Official Review Xbox Series X|S

Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden (Xbox Series X|S)
Official GBAtemp Review

Name: Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden
Item: Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden
Rating: 8
Author: Prans

Product Information:

Release Date (NA): February 13, 2024
Release Date (EU): February 13, 2024
Publisher: Focus Entertainment
Developer: DON’T NOD
Genres: Action-RPG
Also For: Computer, PlayStation 5

Game Features:

Single player

Local Multiplayer

Online Multiplayer

Co-operative

Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden is the latest action-RPG title from DON’T NOD. As is customary from the developer, this game is heavily narrative-driven with in-game choices that shape the narrative outcome. Does it offer an engrossing experience?

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In 1695, couple and professional banishers (or ghost hunters) Antea Duarte and Red mac Raith were called to the town of New Eden, in North America, to lift a certain curse. But this expedition took a turn for the worse, as it saw Antea fatally wounded and become a spirit herself.

With Red still in the living world and Antea in the spirit one, the couple set out to seek vengeance against the Nightmare behind their plight. They also learn of the faint chance of bringing Antea back to the living world; but at the cost of human lives. To what extent is Red willing to go to save his loved one?

New Eden: exploring the New World with a new twist

Set in 15th century North America, Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden looks the part. Settlements consist of wooden buildings surrounded by pristine woodlands and inhabitants lead a relatively modest life. Those “simpler” times are well depicted but have a unique twist to their historical presentation.

In Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden’s universe, seekers (or witches), curses, spectres, bonewalkers (or the game's version of zombies) are commonplace. This original folklore baked into the game’s narrative brings an esoteric feel and a welcome layer of originality.

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This original universe also packs a cinematic presentation with smooth transitions between gameplay and cutscenes. However, in the pre-release build that I played on the Xbox Series S, it was quite noticeable that the characters’ facial expressions are not convincing. This might sound trivial but for a cinematic, narrative-driven game where you go around talking to a lot of NPCs throughout its 25-30h runtime, it's quite jarring.

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Two protagonists and a dual character system

Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden plays as a traditional third-person action-RPG with the gamut of skill trees, open-ended but linear progression interspersed with combat. It sounds generic and for the first opening hour, it very much is. After that relatively long introductory segment, the game starts to open up and show its distinctive features.

You play as both Antea and Red, with the ability to swap between each at will. You’ll have to do so regularly as they each have unique skills and abilities. For instance, while Red will handle most of the actions in the physical world, Antea assists from the spectral one. By swapping to Antea, she can reveal spectral stains to track trails, improve visibility in areas affected by thick quickmyst, and can perform spectral jumps to cross otherwise unreachable areas. This makes for a nice gameplay dynamic that weaves well into the plot.

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In addition to helping in exploration, this dual character system is also essential in combat. During encounters, Antea can deal more damage to Spectres, but this consumes her Spirit points. This can in turn be regenerated by Red’s physical attack. This can lead to satisfying combos by having Red melee with possessed corpses and once the Spectres have been kicked out, Antea can take over to deal more efficient damages.

As you progress further and unlock new skills, more combos become available that make clever use of the duo’s skills for more efficient offensive manoeuvres. You can further experiment with the skill tree progression as it allows you to refund your skill points and redistribute them to your liking and try different approaches that best suit your style. In addition, you can upgrade your equipment at shelters by using resources.

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Sacrifice, Banish, or Ascend - the fate of New Eden’s inhabitants is in your hands, Banisher

While the dual character system adds a layer of originality and some interesting dynamics to the action-RPG genre, the game really stands out when you take on “haunting cases”. These take the form of investigations that you tackle to probe into cases of ghosts haunting inhabitants of New Eden and surrounds. You’ll have to explore the person of interest’s surroundings, perform correct rituals to peek into the past, as well as probe into their background to better understand their case.

Based on the information you collect, you’ll have to decide the fate of the person you’re investigating as well as the ghost that’s haunting them. You can choose to either blame the person to hold them accountable to their action that led to their haunting and, in so doing, sacrifice their lives, or dispel the ghost by either banishing them (leading to their eternal suffering) or ascending them (offering a gentle liberation).

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Such choices inevitably lead to moral quandaries. For example, should you blame a starving trapper who killed his friend and survived off his flesh, or should you ascend the lingering ghost of the friend, even if the departed would have done the same had he struck first? Should you banish a wife abuser or blame the wife who killed her husband? The cases are never black or white and you’ll have to weigh your own morality in deciding the fate of a settler.

These decisions are made even more challenging considering that if Red is to attempt at bringing Antea back from the dead, he must blame the largest number of living settlers to bring Antea back. This means sacrificing the living for the chance of being reunited with his loved one.

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Each case is unique and easily piques the interest. They help flesh out the universe with personal stories revolving around relatable themes of love, deception and survival; and are easily one of the best aspects of Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden. By getting to know the background of NPCs, weighing their actions and then playing the judge, this mechanic makes the game more engaging and adds significant weight to your in-game decisions. Indeed, the choices you make eventually lead to diverging plot lines.

Slow burn yet original and engaging

While Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden is indeed an engaging game with its plot-shaping decisions, it is slow to reveal this aspect. You don’t encounter your first haunting case where you have to make a decision until about 2 hours in. Until then, the game easily feels like a generic action RPG and this doesn’t do it much favours if it wants to leave a striking first impression. If you do give it some time, you will find in it an original game with some interesting mechanics but the slow-burn aspect might not be to everyone’s taste and it would have benefited from better pacing or a narrowed down scope.

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I also had gripes with the default controls which didn’t feel intuitive to me (such as having RB mapped to fast attacks). Luckily, the game features alternate mapping as well as customisable mapping which I did employ to make the controls more ergonomic. However, it is still surprising that the default options were not optimised in such a way.

On the Xbox Series S, I also didn’t find the option to toggle between performance and quality modes. This, coupled with the lack of convincing facial expressions of characters, makes the game pale in comparison to other current-gen-only titles.

While I could overlook the need to remap buttons and the poor facial animations, the main fault that I would point to is the limited enemy types. You’ll come across the same ones often, and this is particularly felt as you spend a lot of time in the same area.

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Surprisingly, these issues are echoed in Vampyr, DON’T NOD’s 2018 action RPG which Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden shares a lot in common with. However, their latest title offers a new and original experience which will draw fans of narrative-driven games, especially those with meaningful in-game decisions.

Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden - Love, Death & Sacrifice

Verdict

What We Liked ...

Engaging in-game choices that shape the narrative outcome
Dual character system leads to interesting gameplay dynamics
Original universe and folklore

What We Didn't Like ...

Limited enemy types
Unconvincing facial expressions
Default controls aren't intuitive

Gameplay

The dual character system leads to interesting dynamics during exploration as well as combat but the narrative-shaping decisions steal the spotlight.

Presentation

Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden offers an original take on 15th century North America with its unique folklore; although the facial animation of characters could have been improved upon.

Lasting Appeal

While it starts off slow, the game gets engaging when you start tackling haunting cases and engaging in combat with interesting dual character dynamics.

out of 10

Overall

Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden offers an original, engaging narrative-driven experience with impactful in-game decisions.

Reactions: CoolMe, RedColoredStars, MetalTail and 4 others

Great news. I was a bit worried as I haven't pre-ordered a game in a very long time. Glad to see it's been scoring mostly in the 80-90+ range. Excited to start playing today on PS5.

Reactions: Prans

This game is also available on PS5 and Windows (Steam & Epic), in case anyone without an Xbox is interested in playing it.

Prans
Feb 13, 2024

kidcharlemagne said:
This game is also available on PS5 and Windows (Steam & Epic), in case anyone without an Xbox is interested in playing it.

we have the information about platform availability of each game we review under the 'Product Information' section found on the right hand side of the screen (on desktop) and right under the title on mobile.

Reactions: KiiWii

I see. Thanks! No wonder I couldn't find the info under the title.

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Product Information:

Game Features:

New Eden: exploring the New World with a new twist

Two protagonists and a dual character system

Sacrifice, Banish, or Ascend - the fate of New Eden’s inhabitants is in your hands, Banisher

Slow burn yet original and engaging

Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden - Love, Death & Sacrifice

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