The core message of 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Banishers: Ghosts Of New Eden is that life is short. You might think you have your whole life ahead of you, only to find yourself struck ✱down by happenstance years before your time. Life is what you make it, and instead of holding onto ignorance and fear, you should do good in the world and care for those around you.

It’s a lesson I’d have taken to heart, had I not been stuck playing Banishers instead. Despite its positives – and there are many – it’s hard to look back on my time with Don’t Nod’s latest with much ♏more than a haunted look in🗹 my eye.

Set in the 17th century ami👍dst a New England colony, Banishers puts you in the shoes of Red mac Raith and his partner Antea Duarte. The pair are banishers, whose job is to roam the world fi🥃ghting ghosts and helping the living they plague. They’re basically Witchers, but with fewer Drowners. As the pair investigate the curse of New Eden, Antea meets her untimely demise, only to return as a ghost, the very thing she swore to fight. As Red and his now-ghostly partner explore the world, you fight both the dead and the living to uncover the dark secrets underpinning the curse of New Eden.

Banishers Ghosts Of New Eden Antea and Red

Banishers is a romance hidden in a gritty fantasy-historical RPG. Red and Antea’s story is utterly captivating, turning what 💛could’ve been a rote vengeance story with a badass ghost lady into a real meditation on grief. Their dialogue is littered with references to past adventures, and their physical tenderness with each other really sets them apart from just about any leading duo in games.

Banishers Red Confronting Fairfax Haskell

This is helped hugely by Red, who eschews the gruff Geralt-y persona you’d expect and is instead an emotional, open, and caring lead. Don’t Nod has always been great at telling heartfelt stories, having been responsible for L🧸ife is Strange and the recent Jusant, but Banishers handles its themes of religious zealotism, loss, and sacrifice in a markedly more☂ mature way.

Banishers is set in the same universe as Don't Nod's other spooky-monster game, Vampyr, but a few hundred years earlier.

It's not just Red and Antea, though. Every story you stumble across throughout New Eden is incredibly well-written, with the numerous side-missions and haunting cases offering up some truly memorable moments and tough choices. The choices really matter, too, with how you decide to deal with the humans of New Eden, such as choosing who lives or dies, or deciding Antea’s ultimate fate.

Banishers Choice

I’m entirely comfortable saying Banishers has some of the best video game writing in recent years, standing up there greats like Citizen Sleeper, Disco Elysium and The Fo🔥rgotten City. But you’re going to have to really put the work in to experience it, because everything else about Banishers is an absolute slog.

Across its 25-ish hours, you’ll see practically nothing but New England forests, copious mud, and the odd mineshaft. Maybe you’ll have a jaunt into the Void, the realm below the afterlife where all banished souls reside, but even that feels tired after a while. Every lꦉocation is so repetitive and superfluous, only to be broken up by combat encounters that feel like all the worst parts of The Witche🐟r thrown against the same six enemy types.

Banisher Aul Saul Boss Fight

Combat feels imprecise, with Red and Antea randomly darting from enemy to enemy no matter how many times you lock onto just one spirit. You can upgrade your abilities to improve your combos or trade one banisher’s longevity for the others’ damage ꦇoutput, but it all culminates in boring number-crunching where you’re weighing up one piece of equipment’s percentage boost to an obtuse stat against losing access to a forgettable perk for another.

As mentioned, enemy variety is just dire. The worldbuilding suggests ghosts come in all shapes and sizes, but most of the time you’ll be fighting a few undead dogs, and maybe a big gooey g🥂host man if you’re lucky. Mini-bosses are just slightly larger, slightly harder ♕versions of common ghosts too, making the large encounters completely forgettable.

Banishers Banishing

Combat is sometimes broken up by puzzles or investigating set areas, and this serves as a great way to give Red and Antea more quality time together that really elevates the game. But even these segments are rote, with most simply being a case of finding the right place and standing in it so Antea can use her ghostly powers to progress the plot. It’s perfectly serviceable – one segment where you’re solving puzzles to destroy massive chains b🎶inding a ghost is particularly excellent – but it’s not enough to bring the gameplay up to the same standard as its writing.

Banishers Ranged Combat

For a game this long, the writing alone isn’t enoꦛugh to carry it. As much as I adored Red and Antea’s journey, and Don’t Nods’ exploration on the depravity of the puritanical colonists, the constant onslaught of samey locations, wonky combat, and boring enemies really made getting through it a chore. It’s almost like this didn’t need to be an RPG – a 12-hour campaign could’ve covered much of the same ground and been far more impactful.

Banishers is a game I’m going to be thinking about for a long time, for bet🥂ter or worse. You’ll likely not find💃 a better story than it any time soon, but there are plenty other better ways you could be spending your time.

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Your Rating

168澳洲幸🍌运5开奖网: Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden
Action RPG
Systems
3.0/5
Top Critic Avg: 80/100 Critics Rec: 79%
Released
February 13, 2024
ESRB
T For Teen Due To Bl🐲ood and Gore, Language, Use of A🌠lcohol and Tobacco, Violence
Developer(s)
DON'T NOD
Publisher(s)
𓂃 Focus 🔯Entertainment
Engine
Unreal Engine 5

WHERE TO PLAY

DIGITAL

Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden is an all-new action RPG from Don't Nod, creators of the Life is Strange series. Featuring a deep narrative in which your choices matter, you play a pair of ghost hunters exploring the town of New Eden in 1695.

Pros & Cons
  • Mature, well-written storytelling.
  • Red and Antea are an amazing pair of leads.
  • Deep sense of worldbuilding.
  • Repetitive environments and enemies.
  • Floaty combat.
  • Far too long.
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