Ghostwire: Tokyo, the new from Tango Gameworks and Bethesda Softworks is already among us and we will tell you what we thought of the first two chapters on PS5.
Many times it is believed that terror is just scares, and if this does not happen, it is branded as something negative. Terror, in its most primitive and guttural concept, is a perception of our body when the brain loses control of reason, when what we see disturbs us, disgusts us, generates repulsion in us. It is activated in the face of a dangerous situation, one of those sometimes unconscious by just imagining the results. Ghostwire: Tokyo challenges us directly with the feeling of loneliness, in a completely empty world, which generates that constant oppression of not knowing what can happen.
We played the first two chapters on PS5 and we will tell you about it in detail and without spoilers, in this note.
Mythology, culture, philosophy and spirituality.
We are facing a game that is clearly steeped in Japanese mythology. We recently reviewed Shadow Warrior 3, which covers the same theme, but from a completely different angle. While the game flying wild hog he does it from a completely visual plane, the people of Tango Gameworks work it from the spiritual, even from the philosophicalnot only to generate the locations, but the environments, the climates, as we said, oppressive.
The game, speaking of mechanics, absorbs a lot of the FPS genre, only that, instead of weapons, we are going to use the magic of our hands, propelled through our fingers. Metaphorically, it’s as if we were Constantine but with the powers of Doctor Strange, so to speak. We are plunged into a world that debates itself on the fine line of the living and the dead, and our main objective is to eliminate all those wandering souls full of hate that seek to end our lives.
Are there puppies? Give me 10!
And yes, it is something inevitable to mention and if you have already played it or were watching gameplay, we know that you are waiting for it: in Ghostwire: Tokyo we can caress pets at a level worthy of those who love all these beautiful beings. Because in a desolate city, absent of all human traces, the interaction with dogs and cats is more than fortuitous, not only being an incentive for the heart, but it will also give us different rewards. As if that were not enough, we are going to be able to read the thoughts of the animals to see what they really need and if you help them they will always give you a prize.
A change in direction
To enjoy Ghostwire: Tokyo you have to forget about the previous works of Tango Gameworksbecause the game not only captures the Japanese concept as we explained before, but it even has its idiosyncrasies, its culture, the handling of concepts and even its sense of humor and fear.
Clearly we are not facing a game that we can understand from the start, it is like coming from watching many movies of Marvel or DC and suddenly want to have the same position in front of the cinema of Akira Kurosawa, Satoshi Kon or Toshiro Mifune, just to name a few. And it is not that one thing is wrong and the other is right, but that they are simply different. There is a search in the conception of the game that brings it much closer to the anime that we usually see, than to the video games that we usually play.
The Ray Tracing in Ghostwire: Tokyo (or “ray tracing”, as you prefer) that the PS5 allows give a level of detail to the game that is really incredible. We are in a sad city, where the raindrops look real, the dirt is there and it is palpable. Being a game where much of its strength lies in exploration, this level of attention to detail makes the immersion that much more intense. It is true that, at times, the frames lose their composure a bit, but nothing that is very alarming. Being able to climb the buildings and contemplate Tokyo from above is a reward that only this level of technology can give us..
The experience of a familiar open world, but amplified
One of the things that we do feel present from, particularly, The Evil Within 2, is the concept of how the open world, the map, and the gameplay are handled, both three points interpellating each other. That dynamic of being able to travel and investigate wherever we please and with the total freedom that an open world offers, but at times, being locked up in limited sectors to eliminate a certain number of enemies, and once this is done, being able to return to freedom of the open world. Something that is understood as part of a mission, It is also felt on a philosophical level, from the position of that false confinement and, therefore, that of a false freedom.
This open world is not always as big. We are going to unblock zones, adding places and thus, through portals, eliminate the fog that oppresses the souls of the city to free them. On the one hand we are going to have to open the map with these portals, and on the other, we are going to have to collect those souls (there are 243,000, yes…) throughout the game.
Who we are, where we come from, where we are going.
And precisely this leads us fully to talk about history. While we think Ghostwire: Tokyo is far from disturbing like some of the other titles we’ve been playing lately, has its own, definitely. In the game, we are going to put ourselves in the shoes of akito, a young man who dies in an accident, is possessed by a strange man who tries to take control of our body while it is brought back to life (really come back to life?) and acquires different powers. To all this, almost all the citizens of Tokyo have mysteriously disappeared, and spirits from another world (known as Visitors) have invaded the city and, as if that were not enough, a thick fog spreads through the streets and, if we try to cross it We are going to lose our lives.
We are the only apparent living beings in this world, and thanks to our “body hijacker” we are going to take and learn to use those powers as if we were Venom and eddie brock.
All this raises a lot of questions that, at least for us, we learned as the game time grew. Cause if there’s something in the game it is that we had a hard time finding its quest, its purpose, and we believe that, far from being a negative connotation, it is part of its charm. In these first two chapters that we were able to play (the second being much larger than the first), unanswered questions are the order of the day. Is Akito really dead? Who is KK, the detective who owns us, and what are his true intentions? What is that group of villains wearing Hannya masks? Where did all the inhabitants of Tokyo go?
When ties get tight
There is also something very interesting in the development of the characters, and it makes direct reference to that complementary union that is generated between Akito and KK. During the second episode or chapter, they break up briefly, and at that moment, as short as it manages to be, you feel perfectly the type of horror that the game handles, because akito he is left without powers, exposed to an unknown world where, for the first time, we feel the fragility of the character. This link that forms between the two is very well achieved, and under the premise that “we only realize what we have when we lose it”, the creators of the game implant a need in the player that until now did not exist, and that leaves a huge door open for the rest of the chapters.
As we said before, playing it as if it were an FPS is not a bad idea, but it is not completely successful in its concept either. The main shot, to put it in some way, is a cluster of magic expelled from our fingers. This takes time, after each shot the energy accumulates “farming lost objects or enemies” and only then does it allow us to shoot, which means that, between shot and shot, there is a reasonable time in between. Namely: Although we are not going to need a game strategy, we are going to have to be sure of where we are shooting. Is not a Call of Duty where we can fire a full magazine in less than 10 seconds assuming that a bullet is going to hit the enemy. Here, we are going to have to make sure that the shot that we are making really hits the enemy and we are going to have to do it in a specific way in order to conserve our powers.
All this gives it another dynamic, much slower than that of an FPS. Initially we started with this attack, but we are going to evolve, being able to use other more advanced attacks, spells and spells. If you like, these magical variants can be taken as different weapons, as we’ll find along the way that each one works better in different situations and with different enemies. Speaking of the latter, each shot will open their chests, as if an energy gap were beginning to tear them apart. This is going to expose the core of his ghostly existence, which is what Akito is going to end up destroying.many times with special movements of those that we also find in the DOOM and so many others, when we choose to finish off the enemy with our own hands.
First impressions so far
Ghostwire: Tokyo remains between the disturbing and the bleak, as if they were the same feeling that turns off and on from time to time. There is something intrinsic in his concept, which has to do with originality. Everything we experience at a gameplay or playability level is something that has already been done and has already been seen (for older readers, it feels a bit like Clive Barker’s Undying), but everything leans towards experience. The way in which the different elements, nuances and tones of the game are treated is what ends up closing the equation. Tango Gameworks offers a new, different proposal, with a quest that even after playing these two chapters we are still guessing. We don’t want to jump to conclusions until we can savor the full experience, but what we’ve seen so far is as engaging and fun as it is promising.
RELEASE DATE | March 25, 2022 |
DEVELOPER | Tango Gameworks |
DISTRIBUTOR | Bethesda Softworks |
PLATAFORMS | Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 5 |