Ghost Wire: Tokyo
Ghostwire: Tokyo positively surprised us, but probably mainly because we didn’t trust it after the preview. Walking around the extinct Shibuya is fun and exciting, and the gameplay offers enough fun and variety to keep you entertained for the 12 to 15 hours you will spend in it. It should not last longer, because the fights will be very frequent. We haven’t achieved that effect yet and that’s nice, because then the focus remains on how entertaining it is to defeat the Yokai and rip the cores out of their bodies. Technically, Ghostwire: Tokyo falls short, although the overall level is fine. The game surprises here and there with great ray tracing effects, but if you take a quick look at it, you won’t immediately say that this is a very cool game. This judgment is what concerns us the most. There are quite a few good things to discover in Mikami’s latest game, but the chances of Ghostwire: Tokyo joining its greatest classic are slim.
When we shared our first experience with Ghostwire: Tokyo in early February, we weren’t so positive about it. The game failed to impress. That wasn’t surprising: publisher Bethesda Softworks and development studio Tango Gameworks showed us the game in a presentation where the streaming quality wasn’t optimal. Plus, we couldn’t play the game ourselves, which doesn’t help either. Because if you don’t have any gameplay to focus on, things like repeating animations start showing up. Attention is focused on how empty Tokyo looks and how boring it actually is. When you’re not playing yourself, you feel less of the sinister vibe and tension that comes with Ghostwire: Tokyo. It’s now almost two months now, the game is already in stores and we’ve played it extensively ourselves. In fact, we finished the game almost in one go, which is great for a game we expected so little from at the beginning of February.
While Ghostwire: Tokyo is a first-person action game that isn’t a huge household name, the game doesn’t come without some expectations. The studio behind the game, Tango Gameworks, is Shinji Mikami Studio. You may know this name from Resident Evil, Devil May Cry, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, and The Evil Inside. Many Mikami games have their own “faces”; They are special in many ways. The Evil Within 2, Mikami’s last game before Ghostwire: Tokyo, dates back to 2017, so it’s time for a new special from the hand of this Japanese guru.
Ghostwire: Tokyo is about the main character Akito, who, as a resident of Tokyo, has to deal with a disaster. A mysterious mist descends over the Shibuya area and kills all the inhabitants. Meaning, the corpses separate from their souls and disappear, while a mysterious character behind Hania’s mask, known as Hania in the game for comfort, attempts to harvest souls and use them for his own purposes. Akito is supposed to be one of the victims, but he survived as ghost investigator KK seized his body. At first, Akito is not supposed to know about this intruder, but he soon realizes that KK’s presence can help him find out what happened in Shibuya and where his kidnapped sister may be apparently.
Having the ghost of KK not only gives Akito a wise and bossy voice in his head, but also gives him special gifts. He can dispel evil spirits with hand movements and attack enemies with a variety of elemental attacks, while also gaining the KK’s bow and using his spectral vision, which allows him to detect clues in environments and enemies through walls, among other things. can be noticed. KK also at first wasn’t too happy with the body he’s riding on, but gradually KK and Akito get closer to each other. The bond between KK and Akito is part of the story, which also revolves around freeing Shibuya, tracking down Hania and Akito’s sister, with room at the end for moral messages about love and family. That didn’t impress us too much, although it certainly doesn’t get in the way of the game.
