Ghostwire Tokyo review \u2013 Supernatural shooter is a surprise hit Tango GameworksGhostwire Tokyo is an immersive adventure that brings the neon lights of the Japanese city to life with gorgeous visuals, hugely satisfying combat, and plenty of supernatural thrills. It\u2019s hard to say what genre Ghostwire Tokyo is \u2013 there\u2019s exploring to be done in the gorgeous recreation of Tokyo, mysteries to solve involving supernatural beings, parkour over building rooftops, and first-person shooting when taking down ghostly enemies. What we can say, though, is that it blends all of these different aspects together incredibly well, to create a game that has its own unique identity and stands as one of 2022\u2019s most pleasant surprises. Ghostwire Tokyo key details Price: $59.99 \/ \u00a359.99 – Developer: Tango Gameworks – Release Date: March 25, 2022 – Platforms: PS5 and PC – Ghostwire Tokyo trailer The city is the true star of Ghostwire Tokyo Ghostwire Tokyo opens with a car accident in the streets of Shibuya that\u2019s left Akito, the game\u2019s protagonist, dead. A mysterious fog has spread across Tokyo, causing everyone inside it to disappear, and swarms of creepy Visitors \u2013 led by an occultist in a Hannya mask who wants to cleanse the world \u2013 are stealing their spirits. To ward them off, a spirit known as KK takes over Akito\u2019s body, temporarily bringing him back to the world of the living and imbuing him with special powers. It\u2019s an abrupt way to start a game, but an effective one, too, as being thrown straight into the action had me hooked right from the beginning. While the first chapter is essentially one long tutorial, it never feels tedious as the story unfolds in tandem. Akito wants to find his sister, while KK wants to stop whatever\u2019s happening to Tokyo, and they\u2019ll need to (reluctantly) work together to achieve their goals. It\u2019s a nice pairing, with plenty of wisecracks and even some warmth as they get to know each other \u2013 although if I\u2019m being honest, I never felt truly attached to any of the main characters in the game, which is a shame. Once you\u2019ve made it through the first chapter, it\u2019s out into the (mostly) open world of Tokyo. The usual mechanics apply here \u2013 visit shops to purchase items, gather XP to level up your powers, and complete side quests from friendly spirits along the way. All these familiar functions weave in elements of Japanese mythology and tradition that help make Ghostwire Tokyo feel unique, though; The shops are run by floating cats, interacting with Omikuji at Shrines can tell your fortune and grant buffs, and certain doors are locked with hand seals that require you to draw signs with the analog stick to open them. Most importantly, yes, you can pet the dog! There are canine friends roaming all over Tokyo, and they\u2019ll even find buried treasure if you feed them \u2013 some of which are essential to the main story. Read More: Horizon Forbidden West review – The developers of Ghostwire Tokyo, Tango Gameworks, have referred to the game as more of a \u201csandbox\u201d than an open world, which is true for the most part. The map isn\u2019t unnecessarily huge, and most of it is blocked off from the start thanks to the fog that covers the city. As you progress through the game, you\u2019ll discover torii gates that need to be cleansed to open up new areas of the map. It feels quite focused, with the fog effectively guiding you to your next objective in the early stages of the story, but there are still opportunities to go off-grid to explore, complete side quests, and save spirits with your Katashiro if you want to \u2013 and you probably will, as this is a prime method of earning XP and leveling up. I love the prospect of an open world, but often find myself feeling lost in huge maps that lack a clear objective, so for me, this felt like a great balance. Tokyo looks amazing at night, too, with neon signs lining every path and reflections on the rain-soaked streets making the most of ray-tracing on the PS5. This is also a game that encourages vertical exploration, as there are loads of narrow buildings to plunder for secrets and rooftops to jump across with the help of a temporary glide ability and flying Tengu to grapple onto. It can feel claustrophobic at times \u2013 there are no gorgeous sunsets or vast views into the distance to enjoy \u2013 but that only adds to the spooky atmosphere. Combat is flashy and a whole lot of fun It\u2019s not just the bright lights of the city that catch the eye. Showy combat gestures known as Ethereal Weaving \u2013 which are based on the elements Wind, Fire, and Water \u2013 are your main weapons in Ghostwire Tokyo, and they\u2019re a constant, explosive spectacle. Tapping R2 releases small blasts of the element you have equipped, while holding R2 performs a powerful charge attack. Deal enough damage to a Visitor, and you\u2019ll be able to rip out their core to stop them permanently. It\u2019s a satisfying approach to combat that plays more like a first-person shooter, and the prospect of unlocking new elements and powering them up is genuinely exciting. Fire is the standout, dealing huge explosive damage from afar, but I never found myself using Water, as the requirement to be up close always seemed too dangerous with little payoff. Later on in the game, when you reach maximum resonance with KK, you\u2019ll be able to perform a Wire In, which is a bit like a super move that unleashes a devastating blast, restores your SP, and makes it easier to expose Visitor cores. You\u2019ll also get access to various Talismans that can be thrown to distract enemies, stick them to the ground, or block their line of sight. What I loved about Ghostwire Tokyo\u2019s combat is that you\u2019re always learning new powers or gaining access to new items \u2013 it never gets boring. In order to use Ethereal Weaving attacks, you\u2019ll need to destroy crystallized ether floating around the map. Doing this will shatter the deposit and allow you to absorb the ether inside, restoring your SP to allow you to perform more attacks. This is one of the only combat features that I wasn\u2019t keen on \u2013 quite a few times I found myself running out of powerful Fire and having to return to weak Wind, which isn\u2019t anywhere near as effective (or as fun) against the game\u2019s more powerful enemies, especially when you\u2019re being swarmed. There\u2019s also not really time to go looking for crystallized ether sources when you\u2019ve got four headless ghost schoolgirls cartwheeling towards you. Read More: Elden Ring review – Another thing that took a while to get used to was the lack of a dodge maneuver. Visitors move quickly, and sometimes taking damage felt inevitable as a result of this. In fairness, Ghostwire Tokyo does put a lot of focus on the \u2018block\u2019 button, with KK often reminding you to use it when you take damage, and it does work well against individual enemies \u2013 but even hours into the game, I still found myself instinctively going to press a \u2018dodge\u2019 or \u2018roll\u2019 button in tricky situations, only to remember it wasn\u2019t there. Admittedly, this might be more of a \u2018me\u2019 problem than a fault of the game, although I imagine many players will experience the same thing. While playing around with Ethereal Weaving and blasting away Visitors is a lot of fun, I found that stealth was sometimes the best way forward. One section in the game\u2019s second chapter required me to clear out Shiroyama Shrine so I could cleanse every torii gate and open up a new part of the map, but taking the brute force approach only got me killed after being swarmed by Visitors. On my next attempt, I eliminated them one by one with Quick Purges \u2013 the game\u2019s supernatural version of a stealth takedown \u2013 which made things a lot easier, even if watching Visitors squirm up close to the camera is a little unnerving. More thrills than chills As someone who enjoys horror games but also struggles to keep their nerve, I was pleased to find out that Ghostwire Tokyo leans more towards action than horror. There are no jump scares, and it\u2019s never particularly gory, although there are plenty of unsettling moments along the way. Visions of burning figures and the traditional \u2018creepy person standing at the end of a hallway\u2019 trope are out in full effect. Certain Visitors are also haunting to look at, especially in later chapters, and making your way through apartment blocks where the whole building appears to warp and twist around you can easily throw you off balance, although the game moves at such a quick pace that it\u2019s hard to get truly scared by anything. In fact, without going too heavily into spoiler territory, the game\u2019s scariest moments come when Akito temporarily loses his powers. Without Ethereal Weaving attacks or the ability to scout for enemies, the city that you\u2019ve been blasting your way through becomes quite intimidating, as you\u2019ll have to rely on stealth and Talismans that provide distractions to get to your next objective, giving it more of a horror-survival vibe. It\u2019s only a short section, but in some ways, I actually enjoyed it more than the main chunk of gameplay. While there\u2019s plenty to do in Ghostwire Tokyo, and the combat is brilliant, there\u2019s no denying that the city is the star here, with Tango Gameworks successfully blending a hyper-modern location with Japanese tradition and mythology to create a world that\u2019s a delight to explore \u2013 or simply just look at. It\u2019s worth playing for that alone. Rating: 8.5\/10 Ghostwire Tokyo is another great addition to the PS5\u2019s growing library and we\u2019d definitely recommend experiencing it. It\u2019s not perfect, but there\u2019s more than enough to keep you engrossed as the city slowly expands and offers more to explore. Between a gallery of ghouls, exciting combat, and a stunning recreation of Tokyo to wander through, it stands alone as something unique. Plus, you can pet dogs \u2013 what more could you ask for? Reviewed on PS5<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ghostwire Tokyo review \u2013 Supernatural shooter is a surprise hit Tango GameworksGhostwire Tokyo is an immersive adventure that brings the neon lights of the Japanese city to life with gorgeous visuals, hugely satisfying combat, and plenty of supernatural thrills. It\u2019s hard to say what genre Ghostwire Tokyo is \u2013 there\u2019s exploring to be done in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-81104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81104"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81104\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}