Ghost of Tsushima Review

Combat is fluid and responsive, with a satisying physicality. The game lets combat deepen as you progress, with new systems adding variety and fresh ways to dominate your enemies. These new dimensions to combat dramatically shift the odds in your favour, and make it possible to choose your own way to complete the missions.

The open-world activities are one of the weaker points, especially Inari Shrines, which have you chasing foxes to unlock perks. These are charming and force you to explore the wold, but they are not particularly challenging and completing all of them started to become a chore. By the end of the game I wished there was more variety. The other open-world activity, the Shinto Shrines, are much more interesting. These are like larger versions of the towers in Far Cry 3, forcing you to traverse difficult terrain, and essentially parkour to hard-to-reach locations. The rewards for these shrines can be quite powerful, and each shrine had its own flavour, so I really enjoyed them.

Aesthetics-wise the game is incredible, with an immersive weather system, beautiful landscapes, and stunning sound design. The environmental sounds were apparently recorded in Tsushima, so kudos to the developers for their dedication to realism! There has been no announcement yet, but a PS5 version must surely be in the works, and could really show off the power of next-gen hardware.

The story is solid. After initially not caring too much, I began to like the characters, particularly Yuna, Lady Masako, and Lord Shimura. The stoic protagonist Jin Sakai also took some time to grow on me, but by the mid-point of the campaign I was totally invested. I was less enthusiastic about the handling of the Mongol characters, who seem a little one-dimensional. Wouldn’t Khotun Khan be a more compelling antagonist if he were vulnerable somehow? Maybe he could become increasingly frustrated at the continued success of Jin’s war? But ultimately, I guess it’s just a video game, and we need an enemy to pursue.

Update: In a shocking development, some months after release Sucker Punch added Ghost of Tsushima Legends, a free DLC that adds a co-op looter with surprisingly deep PVE content, and a substantial raid. I haven’t played this but the feedback seems to have been universally positive.

Overall, GoT is a fun, engaging open world game, a Playstation exclusive. I can’t wait to see where Sucker Punch take this franchise next!