At this point, most people probably know Don’t Nod from their Life is Strange Series. People forget, or maybe never knew, that the studio got its start with an action game named Remember Me. In the years since both of those games, the studio has grown to a publisher and developer of multiple titles, but it’s not like anything is really outside of the Wheelhouse, especially going into Banishers: The Ghosts of New Eden.
Its complicated to put into words just what a AA game needs to do to be good, or even great but Don’t Nod continues to make me ask that question. Vampyr, their last action game had a lot of issues but some underlining mechanics that made any issue melt away with the sheer creativity of it all. I’m not sure if Banisher was intended as a spiritual successor to that title but at its best and worse it does feel like. Limited by a budget, chock full of interesting narrative and design choices, held back by gameplay choices, it’s all there. Even now it is hard to get a read where I land, but I know I have never regretted my time in a Don’t Nod title and I don’t I’m with Banishers.
With You In Spirit
The story is set in the Puritan colony of New Eden in 1695. The two lead characters, Red and Antea, arrive by boat in the opening cutscene to rid this place of an evil spirit. At this point, you are really only supposed to know two things about these characters, they are Banishers who hunt spirits, and they are lovers. That second point is arguably more important than the first, despite the first being in the title.
You are only really given an hour of plays before the major crux of the game occurs and while it is a slight spoiler, to understand the rest of the game it needs to be stated. Antea is killed by this spirit and Red is thrown into the water, carried away from the village. The goal you are then tasked with is making your way back as Red while you decide what to do about your now ghost lover Antea.
This forms the crux of the story’s winning formula. Right off the bat, you are told of two options you as the player can choose to aim for. In one, you can revive Antea from the dead in stark contrast to what Banishers are tasked with. The other option, you help her move on to the next world. Think that big choice from the end of The Last of Us except the whole game is the choice and you are an active participant. To this effect, you are given the choice to vow either option to your lover regardless if you plan on following through with that.
The sidequests in Banishers, or haunting cases as they are called, play into this narrative extremely well and feel very similar to quests in Vampyr, offering both world-building and narrative significance. The player will need to investigate clues about the ghost they are hunting, and the people they are haunting the learn the truth of a situation. In one particularly interesting early case, a ghost was haunting a blacksmith and his wife.
Without too many details the ultimate revelation was that this ghost was physically abusive to the woman he was haunting in life. Knowing what we know now about 1695 and what you could get away with, his death at the hands of somebody protecting her should leave you with little sorrow. However, resolving that and every case involves picking three options. You can help the ghost peacefully pace on or banish him to oblivion, which was the option I chose for this particular spirit.
Another option is to blame the living for their part in the haunting. They always did something and, in the case above you could argue they murdered him though in a story with three evils theirs seems the lesser. Blaming the living is the only efficient way to revive Antea though so it’s a viable option. It’s a moral choice of grave consequence brought on by love, which is relatable and consistently impactful. This is helped by nearly every narrative in the game being good and not feeling like a tedium.
Two Against The World
Vampyr also feels like it laid much of the groundwork for the gameplay in Banishers as well. The game takes several cues from Metroidvania games, having a twisting landscape of forests, caves, swamps, and mountains. Each one can be backtracked and has random enemies to fight throughout, as well as a fast travel system to use. There will also be abilities you learn that open many other areas you weren’t able to access earlier which rewards you going back. The game has A LOT of backtracking if you plan to do and see everything in the game which can prove an annoyance but thankfully the environmental design is a standout in the game.
In combat and exploration, you will be able to play as both lovers. Red, being tied to the physical world fights with a sword and interacts with many real-world objects while Antea can fight enemies with her first and interact with more metaphysical exploration types. You will honestly find yourself switching between them a lot which doesn’t always work, especially in the case of one ability that lets you jump across gaps by lining up two spiritual rings… An annoying type of movement that occurs in nature way too often for my liking.
Combat itself is a mixed affair that left me frustrated far more than it excited me. The most interesting aspect of it is while Red has a health bar, Antea has a depleting time bar. While she hits less in some instances she is a good switch to protect Red from death. Outside of that, it is a mostly straightforward action game, with parrying leading to quick counters and fast combos.
Combat tends to get too crazy too quickly though and since none of the enemy’s attacks feel like they have weight, the tools they make clear you have to fall short. The FOV for your character is tight and over the shoulder, which is great when you have two to three enemies but once you start getting attacked by 6 or 7, and once ranged enemies enter the mix, it was hard as hell to keep track of everything. A ring around your body has color changes for incoming offscreen attacks but you manage that, the enemies you can see in front of you, enemies on ledges firing projectiles with almost no warning, and explosive orbs you can’t see. One wrong hit can lead to a chain of enemy attacks you can’t even react to that kill you.
If that wasn’t bad enough, the fights are rarely worth it. During one side quest, I ran through three areas and did fight after fight. Each round of 4 to 5 enemies gave me 8 xp, 10 xp, 12 xp, which was nothing to write home about but it didn’t matter much. When I finally completed my quest I was gifted with 600xp for completion which only filled up my level indicator to about halfway that level. This was the first point I genuinely realized that fighting was offering me almost nothing, a fraction of that 600, for way more work. This was an additional gut punch given the scaling of the game, which often unlocks tasks scaled to levels above you but rarely offers you the opportunity to farm, pigeonholing you into the story until it gives you the items to upgrade inventory or the experience to return to these quests.
When you CAN tackle the side content they are mostly fun but can be a chore. A few involve killing hoards of souls but usually offer a better payoff than standard combat. Others involve trying to open locked chests or following up with haunting victims in additional interesting narrative events. Banishers has a lot to do in it, which works to its advantage overall, being an interesting world. Furthermore, these side content events are all given narrative relevance which encourages experiencing them.
Verdict
Banishers: The Ghost of New Eden isn’t by any stretch of the imagination perfect. I should know, I just painted a flawed picture of the game. However, it represents the best aspects of a new IP, just like Vampyr, Life is Strange, and Remember Me before it. It’s not a safe experience, least of all in its narrative about eternal love and the parts of yourself you are willing to give up to save it.
Yes, the gameplay can be tedious with combat that is repetitive and grindy, that’s less rewarding than I would like. However, the experience makes up for that with an interesting world that rewards you with an interesting narrative seeped into every aspect of exploration, and a more well-crafted than not Metroidvania. After the game ends the ghosts of New Eden may haunt you as well, but honestly, is that such a bad thing?
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Reviewed For PlayStation 5, Also Available On Xbox Series S/X, and Microsoft Windows
A review code was provided by Focus Entertainment for the purposes of this review.
Developer: Don't Nod
Publisher: Focus Entertainment
Release Date: February 13th, 2024
Two Banishers travel to New Eden to remove as powerful Specter. This quest will force them to make hard decisions about their love, and their loss.
PROS:
+Storytelling
+Metroidvania Style Exploration
+Environmental Design
+Side Quests and Haunting Cases
CONS:
-Backtracking
-Combat Design Choices
-EXP Delegation
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Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden
