Tango Gamesworks has been a studio that since its foundation has been associated with the horror genre in its fate, due to the fact that its founder, Shinji Mikami, is one of the fathers of the survival-horror genre. With The Evil Within, the studio created a franchise that not only convinced users with its first installment, but managed to reach an even greater base with the sequel, being considered by many one of the great games of the genre of the last generation. of consoles.
With the announcement of GhostWire: Tokyo, many users were surprised by the change in style of the study. We went from a more or less classic survival-horror to an action title with powers, a priori something more characteristic of studios like Arkane. Given this change, many doubts arose as to whether the game would have the level that they had achieved with the saga starring Sebastián Castellanos. Next, we will tell you if for us the work of Tango Gamesworks follows in the footsteps or not of his previous works with our review of GhostWire Tokyo.
Tokyo’s death
GhostWire: Tokyo is set in the Japanese city that gives it its name, where a dense fog has completely taken over it, destroying all life in its path. This devastation has been caused by Hannya, an occultist who has not only caused the fog that skews the lives of the citizens of Tokyo, but has also caused the arrival of visitors: evil spirits that will try to consume every soul that crosses with his way.
As a consequence of the chaos experienced by the fog, Akito will fall unconscious at a certain moment, which will cause a spirit called KK to try to possess our body, a priori lifeless, with the misfortune that it will only be able to control our right arm, giving us a series of supernatural powers. After this, the paths of Akito and KK will join, in a story of search for salvation and revenge that has really interesting moments.
We don’t want to tell you too much about the main plot, but we can say that reminds us in a certain way of what was seen in the previous franchise developed by Tango Gamesworksince here Akito must try to find his sick sister, who has fallen prey at the hands of Hannya, who seeks to use a power that will serve her evil purposes.
However, in GhostWire: Tokyo the narrative is not the only relevant aspect in this regard. The city of Tokyo itself is a fundamental element of the game’s story. The recreation carried out by the people of Tango GamesWork is simply exquisite, showing a multitude of emblematic places and making notes that have direct weight in what the studio wants to tell us.
An important element in this regard is the entire Japanese folklore that is present in GhosWire: Tokyo. Despite the fact that the enemies that we will face are created expressly for the game, we will find many references to Japanese mythology, such as yokais, onis or references to classic stories of Japanese culture. In this aspect, it should be noted that although the title is an action game, the amount of supernatural elements it has does not make it a horror game, far from it, but it does give it a level of supernatural elements that fans will love. of the hidden.
What’s more, we will find secondary missions that will enhance precisely that element of terror that is absent from the main story, as well as a series of skits and jokes that will bring smiles to many players, making these missions something to watch out for.
The verticality by flag
The city of Tokyo is a fundamental part of the work done by Tango GamesWork. In statements made a few weeks ago, the people of the studio assured that we were not facing an open world game, but rather an action and adventure title with a sanbox-style map. GhostWire: Tokyo’s map is pretty big for an action gamewhich causes it to fall into some errors of the genre that it intends not to emulate.
The exploration will be a fundamental element of the experience, since as we have mentioned, the city itself is one more narrative element than what we will see at the controls. Being aware of this, the Japanese studio has done a commendable job when it comes to being able to move around Tokyo, granting an exquisite verticality, since not only can we move through the streets of the city, but also through its buildings. Thanks to the implementation of certain Yokais, we will be able to climb to the roofs of the buildings in the city, something that not only seems to be present as a specific resource, but as an element that encourages us to be exploited.
Our experience with the game in this regard has been fantastic., because it has caused us precisely what the studio was looking for: to enhance exploration, without having to carry the obstacles that are normally present when we want to get to a certain place and we can only do it through a predetermined route. Although yes, it is necessary to point out that as we have said, it falls into certain typical errors of open worlds, filling our map with a huge number of icons where to find treasures, missions, cabins, etc.
Gokakyū no Jutsu
One of the aspects that generated the most doubts after the presentation of GhostWire: Tokyo was its gameplay. The use of classic weapons that the studio had used in The Evil Within was left aside to make way for a series of “jutsus” in the purest Naruto style, something that many users thought would not work correctly. However, the reality has been quite different, since the playable section of GhostWire Tokyo although it is fun, perhaps it falls short.
It is obvious that we are facing a first-person action game as soon as we control Akito. Despite not having firearms, the control of the title is in the purest shooter style, having in our possession a series of supernatural powers that we can use against our enemies. We will have different types of powers, which will be equivalent to different natural elements. With the power of the wind we can launch rapid bursts against our adversaries; with water we can “cut” an area close to us; and with the power of fire we can make powerful attacks or create big explosions. Likewise, we will also have the possibility of defending ourselves, being able to even perform parries.
In addition, these powers will not be the only thing that we will have at our disposal to finish off our enemies, since we can also kill them by using a bow, or relying on different talismans, each one with a different function to facilitate our goal. Likewise, we have an “awakening” mode, in which we will not only slow down time, but we will also be able to expose the nuclei of visitors with greater ease, ideal for ending large hordes.
However, in GhostWire: Tokyo, action will not be the only path we can take. Stealth is also a very important element in the adventure, and although there could be a fear that it was an added element without much importance, the truth is that the opposite happens. On many occasions we have chosen to finish off some of our enemies stealthily, using talismans that hide our presence or wandering between the different streets of Tokyo, and the result is tremendously positive.
We also want to emphasize the RPG section of it. As we go up levels, we can improve certain abilities of Akito, such as the number of wind projectiles that we can launch, the speed with which we will destroy the nuclei of the enemies or the capacity of arrows that we can carry with us. It is true that the number of improvements is perhaps a little short, and it does not add a great variety to our powers, but it is not something negative since the focus of these is similar to that of firearms in a shooter.
Finally, we have to talk about the enemies. If before we commented that the work done by the studio in the recreation of Shibuya was praiseworthy, the same does not happen with the limited variety of enemies. In just a couple of hours we will be able to have seen the vast majority of enemies that we will face throughout the rest of the adventure, which, together with its basic mechanics, make it a quite improvable aspect.
the dense fog
The visual section of GhosWire: Tokyo causes us a dilemma. On the one hand, in purely graphic terms, the game has a somewhat discreet level, although at no time is it bad. On our computer we have been able to play practically without problems at a 2K 60fps resolution with an Nvidia GTX 1070 graphics card, with two generations already behind it. As we have said, we do not have a title that offers graphic muscle, but it makes up for it with its scenarios.
At the risk of falling into repetition, Tango GamesWork’s work with the title city of Tokyo is plain and simple worth admiring. At times we can feel that we are really in the streets of the capital of Japan, with a care and affection that only true lovers of this city could have achieved. But that’s not the only thing that stands out in the visual section of the title, since there are really successful visual elements, especially those related to supernatural elements, which at times will have us completely stunned to see how they appear and disappear from the screen.
Finally, regarding the sound section, GhostWire: Tokyo arrives with voices in Japanese and texts completely translated into Spanish. On the other hand, we have a fantastic soundtrack, which has certain moments that really enhance what we find on the screen.
Conclusions
GhostWire: Tokyo is an ode to Japanese culture. The recreation of Shibuya is simply fantastic, which, together with the number of stories and aspects of Japanese folklore, make it a title that every lover of the Land of the Rising Sun should have on their bookshelf or digital library. Playably the game could have had a little more variety, but the truth is that we are facing a fun title at the controls. Despite not being in front of a horror game, the truth is that what it does best is recreate all those elements of Japanese folklore, which enhances the final result, and raises the question of whether it could have been used for a title of the genre the one who denies