunch of guards open world games can often feature some of the most beautiful virtual landscapes there are and ghost of tsushima is right up there with the best of them it may not quite meet the promise of its 2018 gameplay reveal trailer but this is still a stunningly gorgeous game with great open world design it takes care to not disturb the view with obstructive ui to point you towards locations of interest and instead uses subtle cues to direct you side quests are more interesting than usual because there are actually several different types the first and most common are your typical garden variety tasks called tales of tsushima these are largely forgettable but at the very least they don't feel like they're just being churned out and used as padding more often than not they're thoughtful enough to take unexpectedly dark turns and occasionally present interesting gameplay scenarios that you won't see anywhere else one level above that are the multi-part character specific side quests that basically span the entire campaign these quests serve to give each major character their own story arc and let them reflect an aspect of jyn's own journey it's very interesting to see both how they develop and the impact they have on his own development some of the later ones are especially touching and deal with some pretty heavy subject matter one in particular makes exceptional use of ghosts of sushima's scouting mechanic in a very clever and emotional way tales of tsushima typically reward you with charms that boost a certain aspect of your character allowing you to spec into different builds whether it be a stealth build tanky build or a build centered around terrifying your enemies in the early going these charms were a great incentive to complete side quests but once i had pretty much all the charms i needed later on the tales of tsushima lost much of their appeal from a reward standpoint finally there are the mythic tales these are epic side quests that are obtained by listening to a musician tell their story via these awesome animated sumiye cutscenes the rewards are among the best you can get but even without those incentives these quests are still some of the best moments in all of ghost of sushi my favorite thing about exploration though and something that i especially appreciate as someone who's not typically big on collectibles is that every major collectible has both a worthwhile reward and a fun mini challenge tied to it whether it's the button pressing challenge of the bamboo strikes or the signature sucker punch-esque platforming sections leading to shrines i was always eager to seek them out when i was done i looked for a new game plus but there is none so post game wise there's not much to do outside of hunting collectibles and finishing up leftover side quests also replaying from the start on either a harder difficulty or in kurosawa mode is a little aggravating because you can't skip cutscenes finally could we talk about photo mode for a second i've been dying to talk about photo mode all review ghost of sushimo's photo mode is one of the best i've ever seen partially because the world is just so pretty but also because of the unique touches that sucker punch added like the ability to have animated background environments or to add a large selection of particles like leaves fireflies or even songbirds my one disappointment is jin's emotions which well lack of motion ghost of tsushima is an enormous and densely packed samurai adventure that often left me completely awestruck with both its visual spectacle and excellent combat by steadily introducing new abilities instead of stat upgrades its swordplay manages to stay challenging rewarding and fun through the entire 40 to 50 hours that it took me to beat the campaign there are a few areas lacking in polish especially when it comes to enemy ai and the stealth part of its stealth action split but this is still an extraordinary open world action adventure game that solves several issues that have long gone unaddressed in the genre while also being just an all-around samurai slashing good time [Music] [Applause] while i still have you here check out some more of my favorite shots from photo mode and for more ghosts of sushima check out 18 minutes of 4k gameplay and for everything else keep it here on ign

Channel: IGN

Views: 3,591,117

Keywords: IGN, PS4, Review, Sucker Punch, Ghost of Tsushima, Sony Interactive Entertainment, ghost of tsushima, ghost of tsushima gameplay, ghost of tsushima review, ghost of tsushima review ign, ghost of tsushima ign, ghost of tsushima ign gameplay, ghost of tsushima reaction, ign game reviews, game reviews, Ghost of Tsujima Review, Ghost Review, Tsushima Review

Id: MHrsygIxC5k

Length: 11min 0sec (660 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 14 2020