Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden is the type of new single-player IP that everyone needs to support. Don’t Nod and Focus Entertainment have given us a large, beautiful, haunting game. As Red Mac Raith you’ll venture through 1690s New England alongside the ghost of your dead mentor and love. Impactful choice, excellent voice acting, and Don’t Nod’s typically fantastic writing are matched by a solid God of War-style combat system. I’m going to break down why if you love video games and want new single-player experiences to keep coming out, then you need to buy this game.
New Eden, Massachusetts
The soul of Banishers is the Banishers themselves, Antea Duarte and Red Mac Raith. Actors Amaka Okafor and Russ Bain do masterful work bringing these two characters to life, even in Antea’s death. The prologue sees you visiting New Eden, to help a friend. The town has been cursed and he needs your help to lift it. This curse, however, is far more powerful and deadly than anything seen and Antea is killed. It is impossible to talk about this game while avoiding it, and all of the game’s marketing has shown her as a ghost (including the cover).
Choice is key to Don’t Nod’s titles, and it’s as important as ever in Banishers. From the start, you’ll be tasked with choosing to let Antea go or to try and bring her back to life. The latter sounds wonderful until you find out the cost. This back and forth, the tug of war of love and fear tore at me. For roughly 25 hours I held firm, choosing what I believe to be the “good” path. Still, much like the characters I was tempted. If my wife died I would move heaven and earth if it meant I could bring her back. These types of situations and choices are constant. The land is full of misery, death, love, and hope. Your choices hold dozens of lives in their balance.
At one point I saw an evil, wicked man who had sent his men to their deaths knowingly. I was tasked with finding out exactly what happened and happened across the ghosts of one of the men. Slowly over time, the truth came out, adding depth to the first man. His choices made sense, even if he was a right bastard. At the end of my quest, I had the game’s three major choices:
- Sacrifice the living man and move on the path to resurrecting Antea
- Banish the Ghost and send it into the Void
- Ascend the Ghost and give it the peace it may deserve
What is right and what is wrong is up to you. A few times my decisions led to hopeful outcomes, and others turned sour almost immediately. I’ve so rarely felt this moved by the story of a video game, responsible for these people’s fate. It’s the best part of their narrative-focused titles, and it’s matched with a large semi-open world and solid gameplay.
Ghosts of War
Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden is a semi-open world 3rd person action game heavily inspired by 2018’s God of War reboot. You’ll play through the prologue as Antea. Movement is crisp, and combat is a bit spammy. After the game opens up and you swap characters to Red things get far more interesting. With Antea by your side in her ghostly form, you’ll gain access to her spectral powers. It’s a slow burn on gaining them, tied to the main story progression. Leveling up is tied to two systems. First is a basic experience-based one for Red and a Haunting-tied side objective one for Antea.
Hauntings are cases, some main quests though most sides, that find you tracking down various specters and making the choices that define your ending. I was an Ascend-focused Red, though I did Banish a few of the more shithead ghosts that were haunting decent people. The movement has all the positives and negatives of the GoW reboot. Red is quick, with a light and heavy swing and quick dodge move. There are combos you can unlock, and mixing these with Antea’s abilities gives the combat enough depth that I never became bored with it.
After a short while Red gets a gun, which is used in both environmental puzzles and combat effectively. There is a heavy aim assist on aim-pull, and I had little trouble hitting my targets on Series X. So much of this game, post-prologue is spoiler-heavy to breakdown. Combat and puzzles are repeated often, though again, never in a way that wore out its welcome. You’ll see the clockwork nature of how the game’s system works. It has a light gear and upgrade system, one just deep enough to allow for customization for your preferred playstyle but never a grind. It’s highly competent, which goes for the game’s graphics as well.
Wicked Pretty, Dude
Set in a period rarely seen in gaming, Banishers is a good-looking game in combat/exploration and an occasionally gorgeous one in its real-time cutscenes. Red and Antea’s character models look great, along with the various outfits you can deck Red out in during your adventures. Some townsfolk tend to look a bit like 2010 European Simulator quality, but they are a rarity. The game features a lot of “small logs you can’t climb over just yet” or “tiny shrubs that are impassable”. It’s a feature that drove me crazy in God of War and is here in full force.
Most traversable areas are highlighted with splotches of color that looked heavily out of place early on. After a few hours, I appreciated the yellow barrels of this game. They made it easy to know where to go around, as Red is truly awful at climbing over anything that hasn’t had paint puked on it. The animations during gameplay look good but shine in cutscenes. Red, Antea, and the people of New Eden’s faces and movements help convey the emotions of each scene well.
My favorite part of the game is its combination of fantastic writing and top-tier voice acting. Russ Baine, Amaka Okafor, Ildiko Preszly, and the rest of the cast do some serious fucking work here. They take the nuanced writing and give it a soul that had me never skipping the dialogue once I had finished reading the subtitles. I cannot praise them enough for bringing these characters to life. The sadness in Red’s voice, the rising fury in Antea’s, and the despair of others had tears welling up in my eyes multiple times during my playthrough.
Wrapping Things Up
Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden is a fantastic video game. It is the type that raises the medium and shows how incredible these experiences can be. The combat is good enough to rarely hinder your enjoyment as you help or harm the local populace. In an era where new single-player IPs are hard to find, this one deserves to succeed.
Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden
Played on
Xbox Series X
PROS
- Incredible Voice Acting
- Excellent Writing
- Damned Pretty
- Impactful Choices
- Competent Combat
CONS
- Some odd character models
- Combat can be spam heavy
- Traversal can feel frustrating (damn you impenetrable shrubs!)
Great review thanks, and glad to see one on the Series X as it seems to have frame rate issues on the PS5 I was worried about.
Wish it had a demo or was on Game Pass so could try it (as I usually dislike God of War type games) but it sounds the right mix of Greedfall and Tell Me Why / Life is Strange that I’ll be happy to take the risk
Will be getting this tonight although I probably won’t play it anytime soon.
This is their first big game since Tencent obtained a majority share right? It looks right up my street I’ll have to check it out.
Great review as always Jesse. GameFly shipped out my copy today and im very much looking forward to starting it later this week.
Had no idea this was coming so soon already. It’s nice to see them doing good with a game that isn’t like Life is Strange. Twin Mirror is also by them, but that was a miss. Haven’t given Vampyr a real shot still.
Great review, Jesse!
This game looks like it’s right up my alley. Going on the wish list for sure!
They own them now? Eww, well waiting for a sale then.
Tencent has a minority share after investing 30 million euros
Sorry yes it was a minority - still 42% though. I have no doubt it will be a majority soon enough.
Ah well that changes things! Thanks.
Nice review, this looks awesome.