It's been 15 years since the French studio Don't Nod fwas founded and rewarded players from all over the world with Life is Strange, Remember Me, Vampyr, Tell me Why e Twin Mirror. Now it's time for the studio to take an even bigger step with Banishers.
Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden is the new adventure from the studio, which decided to make the most ambitious project in its history, offering not only the well-known Don't Not narrative experience, but also choices and an open world.
First of all, we need to make it clear that this text no spoilersWe would also like to thank Focus Entertainment, who sent us the review key for the game.
Banishers has an exciting and original story
In Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden you have as the two protagonists of the plot Antea Duarte and Red mac Raith, two lovers and banishers.
They set off for New Eden, a community of settlers who are being tormented by a mysterious curse. However, the mission is a disaster, and Antea is fatally murdered, becoming one of the spirits she despises most.
Amidst the haunted jungles of North America, the couple search for a way to free Antea from this sad situation, solving mystical cases that appear along the way using their wits and combining Antea's spiritual powers with Red mac Raith's arsenal.
The perfect wedding
Antea and Red are not only the perfect couple on paper, but in practice too. One is made for the other, both in terms of narrative, combat and dialog.
Antea and Red understand cases and situations in different ways, leading the player to make different choices in different cases. It's not always easy to steer the narrative the way you set out at the beginning of the story. Much of this depends on the motivations behind a character's decision.
Not to mention that with Antea in the fight, you can more easily eliminate possessed enemies, reveal objects through the spectral web, advance to previously inaccessible locations and finally, plot the end of the story.
An immersive and complete research experience
Throughout their journey, Red and Antea will encounter new main and secondary missions. In both types, you'll find new cases of haunting that you'll have to solve together.
Cases of haunting require a certain amount of investigation through dialog, items scattered around the scenes and, once you've got a feel for the investigation, reassembling the scene, making the spirit manifest and finally summoning the scourge.
All these actions will lead not only to an investigation, but also to a severe prosecution. At the end of a case, you will have to make a tough choice. Blame the haunter, raise the ghost or banish it.
These choices will have consequences not only for the course of the mission, but also for Antea and Red's relationship as a couple. Their choices will determine whether Antea comes back to life at the end of the journey or not.
The structure of the game is inspired by the big players on the market
Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden is the most ambitious game in the Don't NodBut much of what's in the game wouldn't exist without first being fostered by the industry. The structure of much of the game is inspired by the big players on the market.
You can quickly tell that the game has an open world full of mysteries, but at some points in the story you have a kind of hub, in the best Lake of the Nine style, from God of War. Not to mention that you may be in an open world, but most of the time you're on a long linear stretch. Again, just like God of War.
Do you want to improve your skills? Great, sit by a campfire. But don't forget, when you rest, all the enemies will respawn and your life bottles will be recharged. Where have I seen that before?
Now I want to move to the right, but there's something blocking me. How about I come back later after unlocking a specific skill? Good metroidvanias did that, didn't they?
Inspiration, not lack of originality
All this may sound like a lot of copying on the part of Don't NodBut don't be fooled, it's nothing more than inspiration and improvement on the great games of the past.
None of this is loose within the game in a way that makes it look like incompetence on the part of the studio. On the contrary, everything makes sense in terms of narrative, including the unlocking of new abilities. Antea and Red talk about Antea's new abilities, how she helped him get past a certain place and how resting can be necessary for the journey.
Furthermore, I would venture to say that many of the games mentioned above would not be what they are without these features. But, Banishers without these characteristics, it would still be Banishers.
The skill tree of Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden
Still on the subject of the game's structure, we need to highlight the Skill Tree, which is a little different from what we're used to seeing. In it, you activate skills, rather than unlocking them, and you can deactivate and activate others at any time during the game in a bonfire.
You'll find a mix of skills that will give Antea or Red benefits, but you need to choose wisely, as there is a path for the skills to follow. You generally can't activate two skills that are side by side, for example.
Is Banishers worth playing?
This text was shorter than I thought it would be, but there's a reason for that: Banishers is an extremely narrative game. Although there is combat, it's not the game's strong point.
The strength of Banishers is all about narrative, from the story told through cutscenes or dialogues, to the moments of investigation that make you discover more about the events in the region. Not to mention the moments when you have to make strong and difficult decisions in order to move forward.
This is a game that surprised me a lot, and although it has a lot (and perhaps even more) of the narrative of other games from the studio, such as Life is StrangeHis approach is completely different. Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden is a different game than Don't Nod did previously, something with more or less the same impact as was Vampyr at the time.
Not all fans of the studio will enjoy playing the game, but they will enjoy discovering the deep narrative and the beautiful love story of Antea and Red mac Raith. Without a doubt, the game took me by surprise, and it will also take other players who weren't expecting much by surprise. Banishers.
If you like narrative games, like Life is Strange, Banishers is for you. Do you like investigative games in the style of The Sinking City e Sherlock Holmes? Well, this game is probably for you. You like a good, intense journey in the best style God of War? Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden is for you.
Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden arrives on February 13th for PC, PlayStation 5 e The Xbox Series. Our review was carried out on PS5 with a key sent by Focus Entertainment.
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