REVIEW: ‘Banishers: Ghosts Of New Eden’ Is An Emotional Thrill (PC)

Developer Don’t Nod is most well known for their narrative-driven games like Life is Strange, Tell Me Why, and Twin Mirror. Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden attempts to blend those emotional stories with fluid combat, resource gathering, and upgrade mechanics. Don’t Nod’s attempts have resulted in a title that is cinematic, dramatic, and a hell of a lot of fun.

Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden kicks off with its two protagonists, Antea and Red, arriving in the colony of New Eden in North America. The pair is a married couple doubling as master and apprentice banishers respectively, bringing a little bit of Jedi energy to the American colonies. Banishers are professional exorcists who help fight spirits and ghosts lingering in the material world. To do so, they fight with ancient rituals, swords, torches, and highly specialized gear.

Players use those tools in combat against spectral and non-spectral enemies alike. Combat in Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden is a largely standard affair. Players use light and heavy attacks, dodging, parries, and a lock-on to defeat a large cast of enemies. Players can find variety through supernatural abilities that augment their more standard options. Some enemies also benefit from similar abilities, however, such as ones that can possess regular enemies to make them stronger. When Banishers fully embraces its supernatural elements it leads to some interesting moments and interactions.

Unfortunately, however, the vast majority of its combat encounters feel repetitive and underwhelming, especially in the case of boss fights. More engaging enemies are introduced early on in your playthrough with little of interest added later on to mix things up. The lack of variety results in combat encounters that largely boil down to repeating the same steps. Ghost punches to kick out a possessed ghost followed by a light sword attack to stun and a heavy sword attack to finish them off. Then just rinse and repeat. Boss fights are even less engaging because of how long they take. Their health pools are massive and attack patterns too simple to keep it interesting.

Banishers‘ redeeming quality in combat comes from its excellent visual design. With smooth animations, flashy effects, and good camera work, Banishers manages to elevate the combat, if only slightly. It is in everything surrounding the combat that the visual design really thrives. The game’s depiction of colonial America is unlike anything else. New Eden is a gloomy hamlet that effortlessly blends the real with gothic fantasy, creating a riveting world. The surrounding wilderness is dower and wild, making you appropriately feel like you aren’t welcome in the ghost-tainted woods. You will spend plenty of time searching for ingredients and crafting materials. It’s great that there is a lot of serenity and joy in just walking through the environments

Players gather materials while exploring during quests to upgrade their gear and complete rituals. While both mechanics feel appropriate thematically, they are woefully underdeveloped and hardly utilized. Crafting is nothing more than a series of linear upgrades for each piece of equipment. The upgrades bring slightly improved stats, but nothing beyond bigger numbers that don’t bring tangible differences in gameplay. The system is so unimpactful that it feels like more of a distraction that the game would fare better without it.

Rituals in Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden are similarly limited. Players perform them repeatedly during quests with gathered supplies, but there are only three options to perform. The rituals are also used during very coordinated moments, relegating them to more of a window dressing than a mechanic. Banishers also doesn’t give players any choices when it comes to performing a ritual. The mechanic could have been a great way of giving players more choices during storylines, but that potential goes entirely unrealized.

Instead, player choice comes down to decisions in side quests. Each side quest constitutes a spiritual mystery that players solve after finding enough clues in the surrounding environment. There is no element of putting the clues together yourself or actually solving the mystery. The game just gives you the answers once you find all of the glowing items that you need. When you solve the mystery you choose between killing a person involved in the sad story or sending an affiliated ghost to a negative or positive afterlife. The side quests are written with enough nuance that making the decision actually takes some thought. Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden also adds another layer on top of the decisions by introducing a cumulative goal for players to work toward through their choices.

Going too far into detail regarding that upper layer would delve into spoilers, which would be doing a great disservice to Banishers. Don’t Nod’s narrative chops are on full display here. The game’s story is emotionally complicated and believably written in a mature way. It’s gripping from start to end. The story’s emotional beats all land well and are supported by excellent performances. They even transcend some clunky facial animations. You can’t say hardly anything about the story of Banishers without spoiling it in some way. But, suffice it to say, it delivers on everything Don’t Nod fans will be hoping for.

Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden continues Don’t Nod’s recent success with a gripping new experience. While its combat isn’t anything groundbreaking, the world that it transports players to and the story that it tells within it are well worth checking out.

Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden is available now on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S.