Post by Tig on Aug 8, 2020 1:50:17 GMT -5
I was going to wait until I finished Ghost of Tsushima to write a review but at this rate it's going to be a long time until then. Sony has created a beautiful, wonderful game that is both relaxing and nail-biting and all around just fun to play. The game is set during the 1274 Mongol invasion of the island of Tsushima, Japan. The setting and some of the clan names are historically accurate but this is not a Kingdom Come level of historical-based gaming. There are plenty of liberties taken here with the characters and the setting, but it's all so much fun that even a history nut like me just doesn't care.
The combat is the most intuitive system I've seen since Mount & Blade, and that's a good thing because swinging a sword in Ghost is equal to driving a car in GTA; it's the bulk of the game and the most fun part of it. The story is rich with the samurai recoiling from the initial invasion and mounting a counter-attack. You run up and down the open-world island, helping key characters with their own missions so they can help you fight the Mongols, but pretty much every mission just involves combat of some sort. There are no fetch missions or pure stealth missions, no grocery missions or persuasion missions, just "hey go slice those people up" with a few "get to point A before being spotted." There are side missions everywhere, enough to stall the main story for hours, so you would think I would be tired of just fighting. I'm not. As the game progresses so does the intensity of the opponents. They start out as scrawny and attacking in small groups. I'm at the halfway point and they're now clad in heavy armor, strike faster than my old reflexes can handle, and they're not afraid to jump on you in great numbers. This is where Sony's Spider Man faltered. After the halfway point of the game it was just the same enemies in the same situations with the same combat over and over (although that game had much more than combat to offer). There are four stances to take that you adjust on the fly in accordance to different types of foes. A person just armed with swords would require a different stance than one with a shield, one with a yari (halberd), etc., so combat becomes this fluid sequence of changing stances as you change opponents. You can literally break a sweat playing this game. As the game progresses, so does the combat options with more stealth weapons, more armor types, and charms to give you an edge on certain aspects. The options let you play as a sneaky assassin taking out your opponents one at a time or go full Akira Kurosawa and just devastate masses of opponents at a time. My only complaint is there aren't more main weapons to choose from. Whether you go ninja or ronin, you still fight with a katana and tanto backed with a bow. You don't get to use a yari, kusarigama, or even a big no dachi sword. It's a small matter because the katana shreds and you can upgrade it as you go, as well as your armor.
The story is compelling and well acted. I've only had a couple of problems with a few plot points and convenient events for lazy writing but they're small compared to the big picture. The big gripe here is that cutscenes can't be skipped, something I think should be considered a war crime but that's just me. It's fine because most of them are short but the mission with the main character's elderly housemaid wanted me to beat my head on the coffee table. Still, even the smaller side missions are relevant and make you feel good about continuing with them.
The game is gorgeous to the point of almost being breathtaking in some places. Crimson maple leaves blaze against glowing sunsets and oceans of pampas grass billow in the wind. Every angle is a desktop wallpaper waiting to be captured...until you look up close. The aging PS4 engine requires some finesse to make sure the entirety of the island can be seen at any distance. This means a lot of the grit, wrinkles, and fine details that make textures look touchable had to be sacrificed for draw distance. While the color palette is stunning, the plants and trees that make up the majority of the scenery (as opposed to sparse buildings and roadways) all look like they were grown in the chocolate river room in Willy Wonka's factory. They're colorful but synthetic looking, with a minimum of detail to the leaves, flowers, and their structure. Add too that the cookie-cutter houses and buildings that make up small villages, where each one of them has an identical interior, do serious damage to the immersion as you go walking around. What's more, some of the textures are just plain sloppy. A cluster of barrels with a rope around them caught my eye when I could see the seam where the two halves of the rope texture came together. Inanimate objects are smooth with a minimum of wire-frame structure, which is no problem during combat and action sequences but when the game invites you to explore their vast, colorful island and celebrate Japanese history and culture, you might want to give people something better to look at than 2007-era graphics. All of this could be easily dismissed as the art style, but the characters are all painstakingly detailed to the point they actually stand out from the background and appear out of place at times. None of this breaks the game but, to me, it does serve as a constant distraction and keeps me from saying this is a perfect game. I keep comparing it to Red Dead Redemption or Witcher 3 where a gorgeous vista or detailed landmark pulls you toward the next part of the map and pushes you keep traveling. Ghost does this with the story and side missions but the map itself seems lacking in motivation to explore.
I'm being too critical of that one aspect of the game, I'm sure, and there is so much more to be enjoyed in the game. I will say that the hours I've played the game thus far have left me with several memorable gaming moments that I will hold on to for years to come. The Siege of Yarikawa mission is easily one of the most pulse-pounding missions that ended with an absolute adrenaline rush and almost caused an emotional outburst in me. That's how you make a good game. You cause your player to lose themselves in the moment and desire to come back for more. Ghost of Tsushima does that repeatedly with fine-tuned combat and storytelling. Hats off to Sony for making an original title with a story of honor and perseverance. Banzai!
The combat is the most intuitive system I've seen since Mount & Blade, and that's a good thing because swinging a sword in Ghost is equal to driving a car in GTA; it's the bulk of the game and the most fun part of it. The story is rich with the samurai recoiling from the initial invasion and mounting a counter-attack. You run up and down the open-world island, helping key characters with their own missions so they can help you fight the Mongols, but pretty much every mission just involves combat of some sort. There are no fetch missions or pure stealth missions, no grocery missions or persuasion missions, just "hey go slice those people up" with a few "get to point A before being spotted." There are side missions everywhere, enough to stall the main story for hours, so you would think I would be tired of just fighting. I'm not. As the game progresses so does the intensity of the opponents. They start out as scrawny and attacking in small groups. I'm at the halfway point and they're now clad in heavy armor, strike faster than my old reflexes can handle, and they're not afraid to jump on you in great numbers. This is where Sony's Spider Man faltered. After the halfway point of the game it was just the same enemies in the same situations with the same combat over and over (although that game had much more than combat to offer). There are four stances to take that you adjust on the fly in accordance to different types of foes. A person just armed with swords would require a different stance than one with a shield, one with a yari (halberd), etc., so combat becomes this fluid sequence of changing stances as you change opponents. You can literally break a sweat playing this game. As the game progresses, so does the combat options with more stealth weapons, more armor types, and charms to give you an edge on certain aspects. The options let you play as a sneaky assassin taking out your opponents one at a time or go full Akira Kurosawa and just devastate masses of opponents at a time. My only complaint is there aren't more main weapons to choose from. Whether you go ninja or ronin, you still fight with a katana and tanto backed with a bow. You don't get to use a yari, kusarigama, or even a big no dachi sword. It's a small matter because the katana shreds and you can upgrade it as you go, as well as your armor.
The story is compelling and well acted. I've only had a couple of problems with a few plot points and convenient events for lazy writing but they're small compared to the big picture. The big gripe here is that cutscenes can't be skipped, something I think should be considered a war crime but that's just me. It's fine because most of them are short but the mission with the main character's elderly housemaid wanted me to beat my head on the coffee table. Still, even the smaller side missions are relevant and make you feel good about continuing with them.
The game is gorgeous to the point of almost being breathtaking in some places. Crimson maple leaves blaze against glowing sunsets and oceans of pampas grass billow in the wind. Every angle is a desktop wallpaper waiting to be captured...until you look up close. The aging PS4 engine requires some finesse to make sure the entirety of the island can be seen at any distance. This means a lot of the grit, wrinkles, and fine details that make textures look touchable had to be sacrificed for draw distance. While the color palette is stunning, the plants and trees that make up the majority of the scenery (as opposed to sparse buildings and roadways) all look like they were grown in the chocolate river room in Willy Wonka's factory. They're colorful but synthetic looking, with a minimum of detail to the leaves, flowers, and their structure. Add too that the cookie-cutter houses and buildings that make up small villages, where each one of them has an identical interior, do serious damage to the immersion as you go walking around. What's more, some of the textures are just plain sloppy. A cluster of barrels with a rope around them caught my eye when I could see the seam where the two halves of the rope texture came together. Inanimate objects are smooth with a minimum of wire-frame structure, which is no problem during combat and action sequences but when the game invites you to explore their vast, colorful island and celebrate Japanese history and culture, you might want to give people something better to look at than 2007-era graphics. All of this could be easily dismissed as the art style, but the characters are all painstakingly detailed to the point they actually stand out from the background and appear out of place at times. None of this breaks the game but, to me, it does serve as a constant distraction and keeps me from saying this is a perfect game. I keep comparing it to Red Dead Redemption or Witcher 3 where a gorgeous vista or detailed landmark pulls you toward the next part of the map and pushes you keep traveling. Ghost does this with the story and side missions but the map itself seems lacking in motivation to explore.
I'm being too critical of that one aspect of the game, I'm sure, and there is so much more to be enjoyed in the game. I will say that the hours I've played the game thus far have left me with several memorable gaming moments that I will hold on to for years to come. The Siege of Yarikawa mission is easily one of the most pulse-pounding missions that ended with an absolute adrenaline rush and almost caused an emotional outburst in me. That's how you make a good game. You cause your player to lose themselves in the moment and desire to come back for more. Ghost of Tsushima does that repeatedly with fine-tuned combat and storytelling. Hats off to Sony for making an original title with a story of honor and perseverance. Banzai!
