Thanks to Focus Entertainment, I got to play the new game created by DON’T NOD, the creative minds behind games such as ‘Life is Strange’ and ‘Remember Me’. ‘Banishers Ghosts of New Eden’ will give players a brand new immersive experience as the story follows two ‘Banishers’ who are hired to look into hauntings. Having to defeat the spirits that haunt the residents of New Eden; you will be able to switch between two playable characters.

You will meet Antea Duatre, the female lead character and the more experienced Banisher in the duo. With the game set in an early settler era, Antea does get overlooked at first meetings due to her heritage. The other character is Red Mac Raith, a Scotsman who still has some learning to do from Antea in the ways of the Banishers. He shows a lot of respect and loyalty to his teacher and lover but how far will the loyalty of the love go?

The story finds Antea and Red arriving at New Eden as they answer a request from the small settlement’s priest and their friend. When they arrive, they first notice how the land has become infested with spirits and that many of the villagers have fled for safety. As they start finding out what happened, the news of nightmares beginning at the same time in the village is the first clue that they are going to face a powerful foe.

Finding out that the priest recently passed before they arrived, you are introduced to the system of being able to bring spirits back from the veil to seek answers. A significant ongoing feature, especially for Antea.

The combat plays very differently for both Red and Antea, being able to freely switch between them in combat to use skills that are best suited for the fight ahead. Red being alive will have more physical attacks with his sword and flame stick and as you progress a rifle for ranged attacks is added. Pulling off a mix of light and heavy attacks for combos will result in some excellent damage output.

Antea in her otherworldly form, does not use a weapon so instead she can do a long-distance lunge punch. Over time she will learn more powers from the veil like a forceful blast from her body that can hit many targets and also be used to break objects in the world to be able to get around and find secrets.

Outside of combat, you will have specific tasks to explore and small areas to find key items for further advancement of the current quest. This is displayed on the top of the hud with a glowing bar to show you are searching for something; it is easy to walk out of search zones and just as easy to get sidetracked especially when you unlock more skills making you want to backtrack to older locations.

Sometimes, certain missions felt like a slow halt to the story and dragged out small segments that felt like they lasted longer than they did. I enjoyed the option of picking my morality direction towards the end as well; being able to pick how things play out for the fate of Antea is an excellent addition to the game and brings the whole story together as a result of the side missions.

The difficulty of the game is reasonably balanced while playing as Red. You will need to learn how to parry and get the timing down as it will leave a massive opening for attacks. Antea however, has already departed from the land of the living, she can not result in a game over.

When her health bar is drained (it is more of an essence timer instead of a health pool) she will not be available for combat for a short time, so swapping between Red and Antea is critical to ensure Red stays alive during long fights. Players can level up items to help fight too and add more damage and armour. Doing this can only be done at rest spots which you will find scattered around New Eden.

The graphics are a fantastic sight with detailed environments that are easy to get lost in. The design of the characters are also well done, from the hand tattoos of the Banishers to the face details with minor scars. You will meet many other characters as you progress, each with their own style and looks that have been created well to match the story they have. Many common enemies will be the same models reused but the unique enemies you will encounter look fantastic while also being a challenge to fight.

The boss designs for some enemies will be downgraded to elite enemies as you progress after the first time fighting them as a boss mob. A few times, I could see future ambushes due to enemies being in a T pose before getting to them, resulting in me reloading a save to fix it as the ambush never triggered.

The voice acting is also done well with each character you interact with being fully voiced. When you are exploring, if there is a hidden object Antea will say “Something is hidden nearby” so it is hard to miss all the little hidden things throughout the game with great voice cues. Also, when you are solving a case Red and Antea will have back-and-forth dialogue about the situation and have opinions on the hauntings. Rarely were there times when the audio lines were muted and played out in sync, but this being a pre-release version, I was expecting one or two minor bugs and these weren’t game-breaking in the slightest.

In conclusion, Banishers Ghosts of New Eden offers a great story with many sub-stories throughout the game and backs it up with a fantastic combat system as you fight the ghosts and spectres of New Eden. While I did run into a few minor bugs that were easy to fix, nothing was game-breaking that resulted in halting progression while playing. I I would recommend this game to any RPG fans especially those who have enjoyed past titles created by DON’T NOD, as they have found a formula they enjoy using and keep expanding on it in interesting ways.

Written by: Shane Walsh