Ghost of Tsushima starts off strong but after the prologue, it just starts to feel dragged out the pacing is one of the worst I have seen in a while and when you feel like the Story is getting better it somehow gets worse just right after that feeling the first Act was the longest and the most boring Act the pacing is worse than RDR2 also the mission design is straight-up outdated it takes some inspirations from Pre-RPG Assassin’s Creed but from the worst aspects the side quests are tremendous but the mission design ruins it the only side quests I found interesting and had great mission design are called “Mythic Tales” they reward you with something unique and you have to fight a Mini-Boss in a Duel but even those feel repetitive sometimes but they are still fun also the world of Tsushima ends up feeling dull and empty most of the time it’s just walking/horse ride Mongols come in your way fight Mongols then go to the destination if it’s a mission you might have to fight Mongols again it’s just straight-up repetitive and boring the Combat is great but it is ruined by the terrible camera you cannot see the main character properlg in indoors it gets even worse but with that being said the Combat itself is one of the best I have seen in a while the transition when you change your stances is smooth also there’s no lock on enemy option which easily could have made the camera better.
I might have been disappointed by a lot of things in Ghost of Tsushima but a thing that I wasn’t disappointed with was the OST which is easily the best part of the game, in my opinion, The music while you ride into the grasslands is terrific it’s just too satisfying but in most aspects, I was disappointed even graphically it looks like an early PS3 game in some areas that’s due to the bad textures in Ghost of Tsushima and in some areas it seems like the best open-world game graphically it is nowhere as consistent as the infamous games were graphically the areas where Ghost of Tsushima looks best are the ones which have a lot of vegitation also don’t even get me started on cutscenes most of the cutscenes literally feel lifeless and emotionless it’s almost as if some robots are talking each other I played in English even in English the lipsync feels weird at times also you can’t even see the other character’s face correctly while they’re talking sometimes the camera is focused more on the bodies of characters instead for some reason the animation team did a great job in the Combat but the facial animation team didn’t also there isn’t any animations for some scenes the screen just fades to black and you only hear the noises of characters doing the task also after playing a game like The Last of Us 2 which set a bar in the industry for animation in cutscenes and even in gameplay it just feels weird going to a game like Ghost of Tsushima which has terrible cutscenes but it does have great animations in combat Ghost of Tsushima is one of those games where it looks better in gameplay instead of the cutscenes. The part where the Ghost of Tsushima started to open up was Act 3, but it was also the shortest Act. It did have bad mission design, but the Story was top notch in that Act. Act 1 was the slowest.
Also, there are black bars during cutscenes which will ruin the immersion a bit.
Now let’s talk more about the horrible mission design I stated before. The mission design in Ghost of Tsushima is like Red Dead Redemption 2’s mission design and worst aspects from Old Assassin’s Creed combined, for example, there are a lot of trailing missions in Ghost of Tsushima which you have to do without getting detected that’s one of the worst aspects in Ghost of Tsushima in my opinion also the stealth is serviceable but the broken AI in stealth makes it worse also there is a mission where you have to save 3 different people from the Mongols same place and get them to the same shelter the others are in which just feels straight-up repetitive and boring now let’s go back to stealth again as I previously stated there is Broken AI in stealth for example sometimes you go in front of someone and go right back to a hiding spot the enemy will forget that you even existed they aren’t on alert and you have to follow people in trailing mission without getting detected there are a lot of missions in Ghost of Tsushima which are like that so my experience with it was really bad in terms of the tasks.
Let’s talk more about the Story without getting into Spoiler territory Ghost of Tsushima starts strong. Still, it fails to keep players engaged just as I stated before the first Act in Ghost of Tsushima is just basically about helping people, so they will help you later when you need them same with the first half of Act 2 Ghost of Tsushima’s Story gets great at the end of Act 1 but feels like it’s being dragged out later, they could have just dropped the Act 1’s half missions,and the Story would not have any significant impact I didn’t even want to explore the open world in Ghost of Tsushima I just wanted to complete it as soon as I could so I could delete the game. Some characters are so bland in Ghost of Tsushima that I can’t even remember their names anymore Jin showed 0 emotions mostly the best character, in my opinion, was Khotun Khan most of his scenes were well animated. He was just brutal. He’s definitely on par with villains like Vaas from Far Cry 3 again I won’t spoil the game for anyone reading this review.
Now let’s talk about the things I loved in the game the environment of Ghost of Tsushima is amazing and the lightning is on par with Red Dead Redemption 2’s lightning also the Photo Mode is the best I have ever seen in a game it’s just so advanced you can change the entire environment. The time of the day anytime in Photo mode, there was an issue I had in Horizon Zero Dawn Photo Mode it was that you couldn’t change the time of day in some areas. Still, you can do that in nearly all areas of Ghost of Tsushima. Also, Combat is amazing most of the time. Still, it gets ruined by the broken camera in Ghost of Tsushima; otherwise, it’s one of my favorite blade combat systems from this generation.
Duels were easily my favorite part of the gameplay from Ghost of Tsushima. There are five duels in the main Story. All mythic tales (a type of side quests) have duels in the ending, which are amazing the environment. The lighting makes the duels even better check out one of my favorite duels here it’s one of the best duels in Ghost of Tsushima also there aren’t any major spoiler since it’s just a boss fight from a side quest I would say that the side quests are better than the ones in other PlayStation Exclusives like Horizon Zero Dawn and Spider-Man PS4, but that’s not saying much since those games had side quests which were not anything special at all.
Verdict:
Overall Ghost of Tsushima is a fun game with a lot of flaws it’s not perfect or anything, but it’s not a bad experience either I would definitely suggest you buy it in a sale or something instead of buying it for 60$ it isn’t the best game this year for me, but it can be for you at the end of the day it is my opinion, and I would definitely suggest you wait for a sale on Ghost of Tsushima, but it’s your money, and it’s up to you Ghost of Tsushima has shortcomings which affected my experience a lot, in my opinion, it would have been perfect if it had a better camera, better mission design and better pacing for the Story those were the only major flaws for me in Ghost of Tsushima, but it’s a great game because of its brutal blade combat amazing OST and great side quests.
7/10
Pros
- Amazing OST
- One of the best blade combat
- Interesting Side Quests
- Combat is fun and satisfying
- Different types of stances in Combat which makes it less repetitive
- Great Side Characters
Cons
- Bad Camera in Combat
- Outdated Mission Design
- Forced Stealth Missions with Bad Stealth AI
- Pacing is slow and inconsistent
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