Ghostwire Tokyo.
GOOD
Wonderful presentation of Tokyo Japan. I really get a feel for what it is like to live in Tokyo. Awesome visual effects. Great enemy design. Just an all around beautiful game. The highlight of the experience was exploring this virtual Tokyo.
MEH
The story and characters were were not very interesting. Akito has no standout traits at all. KK is probably the best character in the game; He has so much more expanse than Akito does its a wonder why they didn't just make him the lead character. Main Villain is incredibly generic. All the other support characters are forgettable. Where it does shine is the lore; Tons and tons of background info that makes for interesting readslistens.
Combat feels undercooked for 2 reasons: You essentially got 3 element guns; Fast firing/weak wind gun, Short range/wide hitbox water gun and High power/limited ammo fire gun... and a bow. That's it. The amount of enemy types is decent but they themselves don't really motivate unique approaches. I found myself falling into a pattern in regards to how I took care of different types. When I got a good enough ammo count for the fire weapon I was charge bombin left and right only using other weapons when I ran out of fire ammo. It's get stale very quick into game.
At the core, Ghostwire is one big collect-a-thon. You can beat the game in about 10-15 hours but to get the real ending you must collect 240,000 worth of spirits throughout Tokyo. Now, it's not 240,000 individual spirits as each cluster is worth a varying amount, but it's still a lot spirits. The DLC version of the game adds a new area which has about 15,000 extra spirits making it possible to get 100% without actually getting 100% but it is still very tedious. If you want to max out all your skill trees you need to find all KK's notes(About 20) because at make level you wont have enough skill points to do it. Then there is the 25 Tanuki hunt; 25 Tanuki's transform into objects scattered about Tokyo. Then there is Ed's recordings. To increase the ammo of weapons you must pray and 52 Jizo statues scattered about. You also need to hunt down all friendly Yokai to get their Megatami (Also needed to max skill trees). Then there is the hunt for artifact quest .. guys it just keeps going. I hope the sequel will find a better use for the open its world. Waaay to much to collect. DK64 like in this regard.
BAD
Some will disagree, but I dislike when open world games gate your progression. Initially Tokyo is not open as its been enveloped by a fog. The more Tori gates that are cleared the more the fog lifts. Unfortunately the gates are only visible when the story wants them to be. I wish the cleansing of Tori gates were independent of the story.
Ghostwire tries to keep you in the game longer than its loop can remain fun. If you do everything it will be stale way before its over. If you only do the story than its nowhere near enough. I really think the game would have been better off as a level based action game. I still had fun though and look forward to any sequels as long as they improve one weak areas.
7.5/10
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