Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden

86%
Game Brain Score Based on 1,528 reviews
  • story
  • gameplay
  • graphics
Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden Game Cover
Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden is astounding, and the way it tells a compelling story and connects you to the characters is really impressive. It’s impossible not to recommend this masterpiece of a game.
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In Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden, explore 17th-century New Eden as Red or Antea, experienced ghost hunters on a mission to lift a malevolent curse. Engage in intimate narrative-driven action-RPG gameplay, and delve into a bittersweet love story between the two protagonists. Protect the living from supernatural threats and unravel chilling mysteries in this new title from DON'T NOD, creators of Life is Strange and Vampyr.

  • PC
  • Play​station 5
  • Windows
  • Xbox Series X|S
  • Epic Games
  • Play​Station
  • Xbox
Genres & TagsPlay Modes

Reviews

86%
Audience ScoreBased on 1,528 reviews
story763 positive mentions
grinding46 negative mentions
  • Engaging and emotional story with well-developed characters.
  • Beautiful graphics and immersive atmosphere that enhances the gameplay experience.
  • Interesting haunting cases that provide moral dilemmas and meaningful choices.
  • Repetitive combat with limited enemy variety that can become tedious over time.
  • Excessive backtracking and slow traversal mechanics that detract from the overall pacing.
  • Technical issues such as crashes and performance drops, particularly on certain systems.
  • story1,616 mentions

    The story of "Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden" is widely praised for its emotional depth, engaging characters, and intricate narrative that intertwines main quests with compelling side stories. Players appreciate the game's exploration of themes such as love, loss, and moral dilemmas, often highlighting the well-written dialogue and voice acting. However, some critiques mention predictability in the plot and repetitive side quests, suggesting that while the story is a strong point, the gameplay mechanics could benefit from refinement. Overall, the narrative experience is considered a standout feature, making it a recommended choice for fans of story-driven games.

    • “A story-driven action RPG that absolutely excels at its storytelling, delivering a very powerful and emotional experience with rich characters, interesting plots, and difficult choices that truly make a difference.”
    • “The story is amazing and captivating, yet it carries a gut-wrenching weight as it sheds light on themes of abuse, making it deeply impactful.”
    • “The story, voice acting, and motion capture are excellent, with a captivating narrative that keeps you engaged from the very beginning.”
    • “The story for an hour was a boring slew of incompetent men, with empowered women constantly commenting on their inadequacies.”
    • “The rituals but in all the story simply wasn't compelling in the first hour.”
    • “Story was barely serviceable and very predictable (that includes side missions - haunting cases).”
  • gameplay383 mentions

    The gameplay of the game has received mixed reviews, with many players appreciating its engaging story and atmospheric setting, but criticizing the combat mechanics and overall polish. While some find the combat fun and the character-switching mechanic interesting, others describe it as repetitive and lacking depth, with clunky controls and a linear structure that can lead to tedious backtracking. Overall, the game is recommended for those who prioritize narrative over gameplay mechanics, as the story and character development are often highlighted as its strongest aspects.

    • “Gameplay encourages an active playstyle utilizing your whole combat kit.”
    • “The gameplay is a compelling mix of combat, exploration, and narrative choices that significantly impact the storyline.”
    • “The combat mechanics allow for a diverse set of strategies that keeps gameplay interesting and fresh.”
    • “Good story, good presentation, atmospheric setting, and they all manage to carry over a very mediocre gameplay experience.”
    • “The gameplay is rather bland, lacks depth, especially combat, and the 'open world' is very linear and riddled with blockers which create a lot of unnecessary backtracking.”
    • “The gameplay is so boilerplate and mediocre.”
  • graphics253 mentions

    The graphics of the game have received mixed reviews, with many players praising the beautiful environments, character designs, and overall visual quality, often comparing them favorably to AAA titles. However, some users noted performance issues, outdated animations, and a lack of advanced graphical features like ray tracing, which detracted from the experience. Overall, while the graphics are generally considered good to excellent, there are concerns about optimization and consistency across different hardware setups.

    • “The graphics are phenomenal, bringing the haunting world of New Eden to life with breathtaking detail.”
    • “The visuals are stunning, creating an immersive experience that draws you into the haunting world of New Eden.”
    • “The graphics are beautiful, the landscapes are even more beautiful, and the music hovered gloomily throughout the playthrough creating a fitting atmosphere to this damned world.”
    • “Graphics are of the early PS4 era with very poor and stiff facial animations.”
    • “Graphics are not anything to write home about but they do offer an optimized experience and do a great job at building atmosphere even with very mid graphics.”
    • “The only downsides are graphics are a bit weak and enemies aren't super varied.”
  • atmosphere90 mentions

    The atmosphere in "Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden" is widely praised for its haunting and immersive qualities, enhanced by fitting music and striking graphics that create a dark, somber tone. Reviewers highlight the game's unique worldbuilding and storytelling, which effectively draw players into its eerie setting, despite some criticisms regarding repetitive gameplay mechanics. Overall, the atmospheric depth is considered one of the game's strongest aspects, making it a compelling experience for narrative-driven players.

    • “From the haunting landscapes to the eerie sound design, the game successfully pulls you into its gloomy atmosphere.”
    • “The game has a hauntingly beautiful atmosphere, with stunning visuals and a haunting soundtrack that adds to the overall immersion.”
    • “The game has a tense atmosphere.”
    • “There is a dark and somber tone, from the atmosphere to the music.”
    • “The atmosphere of this game is so well crafted.”
  • emotional88 mentions

    The game is widely praised for its deeply emotional storytelling, exploring themes of love, loss, and grief through well-developed characters and heartfelt dialogue. Players report being moved to tears multiple times, highlighting the authenticity of the relationships and the impact of their choices on the narrative. Overall, it is described as a captivating emotional experience that resonates long after playing.

    • “A beautiful and heart-touching game, which centers around the pain of loss.”
    • “The story is incredibly well told and the chemistry between the two protagonists is really touching.”
    • “It's exploration of love, loss, and most of all grief ends up delivering a truly heartbreaking and memorable story that I won't forget for a long time.”
  • optimization87 mentions

    The optimization of the game has received mixed reviews, with some players experiencing significant performance issues such as stuttering, frame drops, and crashes, particularly in larger areas. However, others report a smooth experience with solid performance on high-end hardware, praising the game's overall stability and lack of bugs. While some users believe the game could benefit from further optimization, many appreciate the graphics and gameplay, indicating that the performance varies widely depending on individual setups.

    • “The game is well optimized and stable.”
    • “The graphics are great and it’s well optimized for PC, so very little performance issues.”
    • “The game works, feels complete, no performance issues after hours whatsoever, not a single stutter, fluid, yes, finally, someone did the miracle of shipping a working game.”
    • “Performance is a joke; taking into account the graphics, it should be 120 fps easily, but it's not.”
    • “One of the most poorly optimized games I have ever seen.”
    • “However, be aware that performance really tanks in larger areas, regardless of the settings.”
  • music73 mentions

    The music in the game is widely praised for its atmospheric qualities, effectively enhancing the gloomy and immersive environment. While many reviewers highlight the soundtrack as beautiful and fitting for the narrative, some note that it can become repetitive or less memorable over time. Overall, the music contributes significantly to the game's emotional depth and storytelling, though a desire for more variety and melodic elements is expressed by a few players.

    • “The music fits the game so well.”
    • “The game has a hauntingly beautiful atmosphere, with stunning visuals and a haunting soundtrack that adds to the overall immersion.”
    • “The voice acting, character development, game art, and music all come together in a great way.”
    • “The music in Banishers is fine, though not particularly memorable.”
    • “Wish the music was more varied; 8 hours in, it is very dreary, which fits the theme, but it still gets tiring.”
    • “The game's soundtrack occasionally suffers from awkward silences as it loops, breaking the immersion and, at times, leads to an unintentionally amusing moment.”
  • grinding48 mentions

    Overall, players find the grinding aspect of the game to be excessively tedious and repetitive, with many expressing frustration over the backtracking, lack of meaningful upgrades, and monotonous combat encounters. While some appreciate the storyline and casual gameplay, the overwhelming sentiment is that the grind detracts from the overall experience, making exploration and quest completion feel like a chore rather than an engaging activity.

    • “You'll need a second life for grinding.”
    • “The map is huge and intricate, making it challenging to get to certain camps quickly, and the foot travel can become a bit tedious after a while.”
    • “I find myself not exploring because the combat is tedious and none of the upgrades feel meaningful in the slightest.”
    • “The lack of enemy variety and repetitive encounters make traversing the map a tedious chore, especially during repeated exploration of familiar areas.”
  • stability24 mentions

    The stability of the game has received mixed reviews, with some players experiencing smooth performance and no technical glitches, while others report significant bugs and optimization issues. Many users noted that the game runs well on various systems, including high settings at 4K resolution, but a portion of players encountered frustrating glitches and performance drops after extended playtime. Overall, while some players enjoyed a bug-free experience, others found the game's stability lacking, impacting their overall enjoyment.

    • “Bug-free performance alone makes this worth playing.”
    • “The game is gorgeous and tightly made like the games of yore; no glitches found.”
    • “It runs great for me without taxing my mid-tier gaming laptop from a couple of years ago.”
    • “I don't necessarily think this is a bad game, it is poorly optimized and sometimes a buggy mess.”
    • “During my next 30 hours of playing after initial review I started encountering some serious bugs, glitches, and poor performance.”
    • “I really want to recommend this game, but at its current buggy state, I can't.”
  • replayability19 mentions

    The game's replayability is mixed, with some players noting that while there are multiple endings and choices that can affect the story, the overall replay value diminishes after the first playthrough. Many appreciate the depth added by different decisions and unlockable skills, but some feel that once the game is completed, there isn't much incentive to replay it. Overall, while there are elements that encourage replaying, such as hidden areas and various endings, the lack of a new game plus mode and limited rewards for replaying may deter some players.

    • “It has good replayability with the different choices you can make.”
    • “Each choice affects the story and the world, adding replayability and depth.”
    • “Its quite a lengthy story, more so if you are going for 100% exploration and replay value is definitely strong considering many different decisions you'll be making.”
    • “But after you completed the game for the endings, the replay value dies.”
    • “I would say no replayability here but one time is more than enough.”
    • “I don't think the game will have much replay value once done though.”
  • character development17 mentions

    Character development in the game receives mixed reviews, with many praising the depth and richness of the characters, their unique designs, and the emotional exploration of relationships. However, some players feel that certain characters lack sufficient backstory and relatability, leading to a disconnect in their development. Overall, while there are standout elements in character design and storytelling, opinions vary on the effectiveness of character growth throughout the game.

    • “So much work and love has gone into the character development and the stories exploring human relationships, both romantic and platonic.”
    • “The storytelling and character development in this game are amazing.”
    • “Amazing story, character development, and voice acting.”
    • “Character development isn't great: hard to relate to characters where there is a lack of backstory, some lines seem random or contradictory to the character.”
    • “Zero character development.”
    • “The character designs also leave much to be desired, lacking depth and failing to captivate.”
  • humor7 mentions

    The humor in the game is described as a mix of unintentional hilarity and entertaining absurdity, with some players finding the comedic elements to be both amusing and cringe-worthy. While certain character dynamics and storylines are seen as laughable, opinions vary on their effectiveness, with some feeling that the humor may not resonate with everyone. Overall, the humor is a polarizing aspect that adds a unique flavor to the game's experience.

    • “Get lost in a world that is frightening, entertaining, and funny.”
    • “Unintentionally hilarious, corporate sounding garbage.”
    • “Ghost-human combos are funny but don't really work because... spam LMB is enough.”
  • monetization3 mentions

    The game features a straightforward monetization model with no microtransactions, allowing players to enjoy a high-quality experience without distractions or manipulative practices. This focus on delivering a complete game without additional costs is well-received by users.

    • “Great action game with an intriguing narrative and no manipulative microtransactions or sacrificing of quality for profit.”
    • “There are no multi-player aspects to detract from quality or singular focus; similarly, there are no microtransactions.”
    • “There are no microtransactions.”
Positive mentions (%)Positive
Neutral mentions (%)Neutral
Negative mentions (%)Negative

Critic Reviews

78% average critic score

Buy Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden

Play time

21hMedian play time
27hAverage play time
5-45hSpent by most gamers
*Based on 22 analyzed playthroughs

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