I’ll be the first to admit that Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden remained relatively low on my radar up until its release. It looked interesting but was yet to draw me in with anything I hadn’t seen before. I am now incredibly glad that I gave this a chance.
Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden borrows from other genres regarding its gameplay, but ultimately tells a wonderful story of love, loss and acceptance. Its combat mechanics and overarching gameplay can feel a little plain at times, but this is certainly worth diving into for its story and approach to morality alone.
To the Ends of the Earth
Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden takes place during the 17th century in the fictional town of New Eden, as partners, and lovers Red mac Raith and Antea Duarte have made their way over to help a friend in need. Banishers themselves are essentially ghost hunters who find and put lingering ghosts to rest, who may have trouble passing over due to unfinished business. The lore only deepens as the story progresses, as these ghosts generally need to be sent off to the afterlife, as they cause problems for the living down the track.
When they arrive, they soon find their friend has been killed by the very thing he called upon Red and Antea to solve. Upon further investigation, they soon find an evil entity who mysteriously remains, seemingly affecting the entire town with vicious nightmares. Their initial faceoff sees Antea being killed in action, in which Red must learn to partner with her newly formed ghost to solve the mystery and come to terms with this loss, and the possible outcomes that a Banisher must address and consider.
It’s admittedly a fantastic premise, that drives the entire experience with some heartfelt conversations and tough choices. Red is generally deep and emotional, asking hard questions, while Antea is more direct, speaking facts as opposed to feelings. The two have great chemistry, and most of the game’s best moments revolve around cutscenes in which the couple debate fate and morality. I would rather leave the rest unspoilt, but as Red and Antea work towards solving this overarching mystery, some tough choices await.
The Grave and Beyond
Players take control of both Red and Antea as they travel throughout New Eden together. Red does most of the combat with his trusty sword and Firebane (a device used to damage ghosts and spectres), while Antea can use her ethereal abilities to uncover hidden aspects of their surroundings, like messages, environmental clues and new ways forward.
Combat is relatively basic. It’s certainly functional, gracing Red with a combination of light, heavy and ranged rifle attacks. Spectres are the most common enemies Red will face, although they do their best to shake things up, possessing other living beings and animals in your vicinity, prompting players to switch to Antea, who can damage possessed enemies to bring these spectres out. They can also team up with certain abilities to deal damage while switching on the fly and at opportune times.
Red can even build up a finishing metre to utilise the Firebane, killing most enemies with a single blow. Ranged combat, parries and dodges all play a part in adding variety, but none of them feel particularly new, therefore wearing a little thin in the later stages of the game.
Weapons and items can also be upgraded to give Red and Antea additional boosts in combat, be it to damage or special abilities, in which resources can easily be found by playing the game in a relaxed and evenly paced manner. While there are open-ended areas to explore, I never felt as though I had to grind to enhance Red and Antea’s abilities.
Tracking Back
While combat plays things safe, Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden’s remaining aspects shine much brighter. Red and Antea’s main narrative centres around the nightmares that are plaguing the town, but the larger side missions known as Haunted Cases, add an incredible amount of depth to the overall lore and tug at some heartstrings in the process. Players will meet new and unique characters, each with their own dilemmas. These issues are usually linked to a lingering ghost of some kind, which allows Red and Antea to ultimately uncover the truth and put it to rest.
These missions don’t take up too much time and involve discovering a few clues and performing one of five rituals to proceed. Red can access special areas of interest in the environment to contract the dead, with Harkening, which reveals past memories, Make-Manifest, which can summon a ghost, Summon Scourge, which can summon a more powerful ghost, triggering a boss fight, Unboudning, which removes a curse on an object to loot from and Void Travelling, which is found later on and allows you to access a special plane of existence called the Void.
You’ll need to choose from one of these five rituals to proceed and need to choose correctly based on the situation. Resources are also required to complete each of these rituals, so choosing the wrong one will result in wasting those resources. Down the track, you’ll understand how to tackle these situations, but these cases are a great way to invest in the deeper roles and responsibilities of Red and Antea’s tough duties.
But it’s the final choice of the Haunted Cases that makes all the difference. Players can choose to blame the perpetrator, killing them and contributing to Antea’s resurrection, or to absolve the perpetrator and ascend or banish the ghosts, ultimately contributing towards Antea’s ascendance. There are some incredible conversations behind each of these resolutions, which are way harder to resolve than you would expect.
Players can also trot off the beaten path freely to take part in various combat encounters and solve environmental puzzles, but nothing feels as exciting as these Haunted Cases when outside of the main narrative.
Look the Part
Broadly speaking, Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden looks great. Character models are slick and detailed and environments benefit from some solid textures and lighting. Most of the experience runs at 60 fps, although certain areas and encounters can cause this frame rate to drop at times, although never significantly.
Certain character animations can look a little wonky, particularly when transitioning from gameplay to cutscenes. For example, if Red isn’t in the right spot when triggering a conversation, the game will automatically snap him into place, which looks a little awkward. It’s never enough to take you out of the experience but happens regularly enough that you can’t miss it.
Final Thoughts
Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden excels in its engaging and emotional narrative as opposed to its somewhat bland combat mechanics. There’s nothing necessarily broken about them, but it just feels as though most of its prominent elements have been borrowed from better games.
That being said, the believable love story between Red and Antea carries the majority of the experience, and when entangled with some of the harsher moral issues that present themselves in the early hours, certainly makes this a journey worth taking.
THREE AND A HALF STARS (OUT OF FIVE)
Highlights: Engaging and emotional narrative; Satisfying side content; Slick visuals
Lowlights: Combat is functional but feels a little stale at times; Awkward character animations and frame rate drops
Developer: Don’t Nod
Publisher: Focus Entertainment
Platforms: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Windows PC
Available: Now
Review conducted on PlayStation 5 with a code provided by the publisher.
