Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden

It is a damn shame that Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden flopped as this is one of the most underrated games of 2024. I hope that they whack this on game pass so it can find an audience and people can appreciate what a fun and exciting game this is. This is from a studio that knows how to make a fantastic narrative adventure and that is in full effect here. It sucks that so many people do not even know that this game exists. I played all the way through it and I could see myself doing so again.

The Ghosts of Me And You

That is a rather obscure Less Than Jake reference for my fellow ska heads out there. Anyway, As Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden is made by Don’t-Nod, the studio responsible for Life is Strange. The fact that this is a fantastic story should not be a surprise to you. We have two protagonists in Duarte and Red who are ghosthunters and they are also lovers so they have a great personal and professional connection. Set in 1695, they are called by a friend of theirs to help them with a rather nasty spirit that is causing trouble in their New England town.

Cold As Ice

We get a twist pretty early on in Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden in that this is no normal spirit it is a very dangerous and evil spirit that has put this town into a permanent winter and killed many of the people who live here. Duarte and Red confront it, only for Duarte to be killed and Red to be tossed off a cliff. No spoilers as the story is honestly amazing. However, that is not the end for our two ghost hunting lovers as they try to do all they can to save the day from this evil. I truly cannot say enough positive things about the story in this game. I highly advise that you read as little as you can about the story before you play this game.

Two Worlds One War

While the story of Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden is great, I feel that the gameplay here is equally as good. This is a 3rd person action RPG, you control both Duarte and Red. Red is fighting and doing stuff in the real world, but as Duarte is dead, Duarte can use spirit powers and do things that Red cannot do! This is great for combat and it throws some amazing puzzles and interesting sections in your way that may require a little out of the box thinking. In typical Don’t-Nod fashion, there are some choices to be made as you progress through the game and there are different endings depending on your actions as you progress through the game.

The Cinematic Approach

Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden has a great look to it, I love the 1600 New England setting, and the whole permanent winter thing going on really does make you feel cold. I was very impressed with the visuals of the game and this by quite some margin is the best looking game that the good folks at Don’t-Nod have ever made. I also feel that it has a bit more polish than you may expect from Don’t-Nod. The voice acting is great and the cinematic approach that they have gone for makes you feel like you are in the middle of this big epic story.

Pros:

• The two protagonists are fantastic
• I was so invested in the story
• The action RPG gameplay is satisfying and easy to get to grips with
• This is legit one of the most underrated games of the year

Cons:

• This game flopped and it is such a shame
• I need to get a physical release of this!

Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden is a story-driven action adventure that puts you in the role of Antea and Red, ghost hunters. Their job is to banish ghosts that linger too long on this Earth, and prevent them from causing harm to the living.

Unfortunately, things are complicated by the fact that Antea is one of those ghosts. She died in a recent ghost hunt and became one of the creatures they both hate so much.

The game follows in the footsteps of other games by the same developer, DON’T NOD, and forces you to make a number of morally ambiguous decisions through the course of the story.

Choices Change the Game

Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden is one of those games where important decisions you make along the way will change the course of the entire story. Everything you do has an impact on the world around you, and some may suffer because of your choices.

If you’ve ever played DON’T NOD’s 2018 offering, Vampyr, you’ll have a clear idea of what sort of game this might be. In Vampyr, you must feed on people to survive—but your past life was as a doctor, a career that makes you take a vow to heal. Vampyr is full of choices like the ones you’ll see in Banishers.

Both Antea and Red have sworn to hunt all ghosts and punish them for their behavior against the living. Now that one of you is a ghost, you must decide how far you’re willing to go with that vow. This is just one example of many choices you will have to make, and sometimes there are no easy or good choices available.

Play as both Antea and Red

Antea offers some spiritual powers to go with her more ordinary skill set, while Red has a wide variety of weapons. Magic will also be useable in this game to help send spectors and other frightening monsters packing. Together, you will have to search for a way to help bring Antea back from an early grave. While we don’t know much about who will be able to use what power, weapons can be glimpsed on Red’s back, and there appears to be magic coming from one of his hands.

Antea on the other hand appears to use her fists in combat, and clearly has some ethereal combat at hr command.

Beautiful Graphics

All we know about this game so far came from the trailer and information released by DON’T NOD at the 2022 Game Awards. While we have very few combat details, one thing is clear is how beautiful the graphics are. In the trailer, the backdrops and characters are so crisp and detailed, it’s not immediately obvious they are CG. It takes several seconds into the game play trailer for the characters to be noticeably CG.

With so many games offering mid-range graphics, its very exciting to see such beautiful CG showing up in a new trailer.

Pros:

• Beautiful graphics
• Morally ambiguous choices

Cons:

• Unknown