This is a game that has a bit more of a tumultuous history with me. When it came out, it had my curiosity, but there wasn't a lot coming out about it. Add to that playing on a PC that looked dangerously close to the minimum spec at the time while sitting on my massive backlog, and I held off... deciding I dodged a bullet with a shady dev when they added Denuvo to the game a year after it came out..
I didn't give it any more thought after that until this Christmas came along. As per usual, all the major game stores had their Christmas sales, including Epic. And while I honestly have yet to want to spend cash on this store, I've hung around for the freebies Epic is always giving out... and this sale always comes with them going fast and furious. Christmas Eve, they gave away this game. Without dropping a dime, I grabbed it.
Now as I finish playing, I believe I would have been happy with it had I bought earlier... and seeing them remove the DRM again so soon only makes such joy playing it that much sweeter.
Story: Akito is having one hell of a bad day. He just received a call from the local hospital about his sister and in his rush to see her, wound up in a head-on collision with a car... on his motorcycle. For many this would be game over right there, but the poor boy's luck won't let him off that easy. Within mere seconds of the accident, a spirit screamed into the world desperate for a body in the short time he had before he disappeared. The only one who seemed dead enough to use was Akito.
As if this wasn't bad enough, there is a fog rolling into Shibuya... a fog that appears a lot more deadly then it should be. Every human being who touches it simply ceases to physically be, leaving only the soul behind to be collected by strange humanoid monsters on behalf of a strange man in an oni mask. The only reason Akito was able to survive and not be harvested like the rest was this new spirit inhabiting him.
But this spirit didn't just appear here by chance. He's here on his own mission, and if Akito wants to survive, he's about to become a willing part of the team... especially when the strange man the spirit is looking to take down takes his sister claiming to be her salvation. Together, they must now save her, the city, and potentially the world from the mad-man's plans and supernatural power.
And just who is he and what are those plans? Hell for that matter, who is this spirit looking to rip him a new asshole? The game will drip-feed you this information as you play through it's tale. And while that story isn't exactly the most complicated, it is very solid in it's own right. By the time the credits roll, everyone's reasons will be made clear, explaining roughly why shit hit the fan like it did... and who knows, you might find a little sympathy for more then just the heroes.
Still, this simple tale with a solid backdrop is hardly the only story going on. The fog effectively "paused" mortal time in this city, leaving many spirits behind. Some are just hanging around waiting to either be taken or rescued, but others have a reason they are stuck haunting a specific place creating many of the side-missions you will gain access to, effectively painting many ongoings in the city: some more natural then others. But these are also where the storytelling really shines: there is a lot of variety to be had. From funny to heart-felt to straight up creepy, there is really something here for everyone alone side the main story.. and every instance will give character to Akito, the spirit, and those who's afterlives the two touch.
Overall I have to say the picture painted here is done masterfully, and leaves an absolutely amazing lasting impression on you.
8/10
Graphics: Ghostwire: Tokyo is something I play very few of these days: a modern AAA game. And that title generally comes with an expectation that the game in question will be gorgeous. This game right here will NOT disappoint you. While I can not tell you how accurate Shibuya is depicted, I can tell you it looks very realistic, having you wander the streets at night fresh after (or sometimes during) the rain as the neon lights fill the city with their harsh glow and in direct contrast of light from nearby office windows and streatlights with a much softer and welcoming glow. As you reach more urban sections, houses crammed together fill the landscape in place of skyscrapers and giving a vibe like someone crammed a suburb together far more then initially planned. And yet it still somehow remains homey and comfortable, even for someone like me who doesn't much care for cities. It all looks damn near photorealistic and will feel like the real thing from look alone.
But the outside is not all you will see. Several buildings will allow you inside, both for quests (story and side) as well as to raid for whatever might be hiding within. These tend to feel a bit more like you are in someone's home, or where they work, but everyone literally disappeared at once. Until you get used to it (and the length of the game will let you do so) it can be very eerie.
And that would be justified enough if you were alone, but you are not. Many being share this once human inhabited cityscape with you, ranging from cats and dogs (and yes, you can pet them) to spirits that are either trapped here by the oppressive fog or other more personal reasons, or beings of pure malice called visitors. These creatures will be the majority of what you face off with, and they look shockingly good, if decidedly like they imitate humanity rather then actually are human. They take many forms, anywhere from a child in a yellow raincoat to classic black suits to even a cops and several others. Each one represents a negative feeling of mankind made manifest, and while no one really looks all that menacing in their own right, they all have that other-worldly vibe that could only feel right in a place where mankind is no longer able to be or welcome in.
Simply put it all looks perfectly desolate and is an absolute feast for the eyes.
9/10
Sound: But looks alone will not create the feel of a world. You need the sound to match it, and once again this game does it right. A lot of the time, you will not have "music" playing... at least if it isn't playing around you in the world itself. You will hear the pitter patter of rain, the sounds of music from local restaurants, commercials in the malls, and many other things that make the city somehow seem just a little bit alive, even as it shouldn't be anymore. The only acceptation here really involves the visitors... as you will get a bit of a beat that breaks out into some very traditional but low-tuned background music to fight to.
Not that the visitors are necessarily all that quiet themselves. You will come to recognize their warbles and gibbering sounds as you play... sometimes even recognizing the enemies by their voices long before you see them, and they sound appropriately alien.
But the real voice work you will be hearing are Akito, the spirit haunting him, and his friends during life: some of which you will meet before the game is over... others... not so much as find messages from them (and once you learn why he does it, Ed will definitely endear himself to you... he was arguably my favorite of the game cast despite never showing up directly).
Sound effects are also very good for this game, though much more focused on interacting with the world then your weapons. Those, while all sounding proper (and some feeling really powerful for it), are fairly limited in number. But your bare hands crunching the core of a visitor is also perfectly intense and will likely be one of the most common sounds in the game outside your own footsteps, which frankly sound believable and yet subtle enough to fall to the side as they would if you were the one wandering.
Together this makes the game sound fairly appealing, and even stand out for a realism factor not normally heard in video games (which tend to want to go for a vibe or a cinematic feel). It may even stick with you as a total soundscape, but it isn't going to be something you will want to hear outside the game itself by any means.
7/10
Gameplay: And here is where the game really shines. If you were to pay attention to the trailers, you might be forgiven to think the game is a basic "scary first person shooter," but that couldn't be further from the truth. Yes, the game is first person and has all the classic controls one might expect from this, but that is merely scratching the surface. As you wander the city you will be surprised how many places don't have any visitors. They are an important part of the game to be sure, but they are just not all there is.
Rather, you will find yourself spending as much time exploring to take on the many activities available to you as in reality, this is an open world game. Things like capturing Yokai who either moved in or have stopped hiding without people to hide from, taking on side missions to either help a spirit move on or even some of these fantastic creatures themselves, or cleaning gateways will be available for you to do along with your main story missions, all to do at your pace, and each will offer you different rewards you will want to take full advantage of.
Perhaps the most obvious rewards are given by the gates, however. These are generally going to be found in or near shrines and offer at least two rewards for your trouble in the form of an artifact that will help you out and clearing the fog away from more of the city, opening it up to explore and do more side missions. The artifacts are equally important however as they will either unlock new abilities (like offering you more options in battle) or equipment that will boost the abilities you have both in and out of battle in the form of prayer beads you can swap at will, giving you an edge as you desire.
Other quests will offer rewards in the form spirits and cash which will prove the two major currencies of the game. Money's purpose will be fairly obvious as without people, nekomata have moved into the convenience stores of the city and setup shopping stand sin various places and will offer you supplies for the cash you get in game, but spirits will be a bit less direct. You collect these in paper dolls (which you will find on occasion and also be able to buy from the nekomata) and at any time once you have done so you can use a phone to "wire" them out of the city. Doing so will save them, allowing them to regain their physical forms outside the fog sealing the place in (in theory), but for ingame purposes, it will grant you XP and cash in the process, letting you level up Akito. Yes, this game comes with a leveling system.
When you do level up, two things happen: you will be granted a portion of skill points and your maximum health will go up. The latter is pretty standard (more health means you can take more damage), so we do not need to go into that at all. Your skill points are also pretty straight forward, but to recap, you will gain access to small skill-paths you can buy to gain new talents and boost the power of them. The game will not only explain the effect of anything you pick, but even shows videos to show you them in action and is frankly one of the best at explaining just what each skill does I've seen in a long while. If anything, this is a skill the devs showed in every aspect of the game... letting the spirit show Akito (and you by proxy) all the roaps of the world as you play without so much as a single obvious tutorial. If devs want to let the player learn by doing instead of reading a manual, they should probably look at this game as a prime example of how to do it right.
But all of this would go to waste if the gameplay it backs wasn't good, and indeed it is. The most obvious part of this will be combat and while it's not constant, there will be plenty to go around including a handful of bosses. This all feels smooth, giving the the vibe of combat-exorcism and doing it absolutely brilliantly and by the end you will have many choices of how to engage the visitors... from rushing in headlong, to sneaking around and snapping a spiritual seal on them from behind to get a clean kill without breaking a sweat... or at least a clean first hit if the visitor is of the stronger variety. The choices are open and yours.
When not on missions or fighting random enemies, there is still plenty to do, but the majority of it will be rescuing more of those spirits... as you will find many also just floating around the city to be found by both exploring the streets and parkouring around the tops of skyscrapers, along with other useful things... all of which the game will introduce you to over time.
Simply put this game was an absolute joy to play from start to finish... it will let the spirit in Akito show you the ropes, but once it's done this, you are basically let loose without any handholding to keep you on track, and yet the tools you need to get back to business if you so desire, and all at your whim. I loved just about every moment playing this game.
9/10
Bugs: Once again we have another game that had absolutely no issues from start to finish for me. It ran perfectly.
Digital Rights Management: While I played the game, it had Denuvo installed... but literally as I finish writing this review, it is once again DRM free, well outside the launcher you play on, anyway.
Score: Simply put, this is a good game, and for the game itself, had I bought it at full price, I would have been happy with it. It really is just that good. As long as you are not looking for a linear experience you will have a great time with this title from start to finish.
9/10
System Requirements:
- Intel Core i7 4770K running at 3.5Ghz or AMD Ryzen 2600
- 12 GB RAM
- NVidia GeForce GTX1060, AMD Radeon RX5500XT, or Intel Arc A380 (6GB VRAM)
- 26 GB hard drive space
- Windows 10 (64-bit only)
System Specs:
- Ryzen 7 (5700X) 3.4 Ghz
- 32 GB RAM
- AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT (8 GB VRAM)
- Windows 11 (64 Bit)
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