The Dontnod studio has been able to leave its mark in its not too long history. Many people probably remember the French from Remember Me or Life is Strange, but they also created good Vampyr and Jusant. There were also some not very successful releases, including Life is Strange 2, Tell Me Why and Twin Mirror.
In general, when you launch a new Dontnod game, you never know what you’re going to get. The simple Life is Strange became an incredible success, while the more intriguing Twin Mirror failed from the start.
leaving today Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden from the same opera. Deadpan trailers, lackluster demos, and a complete lack of understanding of what’s about to be released. We have already completed the new game, thanks to the publisher Focus for access to the game, which took us more than 30 hours (!).
Get ready, this is the best game on Dontnod.
Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden – where to play
The game is released for PC, PS5 and Xbox Series: on PC the launch will be on February 13 at 20:01 Moscow time, while on consoles the launch will take place on February 13 at 0:01 Moscow time .
The video is available on Focus Entertainment’s YouTube channel. The rights to the video belong to Focus.
Base of exile
Personally, I didn’t follow Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden until its release; I saw trailers and gameplay in the demos, but it didn’t go any further. From the first video of the game it seemed to me that it had no spark of its own, no striking feature. I was deeply wrong.
If we give analogies, then Banishers is unexpectedly the closest to God of War (2018) and God of War Ragnarok. There is an open world of “corridors” that are cleverly intertwined and lead to different corners with secrets and other valuables. Exploring the territory is exciting due to the excellent visual performance and the very atmosphere of a dying place.
The battles are also largely inspired by God of War, although there are more of their own characteristics: we have two main characters, one of which is a ghost. In battle you will have to combine the abilities of both characters to achieve maximum results.
In short, Banishers is a story-driven game that lasts between 20 and 40 hours. The key here is the “story”, as everything else is done “well” or “satisfactorily”, so without a decent story it is unlikely that I would have been able to complete the entire game.
whip the ghosts
You will play as a couple of exiles: they are ghost hunters who cannot find peace for themselves. However, for the soul to rest, it is not necessary to sprinkle salt on his corpse, one must discover all the ins and outs: how he died, why he did not leave the world, to whom he was attached. .
The events begin when the heroes, at the request of an old friend, leave London for the New World. They are a little worried: if they need help, the matter is very serious. And so it turns out: the companion died after a frivolous act, and soon one of the protagonists dies.
The mentor and beloved Anthea turns into a ghost and the heroes are faced with a task: now they must not only solve the problem with the city captured by the nightmare, but also figure out what to do with the girl. There are two options (but there seem to be three main endings): save her soul or resurrect her at the cost of other people’s lives.
We need to figure out how to defeat evil and at the same time we will meet dozens of other characters. It’s funny, but in the local United States there is a ghost haunting everyone we know, because at the end of the story, having fully explored the world and completed all the tasks, it seems that we will have time to help absolutely everyone.
The story is the heart of the game.
The narration, the story, the script, the acting, the direction, the setting… everything works very well here. It’s surprising how Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden looks like an expensive, high-quality game. It’s a rare occasion these days when you can see where every penny of the budget went.
There are a lot of staged videos and a lot of dialogue, and it’s always fascinating to follow what happens. The script, while not at the highest level, tries too hard to deceive expectations, but it is still at a decent level.
At the same time, there are a lot of stories here: in addition to the long story campaign, which will probably take no less than 20 hours, the developers have provided for two more types of tasks: exile and epilogue. In one, you get acquainted with a situation where a ghost haunts someone, and in the second it appears after expulsion, where you can find out the future fate of the characters.
There are about 20 exiles in the game – these are multi-stage tasks, at the end of each of which you must make a decision taking into account what is happening: exalt or exorcise a ghost, but you can also accuse a being alive. person. All of this influences the ending in one way or another. And then other tasks appear in which people face new difficulties after what happened: they can also be helped.
The plots turned out to be completely different: once I was simply walking in the forest and found a stone, which, it turns out, had previously been used to kill a traveler. From here a branch began, starting from a couple of tasks with several options for the development of the story. In terms of development, additional tasks are in no way inferior to the main story, often even superior.
The world of Banishers is very cruel. At first, the heroes will already stumble upon a couple of very dark plots, but then what is happening does not become brighter and the future of the local residents seems extremely dark. There are no good people here and everyone tries to escape from their problems.
The same applies to the two main characters: they love each other with all their hearts, but even they can quarrel, not find a common language and have radically different points of view. This helps make the story more multifaceted and emotional, because it doesn’t create the impression of a deceptive or sterile relationship.
Every couple fights sometimes, and that is normal. The heroes of Banishers find themselves in dire circumstances, which they both studiously ignore, but it’s impossible to endlessly close your eyes to the enormous elephant in front of you, and I found those moments to be the most powerful in Banishers. First of all, we have a game about human relationships and the ghosts are just a wrapper.
I was especially fascinated by the moments when both characters looked at the situation for a long time only from their own angle, in many ways cursing and even angry at each other for not looking at the situation differently, but then exchanging perspectives. When they vent and then timidly plead, trying to understand.
There are not many such scenes, but this is even better, it really gives the impression that these are real people: we do not like to constantly press emotional wounds or problems in relationships, we often hold out for a long time and stay in silence, getting more and more angry about these things.
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Too much and too long
Banishers is not perfect. You can complain about excessive skill leveling, uninteresting equipment selection, and sometimes strange difficulty level jumps. However, this seemed like a small thing to me, which does not interfere at all with the enjoyment of the adventure.
My main complaint may seem far-fetched to many, but the only major drawback to Banishers is its length. The game is too big, which is especially noticeable towards the end, when you have to run to different parts of the world – quick movements save, but the fires are not very conveniently located for this.
Ghosts of New Eden has a lot of content. At first glance, it looks like it will take you about 20 hours to complete the plot alone, and another 20 hours for all the tasks (if you want to search for all the secrets, you can easily add another 10 hours).
At the same time, the quality of the tasks does not decrease, but the game itself becomes torture after 20 hours – the game cannot offer anything new. Run through places you’ve already seen and eliminate enemies you’ve already met to pick up an item or talk to a hero.
The plot and gameplay as a whole exist separately and are not interconnected in any way. For the first 20 hours this is not noticeable at all, but towards the end, when you start “clearing the queues”, it becomes obvious. Interesting stories are 80% dialogue and 20% random battles while running after an item or hero.
Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden – is it worth playing?
If you love story-based games and ghost stories, absolutely. Banishers is unlikely to disappoint fans of single-player adventures, but will even surprise them more than once. Unlike Vampyr, for example, there are no extremely creative gameplay mechanics, but rather the game is well balanced.
Banishers is definitely Dontnod’s best game, combining the best of Life is Strange, Vampyr, and Remember Me. I’m looking forward to the new creation of the studio’s “RPG division.”
Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden score: 8.5 out of 10
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Appreciated
Atypical setting: America after the war A compelling plot with terrifying revelations of human stupidity Dozens of additional stories about everyday life, greed, stupidity and ambitions The relationships of the main characters are captivating due to the lack of embellishments The production, the script, the dialogues, voice acting: everything is good.
I dont like him
The game is very long: 30-40 hours for a leisurely trip around the sides, too many empty walks for additional tasks, fast travel points are often located in inconvenient places.
