Unknown Soldier
Member
I've been diving deep into the backlog here and the now 4-years old Ghost of Tsushima was one I meant to get around to for a long time. Fortunately, this meant I could play the PS5 version of the game and enjoy 4K and 60 fps gameplay.
I think when you judge an open world game, of which there are way too many released to the market these days, you can look at it two ways. You can look at the story and the characters, and decide you want to be driven forward by the unfolding plot and the narrative. You can also look at the open world itself, and decide you want to go around doing random things in the world and look for interesting things to do.
In terms of the story and the characters, Ghost of Tsushima is a masterpiece. Sucker Punch clearly have people who genuinely love the old samurai cinema of Japan and they have made a game which perfectly captures the heart and soul of those old movies. If you are a fan of Akira Kurosawa's films, this game is probably the greatest tribute ever made to his work. If you're here for the story, this game has arguably the best story of any open world game I've ever played. There isn't much I should say about the story other than you owe it to yourself to experience this game for the story if nothing else.
In terms of the open world, well, it's pretty average. As much as I enjoyed hearing the cute noises the foxes made, at some point after I've followed my 20th fox to the 20th inari shrine, I'm pretty sure I got the idea. People say GoT is a lot like an Assassin's Creed game except good, and it's hard to argue that point when the open world has so much generic collect-a-thon stuff like a generic Ubisoft open world game. I genuinely enjoyed the haikus because no open world has ever done anything like that, but the collecting of the Sashimoto banners is straight Ubisoft trash and could easily have been dispensed with.
Despite being a port of a PS4 game, it's hard to say anything bad about GoT's visuals. It's probably the most visually stunning open world game ever made, not because it's technically impressive but because of the amazing art design and environments. It's like playing a painting of a samurai movie, except in widescreen, with HDR, and in 4K. If you look very closely you can easily see the technical limitations of the engine used and the compromises made to make the game work on a PS4 back in the day, but you don't have to look that closely when every moment in the game looks like this. This is one game which proves that all the technical buzzwords in the world can't make a game look beautiful, but incredible art and environments certainly can. Also this game has some of the best HDR support I've seen in gaming, with appropriate use of inky black shadows and piercingly bright flames and sunlight when the situation calls for it.
I want to specifically comment on the sound design of this game, because most games take the audio to be an afterthought and games which have amazing sound really stand out. GoT has really amazing sound design, including the beautiful soundtrack which perfectly conveys the emotional arc of the game's story, the weapon and battle sounds, and also it's one of the few games where choosing the 'Home Theater' option really means if you have a good surround sound home theater system you'll be able to enjoy absolutely tremendous film-like dynamic range where you'll be talking with some people at a normal volume and then a battle breaks out and explosions are going off around you shaking your house. It's rare for a game to actually do this, I can only think of the Uncharted games off the top of my head as other examples of games which really have this kind of fantastic soundscape.
Speaking of AC games, GoT has a really fun and dynamic combat system. One thing that is super trash garbage about the Ubisoft open worlds is the combat just plain sucks and hasn't ever improved after decades of entries in the AC franchise. But GoT nails it from the first moment you start the game, with a combat system which rewards creativity, actual parrying ability, use of all the tools you are given, and extremely satisfying kills. The game's duels also stand out as incredibly fun encounters. GoT also manages to have a completely effective stealth system where you really do have to use the tools you're given there as well to stay hidden while sneaking around and where you aren't always being annoyed either by enemies who are blind as a bat nor too stupid to find you in grass after you just knifed their buddies. The enemies can see you, they can find you, and they will try to kill you when they do. It sounds stupid that something this basic is praiseworthy but so many games do the stealth mechanics so very stupidly. The gameplay of GoT really stands out in the open world genre because it's as fun to kill your 200th Mongol as your first because of all the different options you are given to kill them.
After clearing GoT and getting the story ending, I can say that this is arguably the best open world game I've played in over a decade that isn't named Grand Theft Auto. I'm saying a lot here. It's really that good, despite some of the open world stuff being kind of generic. The visuals, the sound, the story and characters, and the combat gameplay really carries this title. It's an open world game that proves to be much greater than the sum of its parts and has the kind of emotional weight that a great movie or book has. Also, don't believe Sucker Punch's lies. "Your horse will be with you for the rest of your journey." FUCK YOU. FUCK. YOU.
I think when you judge an open world game, of which there are way too many released to the market these days, you can look at it two ways. You can look at the story and the characters, and decide you want to be driven forward by the unfolding plot and the narrative. You can also look at the open world itself, and decide you want to go around doing random things in the world and look for interesting things to do.
In terms of the story and the characters, Ghost of Tsushima is a masterpiece. Sucker Punch clearly have people who genuinely love the old samurai cinema of Japan and they have made a game which perfectly captures the heart and soul of those old movies. If you are a fan of Akira Kurosawa's films, this game is probably the greatest tribute ever made to his work. If you're here for the story, this game has arguably the best story of any open world game I've ever played. There isn't much I should say about the story other than you owe it to yourself to experience this game for the story if nothing else.
In terms of the open world, well, it's pretty average. As much as I enjoyed hearing the cute noises the foxes made, at some point after I've followed my 20th fox to the 20th inari shrine, I'm pretty sure I got the idea. People say GoT is a lot like an Assassin's Creed game except good, and it's hard to argue that point when the open world has so much generic collect-a-thon stuff like a generic Ubisoft open world game. I genuinely enjoyed the haikus because no open world has ever done anything like that, but the collecting of the Sashimoto banners is straight Ubisoft trash and could easily have been dispensed with.
Despite being a port of a PS4 game, it's hard to say anything bad about GoT's visuals. It's probably the most visually stunning open world game ever made, not because it's technically impressive but because of the amazing art design and environments. It's like playing a painting of a samurai movie, except in widescreen, with HDR, and in 4K. If you look very closely you can easily see the technical limitations of the engine used and the compromises made to make the game work on a PS4 back in the day, but you don't have to look that closely when every moment in the game looks like this. This is one game which proves that all the technical buzzwords in the world can't make a game look beautiful, but incredible art and environments certainly can. Also this game has some of the best HDR support I've seen in gaming, with appropriate use of inky black shadows and piercingly bright flames and sunlight when the situation calls for it.
I want to specifically comment on the sound design of this game, because most games take the audio to be an afterthought and games which have amazing sound really stand out. GoT has really amazing sound design, including the beautiful soundtrack which perfectly conveys the emotional arc of the game's story, the weapon and battle sounds, and also it's one of the few games where choosing the 'Home Theater' option really means if you have a good surround sound home theater system you'll be able to enjoy absolutely tremendous film-like dynamic range where you'll be talking with some people at a normal volume and then a battle breaks out and explosions are going off around you shaking your house. It's rare for a game to actually do this, I can only think of the Uncharted games off the top of my head as other examples of games which really have this kind of fantastic soundscape.
Speaking of AC games, GoT has a really fun and dynamic combat system. One thing that is super trash garbage about the Ubisoft open worlds is the combat just plain sucks and hasn't ever improved after decades of entries in the AC franchise. But GoT nails it from the first moment you start the game, with a combat system which rewards creativity, actual parrying ability, use of all the tools you are given, and extremely satisfying kills. The game's duels also stand out as incredibly fun encounters. GoT also manages to have a completely effective stealth system where you really do have to use the tools you're given there as well to stay hidden while sneaking around and where you aren't always being annoyed either by enemies who are blind as a bat nor too stupid to find you in grass after you just knifed their buddies. The enemies can see you, they can find you, and they will try to kill you when they do. It sounds stupid that something this basic is praiseworthy but so many games do the stealth mechanics so very stupidly. The gameplay of GoT really stands out in the open world genre because it's as fun to kill your 200th Mongol as your first because of all the different options you are given to kill them.
After clearing GoT and getting the story ending, I can say that this is arguably the best open world game I've played in over a decade that isn't named Grand Theft Auto. I'm saying a lot here. It's really that good, despite some of the open world stuff being kind of generic. The visuals, the sound, the story and characters, and the combat gameplay really carries this title. It's an open world game that proves to be much greater than the sum of its parts and has the kind of emotional weight that a great movie or book has. Also, don't believe Sucker Punch's lies. "Your horse will be with you for the rest of your journey." FUCK YOU. FUCK. YOU.
