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Review: Ghost of Tsushima is beautiful but repeats NOW

The new PlayStation game Ghost of Tsushima is a beautiful tribute to old samurai films, which feels a bit hollow.

After years of working on the superhero game series Infamous, developer Sucker Punch has Ghost of Tsushima put something completely different. Players get to work as Jin Sakai, a samurai who survives the invasion of the Mongols in Japan in 1274.

Jin vows to reduce the invasion army, even if he has to honor his code of honor. A difficult decision for the young samurai, also because he was raised by his uncle who rules the island of Tsushima.

It is noticeable that Sucker Punch is a western developer who makes a game about Japan. The game does its best to explain to the letter what a samurai is and how their code works. On the one hand, this seems to have a simplifying effect, but it also makes a story about Eastern cultures more accessible to a Western target group.





In Ghost of Tsushima, you play a samurai in 1274. Source: Sucker Punch.

Fight like in old samurai movies

Jin’s new philosophy means in practice that he can approach conflicts in the game in two ways. The first way is to fight enemies one on one. He will challenge his enemies loudly, after which you can take out an enemy by means of a small minigame by pressing the attack button at the right time. That is designed like a ‘showdown’ in an old samurai film or western.

In the next fight is Ghost of Tsushima a solid action game. Enemies block all of your blows by default, making it important to parry incoming blows and find an opening. Both you and your enemies are already eliminated in a few blows, so you always stay on the edge of your seat.





You can sneak up on enemies to take them out. Source: Sucker Punch.

Stealth and silent murders

A second way of playing is to sneak past enemies and then stab them in the back. Gradually you get more and more tools, such as wind chimes that make noise as a distraction. By pressing a button, Jin can also ‘listen’ well, allowing all nearby enemies to be seen through walls. Handy if you want to avoid them.

The first few times Jin kills someone from the shadows, the game jumps to flashbacks in which his uncle always teaches him to do the honorable. Jin should be ashamed of what he has done, which also suggests that you as a player should be more honorable.

In reality it doesn’t matter: if you try to go through the game as honorable as possible and only defeat enemies in fair duels, Jin is still portrayed in movies as an dishonorable figure. In fact, the game discourages you from playing in certain ways, without rewarding you for doing the right thing.





Ghost of Tsushima looks phenomenal. Source: Sucker Punch.

Repeats

The island of Tsushima is grand and fully explored. Scattered around the map are question marks that you can visit to find anything in the world, such as an altar to the fox god Inari. The more you find, the more upgrades you unlock for Jin.

These explorable places will soon be repeated. There are only a handful of things to do in the game that can be reused in multiple places.

As a result, the game world loses some personality and collecting can feel painful. You have to run after the same animals dozens of times, climb the same lighthouses and free almost identical villages from Mongols.

Visually beautiful

On the other hand, the world looks phenomenal. Sucker Punch uses advanced lighting effects that can make the sun appear dazzling on high-quality televisions.

The game also makes above average use of color, for example by blooming yellow and red blossoms in forests. A photo mode makes it easy to take screenshots.

Those who care for old samurai films can also activate the black and white mode. This makes the game look like the old films of director Akira Kurosawa (Seven Samurai). The voices can also be switched from English to Japanese to make the experience even more authentic.

Conclusion

Ghost of Tsushima is a visually beautiful action game with a lot to do. It is only a pity that the suggestion is made that you can make choices in the story, when in reality the game is quite linear. In combination with the fast repeating extras, it ensures that the game is not fantastic, but simply good.

3.5 out of 5 stars

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