Banisher Analysis: Ghost of New Eden

New video game Don’t Nod is an action-RPG that combines God of War-style combat and decision-making

The French developer Don’t Nod was one of those studios that surprised us with AA proposals that, despite their various failures, we really appreciated. From Remember Me to Jusant, via Vampyr and Life is Strange, they are all very enjoyable offerings with a powerful story. Banishers: Ghost of New Eden couldn’t be less. Don’t Nod and publisher Focus Entertainment offer us an action-RPG with a very powerful story, based on decision-making, the developer’s trademark. Will it have met expectations? Spoilers, yes.

Until death do us part…or not…

The story of Banishers transports us to the 17th century, in the town of New Eden, an English colony in America, whose inhabitants die and disappear for no reason, and the strangest thing is that all the people living there suffer. disturbing nightmares. This is where Red and Antea come in, two lovers who share a job, they are banishers, a sort of medium or exorcist whose job is to send ghosts into the afterlife. Both are committed to finding and eradicating the curse that afflicts New Eden and its inhabitants..

After a little investigation, we discover that the epicenter of the curse is the town’s church, so our protagonists dare to put an end to it. There we meet The Nightmare, an evil entity who ends Antea’s life, who returns as a ghost to help Red and take revenge.

. This is where the moral dilemmas begin. Our job is to destroy beings from beyond, but now our beloved is one of those beings. This gives a lot of play during the adventure. During the game we will encounter cases in which a ghost and one or more flesh-and-blood people are involved. After investigating these cases, we must make a decision, be able to be judges and executioners. These decisions will determine whether or not we can revive our beloved Antea.

These decisions make us face an obstacle and an obstacle. What do you consider correct? Revive the person you love or do your job, saving the various residents who inhabit New Eden? These are very difficult decisions and no matter what you do, someone will lose.. You will pity this ghost who only wanted to take care of his wife, without realizing that he was killing her little by little, or this madman who killed his friend and does not want to accept it… All the characters, both main and secondary, have a journey, fears, trials, motivations… that touch your heart when the time comes to decide your future.

Slightly decaffeinated fights

As we have already mentioned before, Banishers: Ghost of New Eden is an action RPG game with clear influences on the latest games in the God of War saga. The shoulder camera used by the video game is very similar to the Santa Monica title, the combat is a copy with small modifications, the use of the compass… The work of Don’t Nod does not hide the inspirations and, although this It is not negative, it does not reach the excellence of Sony’s game. One of the most negative aspects is the simplicity of the combat. We have very few combos to perform on our enemies, and although we can improve our character and learn new moves, these seem a bit rare. In order not to seem repetitive, the game sometimes introduces fights with final enemies. These turn out to be a lot of fun, but there are very few of them during the adventure.

While Banishers isn’t exactly an innovative game, it does introduce some interesting mechanics. One of them is the use of Antea at any time with the press of a button. And we can switch control from Red to Antea at any time during the adventure, which is very useful thanks to his ghostly powers.. For example, Antea’s attacks are more damaging against possessed enemies, or she can reveal hidden items in environments with her ghostly vision. There are many possibilities that this mechanic offers us and it seemed to us to be a great success.

Exploration is also an important section of the title. You can always deviate from the main missions to explore the scenarios. These will often have alternative paths, where we can find different resources to improve our inventory, documents that tell us more about the history of New Eden or various collectibles. Banishers also has little touches of metroidvania. There are always paths that are blocked and to open them we will have to improve Antea’s skills. It’s something very simple, but it motivates us to revisit places.

New Eden, a dark and destroyed city

Graphically Banishers: Ghost of New Eden is a very striking title, thanks to the use of Unreal Engine 5. Don’t Nod did a good job recreating a desolate, destroyed and hopeless world

. This is due to the color palette used, with cold and muted colors, which give a feeling of sadness and melancholy. Despite this, the settings are very beautiful and leave beautiful impressions. This is a perfect game to use photo mode. On the negative side, scenarios can be very similar, excessively repeating forests and swamps. If we talk about technique, we find lights and shadows. Serialthat even if the developers fix via patches, they are there.

Music is another element that helps the creators of Vampyr create a sad and melancholy world. The musical pieces are of a high level and manage to convey this uncertainty from which all the inhabitants of New Eden suffer. The voice actors also do a great job dubbing the different characters., especially the protagonists. The character voices are in perfect English, even though the entire game is translated into Spanish.

Conclusions

Banishers: Ghost of New Eden is one of the first surprises of the year. Although it’s not a perfect title, it has a powerful story in which you decide the fate of different characters, with up to 5 different endings. The combat may be simple and repetitive, and there may be various technical issues, but that doesn’t stop the game from being enjoyable. The town of New Eden manages to convey the darkness to which it succumbs without leaving behind any truly beautiful images. In short, if you are looking for powerful storytelling with decision-making, a fantastic setting among other things and you ignore its small flaws, you will find one of the first blockbusters of the year.