Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden Review on Xbox

Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden is a story-driven Action-RPG where your decisions carry dramatic consequences.

The premise is you play as a couple of Banishers, Red and Antea, who are experienced spirit hunters entrusted with the daunting task of dispelling a malevolent curse through powerful rituals. However, when Antea is killed and turned into a spirit, you find yourself facing a choice. Torn between honouring your oath to the living and saving your departed partner, how far will you go for love?

The game boasts meaningful decisions to either Blame, Ascend or Banish New Eden’s inhabitants - may they be living or dead. Battle supernatural forces, unlock new gear and abilities and uncover secrets of a North America settlement.

Accessibility

With regards to accessibility, there are a great number of options for all those who need it. From button mapping, stick sensitivity, sub-title size and background enhancement, to even having the ability to turn of Parallax. For those with light sensitivity or diminished contrast vison, High contrast options and HUD displays can be tweaked to suit the users preference. Its clear the developers want the largest number of people, to be able to play their game.

Gameplay

A good story-driven Action-RPG is much like a good film, in where an engaging storyline is switched out appropriately for action and back again, to keep the entertainment at a constant level. May sound easy, but it isn’t, and keeping that level of intensity going for more than 50+hours is even harder. Thankfully, the developer DON’T NOD have a lot of experience in this area, with the likes of Vampyr and Life is Strange under their belt.

The game starts with our protagonists entering a new coastal town settlement at the request of a fellow banisher to dispel a great evil. The game is uniquely set around 1965 in which colonial expansion is taking place in a fictitious zone called New Eden, and the harsh realities of that time period. Its here we understand the dynamic of the protagonists relationship, with Antea being the Master and Red the student, but also that they are a couple and the unique challenges that it, also brings.

It's within this ‘’tutorial’’ section that we are introduced into the main gameplay loop of being a kind of Colonial settler detective, called Banishers that deal with those that are haunted by spirits. They use rituals, combat, puzzle solving and exploration to get to the bottom of some serious human stories, that will push your moral and ethical buttons. You will often be engaging in choice-based narratives with the games NPC’s, learning what you can from them, and using that knowledge with other NPC’s to progress the stories. All the while, being attacked from wildlife, ghosts and other ethereal beings in a bid to find evidence to help bring a conclusion to that particular case.

It may sound a bit boring, but this is where the developers experience of switching out engaging storylines with third-person hack and slash mechanics, and a open world rife for exploration, come into play. After a incident at the Coastal town, you awake as Red, in a seaside cave to the realisation that you failed in your task and your partner has been killed in the process. However, soon after, she appears in the form of a ghost, and from this moment onwards you are able to switch between them both freely on your journey.

It is also at this point, the game prompts a moral choice in the form of an oath to Antea. You can save Antea and bring her back, but to do so, all future cases will mean that you will need to blame someone in order to take their life force for Antea to sustain her for a future ritual. The other choice is to continue with your professional responsibilities and only use Ascend (to heaven) or Banish (to hell) on the residents, in which Antea will ascend to heaven once your main task is complete. 

You can break your oath at any time, but the game does point out there will be consequences for doing so. This may sound simple at first, but trust me, as more cases pile up, and the truth of the residents is revealed, things become moralistically harder than you can imagine in how best to deal with each one.

The cases themselves are not simple either, and will require both Banishers expertise in finding clues and gathering evidence before concluding based on that info which ritual, in your opinion, to use. 

Even when a case is complete, progression through the game will unlock secondary phase for cases you have already resolved, so keeping an eye on the map is needed. Whilst the story telling of each case is compelling, simply chatting to NPC’s won’t cut it, and you will need to explore the world around you carefully, to really get to the core of the cases. 

Now as Red walks in the land of the living, he can only interact with in it, but Antea can do more and see beyond into the spirit realm. She will often guide Red to clues and unseen items, and further along will gain abilities to access alterative paths in the living world, for Red to explore further. This symbiotic nature is beautifully done, with you swapping to Antea through a form of possession, and once done, relinquished so Red can continue in his own body.

This combination of protagonists also extends into combat and the puzzle solving elements within the game. With regards to combat, the game provides the standard mix of fast light and heavy attacks, slow long range attacks, dodges and blocks. What is different is how the different protagonists symbiotic nature works, with each of them having very different attacks. It pushes the idea of you constantly switching between both to get the very best combination of attacks depending on the foe you are facing. Enemies in this game are a combination of corpse and spirit, with a lot being both at once. For example, zombie wolves will need their twisted flesh to destroyed before the spirit is released and then that can be finally dealt with.

To help with this, Red is more attuned for dealing damage to physical enemies, whilst Antea is more attuned to dealing damage to spirits. That’s not to say they can’t both attack the opposite, its just the damage they deal is more for their respective talents. When it comes to attacks, Red has a sword and torch for close quarters, a slow loading musket for long range, and a special ‘’one hit’’ banish ability. Antea uses punches for close quarters, has faster dodging, a long range target warping attack, and an area affect blast ability.

However there is a cavate to switching between Red and Antea, due to their symbiotic nature. You see Antea attacks needs mana and this can only be created by Red’s attacks, where he builds up said mana bar for Antea then to use. For most enemies, not being able to switch to Antea isn’t a deal breaker, it just longer and harder to deal with them. However, there are enemies that will only be damaged by Antea, so a careful dance is needed when those come into play.

As you progress the main storyline, more special abilities are unlocked for Antea and in doing so, provides a skill tree with clusters of perks that benefits both parties. The perk system is split between physical and spiritual nodes, which can be unlocked using their respective points once gained from felling elite enemies and levelling up. What’s great about this skill tree is that you can refund a choice without penalty and move a perk choice within a certain cluster freely as well. This means you can at anytime really switch your perks about to suit the enemy or environment around you.

Its within the environment, where the puzzles housing a majority of special equipment come into play, allowing you to customise your protagonists stats to higher levels. Each equipment comes with its own unique stats that will drastically affect your Banishers attacks and abilities. These items stats can further be buffed by the games levelling mechanic, which requires you to have enough specific resources to upgrade the item in question.

Now whilst some of these resources can be brought at some sellers in the settlements you find, a majority will be found out about in the wilderness. The map area starts off small but develops into a much larger open world housing a vast array of blocked paths, hidden items, collectible upgrade materials and a variety of elite foes to be summoned. A vast number of paths will be blocked off until you unlock particular special abilities, which ensures that you are always returning to areas you previously have explored for more secrets to uncover.

This is where the Banishers rituals will be mostly used, either for seeing echoes from the past, speaking to deceased ghosts, or summoning special tormented foes to defeat, to help unlock perks. For Cursed chests, which house special equipment for example, these can only be cleansed by finding 3 carvings. These are often hidden locally, which will need extensive exploration to find before using an unbounding ritual to claim the prize within. Aspects like these help the world feel much more alive and give you more options than just the cases you are progressing. Cases aren’t locked into either so should you want to switch location and tackle something else, you can simply fast travel using a bonfire and explore to your hearts content.

Graphics

Graphically, this game is stunning, with its protagonist character models being particularly impressive. NPC’s on the other hand are a little less so, but still very well done, and all animations are smooth and fluid. Interactions with said NPC’s happen in real time, and even though the camera zooms on the facial features, depending on location, you can see life still continuing in the background as you converse.

Exploration as mentioned is paramount, but it would be tedious without a varied backdrop to delve into. Thankfully, the environmental areas are vastly different depending on location and blend from dark dense woodlands, dark caves, snowy mountain forts, swam laden settlements, beaches with crashed ships and even the ‘’other side’’, available for you to explore. 

Using Unreal 5, its been expertly crafted that even though you need to explore for resources, you actually want to explore and see what this strange new world offers. Light sources are used with great effect, from puncturing dark caverns to torches lighting up dark huts enough to ensure the gloomy looks isn’t too depressing.

Combat is equally visually impressive as you strike against a vast selection of disturbing foes. Attacks are weighty and explosive in equal measure and visual indicators allow for you to ensure you are always aware of what is about you regardless of whom you are locked onto. 

Another visual treat is in the form of the transition from one protagonist to the other, with Antea’s form actually providing better visual clarity for the ethereal beings with a brighter haze on screen boosting their image.

Banishers offer quality and performance options, and for this review I stayed with quality to push the game to its limits. At no point during the games intense action phases or close up NPC interactions was their noticeable lag, popping or tearing. However there was some serious slowdown and stutter when transitioning from open world to your inventory or map. Please note though this was reviewed on a pre-release version and the developers have confirmed a day one patch which should resolve this issue.

Sound

For me though it’s the stories themselves that sold me on this game, and it’s the quality of the voice-work and writing that sells it perfectly. Each individuals haunting are truly compelling, and every new piece of information fleshes out these cases and your connection with those being haunted. Rightly or wrongly, you start to feel very strongly about the characters in these cases and when the inevitable conclusion has to be made and your choice on how to resolve it, is standing in front of you, mixed emotions will be at play.

I have never been so conflicted in my moral duty towards those individuals and that of my in-game partner. And this is solely because of the interactions between Red and Antea, that solidify your bond with them with each tender and banterous moment. The actors voicing these characters and others, elevate the already good writing to higher levels that stick with you.

When it comes to the music, the game resolves to let the worlds wildlife do the majority of the sound as you make your way through the game, with only music being infused when the action or cutscene takes place. Its at this point, a combination of drums, flutes and choir are blended with long drawn out tones are used, to ensure that the sounds are unnerving by nature.

When it comes to the games sound effects, it does a superb job from helping you sell that the particular environment you inhabit with telling wildlife sounds, from bird calls, to groaning trees to raging winds. In certain locations, it goes even further in giving you a audible hint of where a collectible maybe hiding, that can be straight up unnerving. Combat is where the game really shines though with its general attacks sound weighty, brutal and punishing from Red and ethereal, powerful and supernatural for Antea.

My recommendation here, is a good quality soundbar to ensure that every interaction and every attack from both protagonist are captured to their fullest.

Verdict

This leads me onto the rating of the game:-
Now I rate games in order of, avoid, on sale, great purchase and must own. My rating for Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden is a "Must Own’’.

This game has taken me by surprise as I thought I maybe a bit wiped out with action adventure RPG’s. However the compelling stories, narrative choices that do actually matter, blended with fun intense action and enjoyable exploration had me fully engaged all the time. For comparison, id say this more akin to The Witcher 2 with it’s more intense personalised stories and action, than say the full vast open world of The Witcher 3.

The game is currently priced on Xbox at £49.99 or approx. $60 and depending on skill and patience would give you about 25+ hours worth of gameplay. Due to the expansive world, multiple endings, versatile skill tree, collectibles and recurring elites enemies to summon, you could easily add another 10+hours.

DON’T NOD in my opinion have produced another superb and compelling game that shows them going from strength to strength. Any enthusiasts of story-driven Action-RPG genre would be well placed to keep this developer at the top of their list, and this game, in their collection.