Suckerpunch Productions started off the PlayStation 4 generation with one of it’s first major exclusives in 2014: Infamous 2nd Son. That was a game to me that i thought was quite shallow and forgettable as it pretty much was one of those launch window graphical showpiece type of games. In 2017 they announced Ghost of Tsushima, and now it’s finally out. I played the whole game on the hardest difficulty and in English. I have completed the main story, liberated the first area, and done numerous side quest and side activities, so much to a fault in a way.
The game starts off with a grand opening battle that’s pretty epic. But within this opening sequence, you can already tell some of the pros and cons of this game. With the opening lines of the game, you can already see and hear how weak this game is when it comes to facial animation and voice acting. Like I said before, i played in english. Maybe the Japanese voice acting is more fitting, but i do not understand Japanese, and looking at subtitles isn’t how i want to experience games. Not to mention the lips are not synced up either, hurting the immersiveness. Anyways, so yeah. Within the opening moments of this game you can tell that the engine is quite dated and it’s rough-looking and sounding at times. Even something as simple as running, it kind of weird looking and not something you’d expect from a 2020 AAA exclusive from a sony studio.
Thankfully though, within this opening sequence, you also get introduced to the general feel of the combat and grand scale of the epic soundtrack backed by very good environmental sound design. And i have to say, the combat in this game is insanely satisfying and really fun, with a lot of skill trees, and tools to play around with once the game opens up after this hour-long or so introduction tutorial section which features a very epic title drop. You can really feel the weight of the sword and i am excited to see what they could do with the dual sense’s haptics and adaptive triggers in the future. While it is satisfying to use, it would be even more satisfying if slash marks would actually appear on enemies when you, you know, freaking slash them. This feature was shown in the E3 Gameplay demo in 2018, but it’s gone, which really sucks. It would’ve made the experience a lot more immersive and i really wonder why something as important as that would not make the final cut. Anyways, The overall progression with the story in how the Ghost stealth style progresses is also really great and it always feels like there’s always something else to unlock to enhance your combat experience, though it may feel kind of grindy. You even end up getting a longbow, and a half bow which aren’t the most satisfying but they prove really useful in cheesing your way through scenarios. Later adding explosives and fire into the mix. You also unlock stances throughout the game to help you defeat certain enemies which is once again, just another great layer added to the game’s combat system.
Sadly enough though the stealth does not uphold this same quality and is embarrassing at times. It is a game centered around Jin moving away from traditional fighting tactics and into the dishonorable ghost. And this is sad because the actual stealth is pretty basic and generic. All you have to do is press square above an enemy, sometimes even when you’re super far, and it will automatically lock on to the enemy and kill them. It’s in general fairly dated in how it feels and looks at times. It even has generic enemy detection symbols that have been used for such a long time in open-world games. Speaking of outdated, for whatever reason, the enemy AI within stealth act like total lifeless and unaware morons that just don’t know what to do at times. It’s very much in need of an overhaul. I mean i literally had an experience the other night when playing (don’t have it recorded sadly) where i blew up the cart of explosions or whatever in a camp and like none of the enemies reacted or even noticed. This really hurts the stealth experience.
Not to mention, the stealth kill animations are generally total jank at times with a lack of satisfaction from multi-person takedowns due to once again, the game not featuring slash marks.
Another issue i had with the enemies in general is that while in regular samurai combat they were aggressive and pretty solid, not dumb like they are in stealth, they’re not really dynamic at all and they do bug out at times. The game features these stand off type of things and these standoffs get kind of repetitive because they are just repeated with very little dynamics or variety to them. You will find yourself killing the same exact enemies over again in a very similar way, all throughout the game. As you progress into the later parts of the story, the enemies in standoffs will try to taunt you a little more and make you mess up, but it’s quite predictable and once again just repeated the same formula set off at the beginning of the game but just with maybe a few different skins of amour and an extra second or two of taunting. You will find that these standoffs just play out the same really and you find yourself tired. I got bored of it so i luckily created my own fun of just attacking them head-on, no standoff. But oh, did i mention how often times these enemies at the standoffs will sometimes have a generic NPC captured? In which once you defeat the enemies at the standoff, you will have to let the NPC free and be forced to hear Jin and the NPC say the same exact god damn dialogue throughout the 20+ hour experience without any option to skip the cut scene!? These random NPCs will either go back to a village or tell you where to find the camp where these enemies came from. It’s once again, a very expected formula and gets tiring. And that’s pretty much my main issue with this game.
This is probably going to be insanely hot take considering the community is praising this game for being so “different” in it’s open world, but i don’t see it. In fact, I believe this game would’ve been better had it been semi-open world (like god of war) instead of fully open world. It’s simply not necessary. Though I way say the world doesn’t have insane level gating and big big big amount of bloat like assassins odyssey which is nice and an improvement.
Quite literally, it’s using the same outdated formula that tons of other open-world games that you’ve already played and experienced played already. The only difference though is that this game uses the wind and birds, nature in general to guide you towards the open world busywork. Which is a great improvement honestly and probably the only area where this game isn’t outdated? Finally, after so many years we are using something other than a line to follow to guide you toward objectives. While this is a great start to making open-world games more natural or minimalistic, this novelty wears off just like some things i mentioned earlier do. And the game really isn’t natural at its exploration, as the more you play, the formula becomes more apparent and you end up just following in game guides to get you to places. Whether it be a bird, the wind, or fox, it will always lead you to places you will expect which end up pretty much being a culmination of reused assets and maybe a few different rock placements. What’s even more counter initiative to the goal in wanting the player to naturally explore things, is it’s not natural whatsoever when this question marks literally end up on your in-game map, spoiling where something is. The more you play, the more you will find that you’re literally just following in game guides to get you to check something off of the list. It becomes so damn redundant after the first 10 hours when you’re led to the same exact fox shrine by the same exact fox with little dynamics to it. It really just becomes a chore, like any other open-world game. It’s just unmemorable side activities spaced all around the map to fill your play time. Though I do find the bamboo strike relatively satisfying and you’re rewarded with resolve. These activities and gameplay quest designs are mostyly copy and pasted, no dynamics whatsoever. Later on in the game, it will add even more bloat and objectives to your map. In which you the player, will probably be hand-held to get you on your way there by in game guides. What i am trying to say here is ghost of tsushima’s open-world is no different than other games minus the reskinned forms of navigations and it’s generally unnecessary for the game to be fully open world minus just stretching out the playtime. Yeah some of these side activities give decent rewards, as you’d expect, but even the more you play, the less you need them. For exmaple, charms you get end up filling up your menu with clutter and many you probably won’t even use. In reality, everything the open world has two offer, you will experience it more or less within the first 10 hours of the game and after that it becomes repetitive, repeated, and wares off. Just like the stand offs did. It’s not dynamic at all. Other parts of the maps will introduce newer side activities to stuff up your playtime even longer. Such as clearing more enemy camps filled with reused assets and reused enemies that can be hilariously exploited.
Now, part of the open-world includes side stories of course. Which is another aspect of this game that’s been praised? Which i also don’t get. I did many of them, completed some character tales as well. For example, lady Masako’s. And more than the majority of these quests or side stories will include you investigating some place where someone once was so you can track them down or whatever. There’s even forced stealth missions and generally speaking, the quest design in this game is formulaic and outdated and something you’ve already probably experienced in another open world game. There’s no much dynamics to them, but you do get fair rewards. Specifically speaking, the mystic tales are probably the best side quests even though that formula becomes tired as well as it consists of “GO TO A MUSICIAN, LEARN THE BACKSTORY OF THIS LEGEND (which are actually animated quite well and probably the best parts narratively of the game), GO DO SOME TYPICAL OPEN WORLD STUFF TO FIND THEM, THEN DUEL THEM, GET REWARD. Like i said before, the rewards you get for doing mystic tales are pretty great. Heavenly strike to name one. The duels in general are one of the best and coolest parts of the game. But yeah, i said before, side quests in this game aren’t anything special and the formula becomes apparent after you do a few. It’s nothing i’ve not experienced. I will say, maybe there’s an argument to be hard in that maybe the writing in these side quests are better than the writing in side quests for other games, but i don’t see it. I find the early witcher comparisons quite funny.
But sadly, anytime a cut scene was playing in these side quests, i couldn’t be more uninterested. The voice acting is very unconvincing, the dialouge is very generic, cliche and overly self-serious upon delivery, the cinematography uses the same exact type of zoom in, zoom out shots with black bars where the characters are just standing still while talking, then a jarring fade to black transition.. I just can’t fathom it. It’s once again, redundant and lame. The vast majority of these open-world activities are repeated and end up being repetitive like other open-world games, only difference is that some these are probably longer than some other ones, maybe some cool rewards like the mystic tale duels, but the generally speaking, the gameplay loop, style of cinematics, writing, character models and performances is unimmserive and bland, and really bogs down this experience.
Sadly enough, some of these complaints i have of repetitive mission design, overly serious cliche dialogue, voice acting, and character models find their way into the main story which is generally forgettable. But, it does have at some very epic moments where it truly feels you’re in a battle for the island, but once again as soon as the game switches to the cut scenes, i become uninterested. Some of the cut scenes even have so much clipping and other technical issues going on.. It just makes it forgettable. But i did enjoy a few characters. Like Kenji, and Khotun Khan. I may sound harsh and nitpicky but generally, the key story of jin becoming a ghost and moving away from traditions, causing conflict with his uncle and even serving consequences (like the poison being used against the innocents) is one that’s not bad really at all, it is just serviceable and what i’d describe as the bare minimum. But the main campaign does have its moments of on point cinematics mixed in with an epic soundtrack and duel, it’s just really thin and rare, leading to an all around okay but forgettable story. I’d even go as far as saying days gone with deacon had a more compelling narrative as that game had a fair amount of decent acting and convincing cut scenes.
It really seems to me that the general outdatedness of the game hurt my experience. While the way the world moves with it’s vegetation, particle effects, and trees and wind is quite amazing at times, the more you play, the more you will notice that this game is far from being the best looking open-world game due to generally weak textures, and weak looking backgrounds that seem soupy. There’s even an apparent amount of clipping, reused death animations, lack of ragdolls physics, lack of some animations at all actually. The platforming itself is fairly janky and floaty, having very little blend and making Jin seem not-human. It really seems sucker-punch put all there cards onto the movement of the world. Which is fine i guess, but the game is basically a 2016 open-world game releasing in 2020. And for that, it’s not as enjoyable as i’d like. I would expect better from sony first party at least in these technical aspects.
I know that most of this review has seemed like me just rambling and bitching about the game, but it has flaws and needs major improvements for what they do next. But as i mentioned earlier on, they really nailed the feel of the samurai. If there’s one aspect where this game is above average from other open world games, it’s the god damn combat. It’s really hard to just explain it in words, but it just feels so good to get a perfect parry and dodge, and counter-attack. And there’s so many cool things you can do in combat. You have ghost tools like smoke bombs, fire cracking, throwing blade, etc.. You can do duels against legends in the mystic tales where it’s just so satisfying to win. Difficulty wise i played on the hardest mode, i am not the best at these type of games, i did get stuck a few times, but usually when you’re losing a lot it’s because you need to get better. I never felt the game was cheesing me, and it just made it all the more rewarding to win certain duels when i overcame it. I think hard is the way to experience this game. It’s insanely badass how quickly you can take down a group of enemies depending on how skilled you are and this is an aspect of the game where i don’t think anyone can complain (minus the stealth). If you feel like being a badass samurai, ghost of tsushima will surely make you feel this way.
Ultimately, Ghost of Tsushima is sadly not exactly the best way for Sony to end this generation as it feels like a game that’s stuck in the past in nearly all aspects and far from many benchmarks set this generation by other open-world games. From the formulaic and typically repeated open-world activities and quest design, I feel this game wasted it’s potential making itself be an open world. It does make improvements on the navigation systems of open-world games, making waypoints be less intrusive and more involved in the environments, but that novelty wore off quite early for me. It also has a pretty flat main story led by unconvincing performances, animations, cinematics, and cliche dialogue that takes itself too seriously. Sadly, even a key part of the story, which is the Ghost stealth, was also weak and outdated. Despite these major flaws though, the game was mostly enjoyable due to it’s great samurai duels, epic battles, and pretty world.
