The choices we make everyday influencein a more or less evident way, our life: Don't Nod knows this well and, for this reason, over the years it has offered us experiences such as Vampyr And Life is Strange, where the weight of our choices had a greater influence than ever on the outcome of our adventure. But what happens if we move from school or from London at the beginning of the 20th century to be catapulted into a new dark and cursed world where death takes on a new meaning, becoming no longer a definitive passage, but a new way to connect with those who are still alive?
Banisher: Ghosts of New Eden it is not simply a ghost story, but an adventure that blends within itself pathos, love, fear and the need to make choices that will mark us… for eternity. We land on the shores of New Eden for kick off our review.
Will the love of life conquer a cursed death?
Let's start from the context in which our adventure develops: Antea and Red are two purifierswith their task which is to interact directly with the souls of the dead, who in this world do not simply leave the earth after their passing, but cling to the events of the living, persecuting their loved ones. The souls of the dead, at the mercy of the hunger for vital essence, are in short dangerous beings that the purifiers have the task of definitively ascending.
The couple (not only professionally but also sentimentally) reaches out New Edenone of several mid-17th century North American colonies, tasked by their friend and mentor Charles to use their skills against a mysterious threat.
Arriving in New Eden, the two lovers make some important discoveries. First of all, Charles, a powerful purifier, died following his encounter with the mysterious entity. Furthermore, the territory of New Eden, shrouded in a thick cursed fog, is at the mercy of dark, uncontrollable forces that cause havoc among the living.
The two lovers soon find themselves faced with the entity that killed Charles: it is a spirit so powerful that it defeats the two expert purifiers, killing Antea and leaving Red dying. When the man awakens, he will discover that Antea has not abandoned him permanently, but that her ghost has remained at her side.
The necessity of making choices starts right at this point: we will in fact have to decide whether to follow the principles of the purifiers and lead Antea towards ascension, or whether to go against the aforementioned principles and, driven by love, try everything to bring the woman back to life.
Banishers is a title that is based decisively on its narrative: historylasting one thirty hoursproceeds with the right pace and features a large number of very well characterized secondary characters.
The culmination of the narrative quality of the work are undoubtedly our two protagonists: the strong bond between Red and Antea it is alive and tangible, giving life to a relationship that is absolutely not forced as it is the result of the meeting between two different and very well developed charactersbut strongly compatible.
Don't Nod succeededfeaturing Red and Antea, a exceed our already very high expectationsgiving life to two characters who cannot fail to remain imprinted in your mind, whatever choices we make them make.
During our adventure we will meet numerous characters who, driven by desperation due to the siege of ghosts, will make ethically questionable choices that we ourselves will have to judge. Even though these are very short missions, i secondary characters they manage to be well delineated in character through a few but precise traits.
Depending on our intentions regarding Antea's fate, we will often have to point the finger at innocent people to increase the chances that our loved one will come back to life or, on the contrary, opt for earthly justice however, condemning Antea to an ever greater rise among the ascetic.
We do not hide from you that we have found ourselves faced with gods several times moral dilemmas that are difficult to resolve: prepare yourself, when faced with a choice, to have to decide who to listen to between your head and your heart.
Reflect and act
Banishers is not a title based solely on narrative, but we will alternate sequences strictly dialogic at moments of exploration and of combat third-person action style. We move within a game world that certainly does not enjoy unforgettable settings, but finding ourselves in the unexplored countryside of early North America, the opposite would have been strange.
Exploring the game world we will have the possibility to alternate between Red and Antea. By controlling Red we will be able to use our powerful weapons in combat (blank or fire) and perform purely human movements; by controlling Antea instead, we will be able to see and analyze the spectral tracesattack certain types of enemies with our bare hands with particular effectiveness and use our own powers to make real “leaps” from one part of the game environment to another.
The transition from one to the other results always, even during excited phases of combat, extremely fast and fluid. Having different skills available, it will therefore be important to learn to master this “swap”, especially when many enemies of different types appear on the screen.
Moving on to the combatthis includes the classic simple attacks, charged attacks, parries, “surprise” attacks and, in Red's case, a sort of charged move called “purge” which is capable of eliminating the life of most enemies.
We are not faced with nothing innovativebut the combat, in its simplicity, we didn't mind neither in terms of fluidity nor difficulty (starting from a “normal” difficulty), but perhaps we could have dared a little more.
The enemy designmainly ghosts or corpses that the ghosts have taken possession of, did not seem particularly original except for some specific enemies. The “common” enemies which we will find ourselves killing with relative ease as we progress through the adventure there are very few of them and, for this reason, they are present in an excessively repetitive manner.
Definitely secondary within the game structure, but equally worthy of observation, they are the small puzzles present: moving in spaces such as abandoned mines, we will have to move carriages or carry out other actions to solve an embryonic puzzle, which frankly could have been done without. The situation would have been different if there had been slightly more complex, detailed or stimulating puzzles: unfortunately, however, posed in this way they seemed a simple, diluted alternativeto the search or combat phases in the act of moving from one area of interest to another.
A game of sensations
Finally, let's make a note regarding the artistic and technical direction of the game: Banishers doesn't have jaw-breaking graphicsbut the quality of the character design and the (wonderful) cutscenes is evident and worthy of merit.
As for the soundtracks, we don't point out any particular flashes of genius or a particularly captivating theme: too bad. In general, although not exceptional in any form, the game environment manages to create the right atmospherethanks to the constant presence of the “cursed” fog and the play of shadows that convey the sensations we were looking for: restlessness, vulnerability, but also affection and human warmth in the dialogues between the two protagonists.
Over the course of our adventure we stumbled upon a few small but negligible technical problems: one above all, some NPCs (useless for the continuation of the adventure, be careful) did not seem programmed correctly. With regard to the frame rateour PS5 ran into no issues in this regard.
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