Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden Reviews
Don't Nod drops the melodrama for a poignantly performed story about grief and injustice, where the difficult choices tug at your heart and principles.
Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden’s memorable story and inspired investigative cases help carry it across its rougher patches.
This ghost story is stretched a little thin, but still well worth exploring.
A sprawling action RPG with a poignant love affair at its heart, whose enjoyable combat and supernatural detective work is all in pursuit of a morally ambiguous goal of your own choosing.
Some gripping ghost stories justify gathering around Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden's campfire, but an open world full of routine skirmishes and mindless repetition might just scare you off again. As Dontnod's longest game yet, Banishers underlines the value of a tighter focus.
Banishers is a spooky, loving tale about two incredible people. I cried a few times, both for these two characters I grew to adore, and for the very sad stories of others just trying to make it in a difficult world. While the combat is not spectacular, and the graphics are middling, everything else makes this a very special game. With superb writing, excellent performances, a clever central mechanic, and thoughtful, engaging stories, Banishers is Don’t Nod’s best game yet.
Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden is a love story about loss and sacrifice, propelling its choice-driven narrative forward amidst middling combat.
It's not going to be the game of the year, but it's a great example of both light RPG adventures and those games that eat your brain out with their decisions. Pure Don't Nod with an extra bit of show.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden is a fantastic piece of storytelling, and it gives you a compelling world, people and lore for you to delve into. While it labours in some areas, you can put your own personality and feelings into this largely linear adventure, making this a game and a tale that deserves to be experienced.
Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden is a story full of love, spirits and sacrifices. This game has a very satisfying and challenging gameplay, as it forces players to face a series of ethical dilemmas, following DON'T NOD's usual tone. Immersive and beautiful, this experience is capable of enchanting any type of player.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden is Don't Nod's most ambitious and solid game, and despite some flaws in pacing and repetition, it remains an action-adventure loaded with feeling and with a solid combat-system.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden is a powerful, emotional and compelling tale that shows off a side of Don't Nod that we've never seen so well-lit.
Don't Nod's new third-person goth-tragedy action-adventure RPG is full of swashbuckling ghost hunting, bound up in a story unironically about the power of love. Despite some repetition and busywork, it's a great time.
Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden is in the spirit of high-quality AA games that should not go unnoticed. Banishers does not necessarily break any new ground with its systems but it keenly focuses on a single vision with its narrative and ensures that everything else is working in rhythm with it and working well. In the end, love is the driving force of Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden, and anyone who thinks that they might be interested in Red and Antea’s story is undoubtedly in for a good time.
Banishers: Ghost of New Eden is a grim and gripping tale of two lovers coming to terms with love and sacrifice. Don't Nod have built another beautiful world to enjoy.
Banishers: Ghost of Eden is a unique title that just stumbles along the way. It has some severe pacing issues and clunky combat that really drag down the overall experience. I wanted to love it a lot more than I did. It feels like Dontnod’s usual unique take on a genre that feels just a bit undercooked. Still once it drops in price and perhaps receives a few updates, I think this could easily graduate to the status of hidden gem. There are a lot of cool concepts here that I really enjoyed. I just wish I didn’t have to wait so long to get to them.
Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden is a deeply emotional collection of human stories, of both the protagonists, but also the settlers of New Eden. The combat is nothing great, but the stories within certainly are. You'll be surprised at how easily you can empathize with late 17th century colonials, which is the magic of developer Don't Nod.
Most gameplay elements in Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden have been done before, but they're pulled off way better in this title. The choices you make carry the already gripping story. Missing out on this experience may haunt you for years to come.
Despite some frustrating design choices, pacing and technical issues, there is a prevailing magnetic chemistry to Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden that is felt within its narrative and mirrored in its gameplay, in large part thanks to its two brilliantly written and acted protagonists. Its thoughtful dissection and unique exploration of grief ultimately resonated with me in a way that allowed me to forgive most of its other sins.
An excellent action-RPG that follows in the footsteps of God of War and The Witcher 3 while proposing a very different but equally fascinating setting and two really cool main characters. Net of a few technical stumbles and some design naivete, Don't Nod's most ambitious project hits the mark rather well.
Review in Italian | Read full review