Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden Reviews
Don’t Nod has released 2024’s first truly surprising video game release with Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden. The 17th-century setting, ghost hunting and ethereal switching combat are all highlights, but building off what they do best, the characters, their relationships, and their story make this game unique.
Banishers Ghosts of New Eden takes the best of Vampyr, limiting its flaws and accentuating its merits, giving us a work of extraordinary quality.
Review in Italian | Read full review
“Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden” thus stands out due to the storytelling prowess of Don’t Nod, offering a rich, emotionally charged journey that melds action, adventure, and narrative depth into a memorable experience. While not without its flaws, the game marks a significant step forward for the studio, hinting at the untapped potential for future titles in this vein. It’s a journey worth taking, not just for the thrills and challenges, but for the questions it poses about love, sacrifice, and the afterlife.
Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden has one of the best-written, captivating, immersive, and dramatic stories in a video game I’ve ever played, followed by incredible combat mechanics, abilities, weapons, and animations. Albeit, it needs a little more polishing to get a more playable fighting experience. Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden is a game that’ll grab and maintain your interest, and I would recommend yet another fine project from Focus Entertainment to anyone. Yes, including God of War fans.
Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden is yet another masterpiece from Don't Nod, with a captivating story, stunning visuals, and even voice acting to help drive the nail home. This game is definitely worthy of the title, and even though it has that one slight issue during the initial start, it's nothing when you compare it to the experience you're in for as you take on the role of a Banisher in a land plagued by ghosts. Another thing to note is the replayability when you consider the two paths at the start and how they affect the entire story as you progress, possibly making Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden a game that might build a fun little cult-style fandom.
Continuing their mission to create immersive and memorable experiences, Don’t Nod Entertainment will certainly leave a mark in the hearts of players who journey through their new game. Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden already is one of the best titles of 2024, no doubt.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
The narrative, crafted through repeated moral dilemmas, allows players to immerse themselves deeply in the story. While the depth in combat may be somewhat lacking, the captivating world of New Eden undoubtedly provides the thrill of an adventure.
Review in Korean | Read full review
Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden is an enjoyable adventure, with a strong narrative focused on emotions and personal grief, and combat that is both fun to play and customizable to your liking. Sadly, an unstable frame rate and issues in both pacing and choice impact, do take away a bit from that shine.
Review in Dutch | Read full review
Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden has a particular charm; it is easy to be intoxicated by a well macerated aroma, composed of a story that grabs you, a magical universe and a combat system suitable for living with the necessary tension each confrontation against the unknown.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden is an easy recommendation to anyone who values beautiful graphics, a powerful story, and endless hours of gameplay
Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden blends together captivating storytelling and compelling gameplay mechanics into one heck of an enjoyable experience, with the pacing of the adventure balancing out its combat, explorative, and investigative elements perfectly. Best of all? It feels unique, with your role as a Banisher making for plenty of morale dilemmas that’ll keep players hooked in until the very end. It could be a bit guilty of being on the easy side whilst the frame rate hitches were a little bit annoying, but neither issue stopped me from having a really good time with the game. Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden might not have been on everyone’s radar, but it stands out as one of the early surprise hits on 2024.
Banishers: Ghost of New Eden isn't a perfect game, but a great example, why games are much more than a sum of their single components. The dual character combat is fun and just one of the aspects, where Red and Antea form an inextricable unit. The world looks nice and is worth exploring. The heroes are pleasant and there is a lot of room for experimenting in the skill and perk system. What's partly absent is the moral dilemma within the decisions, which could have intensified this unique action journey.
Review in German | Read full review
I didn't wait for Banishers, and I didn't expect the game to be such a pleasant surprise for me. It's a wonderful and quite long adventure, filled with side stories. Banishers is a game haunted by the ghost of satisfaction – satisfaction from good gameplay and a great story. I want more.
Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden represents Don’t Nod’s latest attempt to try and make the whole action thing work. This time out, though, they’ve taken the novel approach of trying to play to their strengths, by creating a narrative-heavy action game with a heartfelt story and multiple endings that depend on your choices. Does it work? I can definitively state: kinda, sorta, depending on how you look at it.
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 falls short of its potential. Its central protagonists lack the chemistry and development to make meaningful choices feel impactful. Its combat and exploration feel like they've been lifted from better games, barely iterating on established formulas and, in some cases, making them worse. While there are some enjoyable side quests and the occasional glimmer of hope in the main subplot, Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden never reaches the heights it should.
I have no experience in making games, but I imagine crafting a AAA experience on a new IP is not an easy task, and Don’t Nod manages to do that and then some. Prepare yourself for the first surprise hit of the year, and if the game’s quality is any indication, this looks like the start of a new franchise — one that I can’t wait to dive into yet again. Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden is one haunting you owe it to yourself to experience.
Banishers: Ghost of New Eden is an intriguing tale of heartbreak and hauntings set in the backdrop of colonial America. Though slow to start, it’s packed to the brim with chilling paranormal cases to solve and haunting ghost combat; you’re sure to have a spookily good time with this title.
Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden is an emotional masterpiece and my early leader for Game of the Year.