Let’s be dead serious for a moment. January to mid-February is a graveyard for gaming releases. Across the decades, I’ve watched hideous spectres rise from the depths of development hell during many Q1s of olde. Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden seemed to be such a creature from the onset. An imperfect soul, wailing for attention but perhaps not worthy of possession.
Well, we now know never to judge a Necronomicon by its cover or a game by its launch window. Imagine my complete surprise when Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden‘s ghost bustin’ proved to be the furthest thing from an exorcise in futility.
By the time I hit the end credits, the term ‘sleeper hit’ was ringing in my ears. I also had the urge to fire up a new save file to see how the other major moral choices would shake out. For a reviewer cursed with too many games to play and not much time to play them, that’s a remarkable thing.
Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden
Let me elevator pitch this one for you. For a basic starter blueprint, you’re looking at the bleakly beautiful, twisty path overworld of God of War (2018), plus combat that’s eerily reminiscent of it despite the 17th-century setting. Layer all that further with a spooky Sleepy Hollow mystery involving a sordid little New England burg home to some very shady types.
Lastly, we have lashings of what appears to be Don’tNod’s favourite thing—clever detective puzzling that involves frigging about with time, space, and memory dredging. That’s a pretty good formula, to begin with, but what will hook you in is the titular conceit.
Here’s the basic polter-gist: Though you’ve been sent to banish the spooks of this outpost, one of your dual protagonists will soon be included in their number. It’s a pretty fascinating conundrum. Duty-sworn exorcist Antea buys the farm before she and her affable highlander beau, Red mac Raith, can cleanse the town of New Eden.
Across the course of around 20-25 hours, every horrific local problem you unjumble will come with three choices on the fate of an NPC. ‘Ascending’ issues a stairway to heaven (without the sweet power chords). ‘Banishing’ condemns them to hell (probably better music down there anyway).
The third option is where things get controversial. Your ghoulfriend can be made flesh again by ‘Blaming’ a victim, but you’ll effectively murder them into eternal nowhere. And it gets worse. To click this unearthly undo button, a tonne of NPCs will need to cop it. Possibly… all of them?
I’m not going to spoil much more of the premise than that, though I will say that while the digital performances aren’t quite cutting edge, they’re not far off and the script is solid as a coffin nail. Tone-wise, you shouldn’t go in expecting pants-filling horror, but there’s some Bloodborne-level creepy shit going down in this town.
I wish I could pay similar compliments to the apparition assaulting in Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden, but the combat is a slow-burn undead thwacker that never rises to be that of a thriller. There are certainly some cool ideas going on here, though, chief of which is the ability to hot-swap between Red’s flesh-shredding swashbuckling and Antea’s greater strength at punching spooks fair in the chops.
Despite a sometimes iffy lock-on system, that’s some good combo-ing, right there. The strategies and satisfaction continue to deepen when you invest in better-looking and handling weapons/items for each hero.
There’s also the expected perk tree, which, while ever-expanding and stocked with worthy force multipliers, is a tad annoying with the way it asks you to switch some perks and paths on/off to get the abilities you want. It’s a bit arbitrary and irritating.
When Red’s musket (finally) arrives, along with Antea’s hadoukens and Force Powers, Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden‘s fisticuffs find a decent groove. But yeah, that said, there’s no especially interesting weapon or game mechanic ‘hook’ that elevates it above the ordinary.
I kept waiting for the proverbial Leviathan Axe or cool Belmont-esque doodad to fold in, but those hopes came to a dead end.
When it comes down to that final eulogy, I have way more fond memories of Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden than I do regrets. The latter revolves around slightly clunky combat and a tendency to rehash enemy types.
What sticks with me more are the things that carry this more than capable production—strong writing, the odd memorable twist in its many mini-tales, and the overarching choose-your-own adventure of two genuinely likable lovers.
Verdict: Solid but staid combat aside, never was there a story of more woe than this of Ghouliet and her Romeo.
Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden was reviewed on PS5 using digital code provided by the publisher.
