Back in the mid-2000s, there were many God of War clones, and that trend continues with the 2018 reboot. Banishers is essentially a God of War clone, almost to a T, barrowing many elements such as combat, exploration, storytelling, and the upgrade system. However, there's a hint of "Eurojank" present that I just can't shake. While the story, setting, and lore are interesting enough (the key word is "enough"), the game never excels to the heights of the game it's trying to become.

You play Red Mac, Raith, and Antea Duarte. Lovers who are now separated by the plane of the dead. Banishers are people who go around removing hauntings from people, places, and objects, but they can also pass judgment and execute the living for doing wrong to those who previously lived. It's an interesting concept, but sadly, the game never goes into more detail about it. How can these people just kill the living based on what the dead say? What are the laws and rules surrounding this? The game also doesn't go into the background or history of the Banishers. This is something that God of War did well. We need a lot of backstory if we're going to spend 25+ hours in a game like this. The entire game is just pretty "good,"  but never memorable or amazing. It always just falls below that mark. While I found the world and atmosphere of New Eden fascinating, the way the story and world are unfolded to the player are boring, mundane, or just not interesting. Reading material is pointless and doesn't add to anything. 

Let's just start with the combat. Heavy and light attacks make up the basis of combos, but you can switch to Antea in the ghost plane, who has more powerful attacks. Her bar isn't HP, but an energy meter. Hit decrease this as well as using your attack powers. You can refill this bar by fighting as Red in the real world, but he doesn't have any special attacks, and this really kept me from creating a strategy or learning how to beat enemies. Red just light and heavy attacks enemies (with a heavy charge attack), and the game tells you Red does more damage to ghosts and Antea does more damage to possessed bodies, but it never really seemed to be effective. You can parry attacks, which the game heavily relies on for more damage, and Red has a gun that you get about 1/4th through the game; it's a one-shot rifle that requires a reload. This can sometimes do a lot of damage, but the enemies are so boring and uninteresting that there's no distinguishable feature or stat to build strategies in your head. Ghosts are pretty easy, while anything else can damage sponges. I just couldn't combo or create a meaningful pattern for defeating enemies, and it made combat one of the least enjoyable parts of the game. It also just feels slightly clunky and sluggish.

The upgrade system feels almost as useless. You get experience for Red and Antea by completing side quests (called hauntings), which grant you additional damage for certain attacks, but I never really got to unlock any new combos or powers. Antea's three powers are found during the story, so the upgrade tree is just boring, and I never felt powerful enough and couldn't even use skills to become more powerful. This also bleeds over into the equipment system. Red can equip rifles, blades, outfits, and potion bottles, which increase attributes, but no matter how high they were, I always felt just too weak to really get an edge over the enemies. Antea can equip various accessories to help her attributes, but nothing felt powerful or meaningful.

This leads to the exploration and hunting gameplay loop that's identical to God of War, but without the enjoyment. Why do I want to hunt chests and haunted objects, fast travel back, and open new paths with new powers if all this equipment feels useless and haunting cases only give me a single esence for the skill tree when it also feels pointless? They are fun at first, and the haunting cases are like mini-murder mysteries you can solve, but they also play out the same way. Some lead to small boss fights, some are just item gathering quests, and they all add to the main story choice (I won't spoil it) for the ending, but they are all optional. There is a lot of side content here, but I gave up about halfway through because I just didn't feel any of the rewards were worth it. 

With that said, the game looks pretty good for an Unreal Engine 4 game. There is a lot of detail in the environments; they are varied, and the atmosphere is thick and heavy, but everything just teeters on not quite being enough on every front. The ability to even upgrade equipment doesn't help make you feel like you're growing as a player or character. I felt just as weak from the beginning of the game to the end and wound up dying quite a bit. Some side content, like the void walking dungeons, is tedious and boring, and the only redeeming value is exploring the world and picking up all these items and chests. I just wish the rewards were better.

Overall, Banishers has a lot of interesting concepts going for it, and the voice acting is good (the facial animations are very dated). I wanted to know more about this world, but the game just doesn't give it up. The side content is questionable, the combat is too clunky, and there's no strategy or really good combo system implemented to make it stand out from the crowd. There aren't really any puzzles, and the story is predictable towards the end, making you feel like your choices are almost meaningless. I feel like if DONTNOD had another go, they could get a lot more right. As it stands, this feels like a "Eurojank" God of War.

Esse jogo daria conteúdo para uma ótima série ou filme. Não me leve a mal, não quero que essa opinião soe como aqueles idiotas que chamam jogos focados em narrativa de "filminhos", de forma pejorativa. É que aqui eu realmente acho que o potencial que isso tinha como jogo foi totalmente desperdiçado e as ideias foram mal executadas.

Em termos de história, o jogo é ótimo, o que é muito característico da Don't Nod. A missão principal é muito interessante, a conexão entre os protagonistas é bem explícita e marcante. Além disso, o jogo também brilha nos "casos de assombração", que são mini histórias à parte, em geral autocontidas, que revelam mais das condições das pessoas que habitam esse mundo fictício, além de proporcionar momentos de tensão ao final de cada uma, onde uma decisão difícil tem que ser tomada pelo jogador.

Dito isso, quase nada relacionado a jogabilidade clicou comigo. Apesar da história das missões ser interessante, tudo se resume a "vá ali, faça isso, depois volte aqui". Tudo já tá mastigado pro jogador. Por isso que disse que daria melhor uma série/filme, se fosse pra ser feito dessa forma. O que diferencia jogos de outros tipos de mídia é justamente o fato de que quem está interagindo com ela está ativo, criando sua própria história ativamente.

Em Banishers, o jogador é extremamente passivo e guiado o tempo todo, com exceção dos momentos de combate, que é bem sólido mas nada inovador ou especial. Por exemplo, em uma determinada missão você tem que encontrar relatos de um ex-combatente de guerra dentro de um arsenal abandonado. O que poderia ser um momento de imersão e exploração, acaba sendo uma tarefa chata de ir no local que já está marcado na interface. E é assim o tempo todo em todas as missões. Cadê a "investigação"? Por que então isso é um jogo e não um filme, afinal de contas?

Até mesmo a progressão do personagem é básica e genérica, com mecânicas bem simplórias de RPG: uma árvore de habilidades bem limitada, uns mercadores que vendem itens majoritariamente inúteis, um sistema de craft e status de personagem que se resume a achar um item que melhore o atributo de força e pronto. É como se tudo tivesse sido colocado à força só pra dizer que é um jogo. E ainda tem o pior de tudo: É UM JOGO RELATIVAMENTE LONGO! Pelo menos umas 25h se você tiver rushando toda a missão principal. Junta todas as tarefas chatas e tediosas com esse tamanho e pronto, tá a receita para o tédio.

Existem maneiras melhores de trazer o foco de um jogo para a narrativa, jogos como The Last of Us, Uncharted e até mesmo os da série Tomb Raider fazem isso de maneira melhor. Mas mesmo com todas essas críticas, acho que esse jogo tem um público alvo específico que pode gostar mais de jogá-lo. Pode ser realmente interessante para os que gostam de uma boa história e relativizam bastante a jogabilidade, ou até mesmo pra quem não tem um certo hábito de jogar videogames e procura uma "primeira vez", mas o encaixe disso como jogo definitivamente não foi um acerto.

The highs of this game are so high. I LOVE the relationship between Antea and Red, and the main story takes them on a wonderful, emotional journey together. Were I able to focus on just this, it would have been one of my favorite games this year.

But the game is just so bloated. Reading about this game, you're going to hear about the giant world map full of "checklist open world" type content, and that is part of the issue. It doesn't really serve the core successes of the game and instead distracts from them.

It also suffers though from side content that is narratively compelling and, generally, pretty formulaic. It is hard to feel like I'm untangling the mysteries of a settlement when every story plays out with such a strictly adhered-to pattern.

I wish I could have loved this as much as I did Vampyr

Banishers is technically good, well done, but in my point of view it's a little too slow, I did 100% and even in my second run where I didn't worry about collectibles, I found that the method of: starting a quest, talking to An NPC goes to a location, investigates, talks to another NPC, comes back, talks to the first NPC again and then it ends, a little tiring. As I said in technical matters, the game is very competent, the graphics are good, the ambience is excellent, the sound design is simply incredible and in the darkest moments you feel apprehensive. The combat is another positive point, it's very enjoyable to fight against enemies, but one more thing the game loses a lot is because of the limited variety of enemies, once you learn the movements it gets boring, as they're always the same. As I already pointed out, the game is good, but it has some flaws that really displeased me.

Typical (affectionate) Don't Not game with its typical strengths and weaknesses.

The story might be a simple one but it gets to deepen the topic this way. Don't expect grand plot twists, they are not in this game.
Doesn't make it boring but the topic of Love and loss hit hard and get told well and from different perspectives and different stories surrounding said loss of a loved one.

It worked for me because I liked the main characters. They are believable characters and believable as a couple. One of the rare cases of a fictional couple having an adult relationship that makes sense.

narrative wise you get to make a decision about what to do with the characters of a case and the ghost that haunts them. This was a problem for me because I knew what kind of ending I wanted and what I had to do with this. The game tells you this very early on. So oftentimes I just took the option that made the ending I wanted more likely to happen and was done with it. I didn't believe the person/ghost deserved this, I just wanted my ending. I think this was not a good decision design wise.

The combat parts...exist. I wasn't a big fan of them and it took me a while to get good at it. The boss fights were nice though. Nothing spectacularly difficult (I played on normal) but enough to keep me engaged.

There was quite a lot of running around that I didn't enjoy. You have camp fires over the map that you can teleport to but it's still a lot of running to get to a certain part of the map. Hated that. :/

The soundtrack was really, really good!

Somehow manage to not make hate all of the puritans you encounter. Chapeau! I only hated 90%!

Gave it a good go but it bored me to death, more of a interactive story than a video game. Tries to be god of war (2018) with bits and pieces from the witcher but everything is watered down and clunky. The only thing i liked was the atmosphere and ambience.

Combat is an afterthought and exploration is walking around big empty corridors, and every 10 steps there is a gap you have to squeeze through, or a ledge, or a climbable wall that takes 5-10 seconds to get through, which serves no purpose I can see other than a loading time trick.

Banishers is so far one of my Games of Thr Year for 2024 along side Dragons Dogma II. The interactive story is one of the most intriguing things about the game with multiple endings making the replay value high.

The graphics are great, the combat is fun, the story is incredible, and I haven't had any bugs in my playthrough. The game isn't perfect, it can drag a bit and feel a little slow. It isn't the easiest game to get into but it is a fun game with God of War like combat and a branching narrative you won't want to miss.

I definitely recommend this game.

Прошел Ведьмака 4 и, если честно, это были ахуительные 50 часов в плане истории, её подачи, нарратива, диалогов, лора, атмосферы и персонажей, тут было просто все идеально, но какого-то ахуй геймплея не завезли, он тут просто норм, пойдет

Про сюжет тут можно говорить очень много и долго, но просто скажу только одно: это то, что я безумно сильно влюбился в эту трогательную и душераздирающую историю, которая тронула меня за самое сердечко, я давно не испытывал такого опустошения после прохождения... Меня ещё поразило, что при среднем бюджете разработчики сумели создать высококачественные кинематографические катсцены, которые иногда заставляли переживать полный спектр эмоций, смотрелось и ощущалось все это как К И Н О, а от уровня режиссуры я был шокирован. И про саундтрек можно то же самое сказать, он ахуителен, половина тем либо до мурашек, либо до слез. ГДЕ МНЕ НАЙТИ ПЛЕЙЛИСТ, Я ВЕСЬ ИНТЕРЕНЕТ ОБЫСКАЛ, АААААААА

Ещё понравился большой, красивый открытый мир, по сути это самая настоящая метроидвания, которая была напичкана разнообразными квестами, где каждое задание, будь то основное или побочное, является уникальным и раскрывает индивидуальную историю персонажей. В игре почти отсутствуют типовые квесты из всеми любимых игр Ubisoft или ей подобных, где «подай, найди, собери, забери, принеси» основа всех дополнительных заданий, такого тут просто нет вообще, ведь в Banishers акцент делается на проработку сюжета и мира, и поэтому каждый квест является своеобразной мини-историей, поднася нам серую мораль и не только, а ещё в каждом доп квесте есть свой сюжетный твист. При этом все задания важны для сюжета, и иногда неправильный выбор может понести за собой небольшие/большие последствия для, например, других персонажей. Но с чего я вообще прихуел, это что в игре нет ни одного ненужного, декоративного или просто стоящего в стороне NPC: каждый персонаж обладает своей уникальной личностью, своим характером, своей предысторией, у каждого свои тайны, секреты и скрытые мотивы, поэтому каждый, абсолютно каждый встреченный персонаж в этой игре запоминающийся. И благодаря этому просто хотелось зачищать все квесты в этой игре

Ну а Ред Макрей теперь один из моих самых любимых игровых протагонистов, в него было просто невозможно не влюбиться. И это не только благодаря восхитительной работе сценаристов, которые проделали какую-то заоблачную работу по раскрытию персонажа, тут даже больше благодаря актеру озвучки Рассу Бэйну и его невероятной харизме и голосу, ты в каждом его слове ощущаешь боль человека, который прошел войну, оставил всё и теперь потерял самого близкого человека, которого обрел совсем недавно, но ещё держится из последних сил, чтобы сдержать клятву, данную ей... А какой у него акцент, это рай для ушей. Расса Бэйна просто обязаны номинировать в этом году на TGA за его превосходный перфоманс, не представляю, кто ещё в этом году сможет с ним потягаться, поэтому, если его номинируют, то это должна быть изи победа

Короче, одна из лучших сюжетных игр за последнее время

There's some good scenarios here to be found. A few of the cases surely stuck with me and had an emotional hook. I also dig our 2 leads a bit, very cool pair.

Sadly that by itself just gets weighed down by the dreary gameplay loop. Follow the objective>scripted encounter against the same enemies>detective vision gimmick>repeat step 2.

It just really becomes boring and the good came so few and far between. Sorry Banishers.

Honestly, it could have been much, much better had they reduced the combat aspect of the game. Everything else about it was great. The universe, the haunting cases and the investigation part of the cases were all equally very interesting , but I felt the game was constantly brought down by the repetitive and monotonous combat (even though switching between Red and Antea and utilizing the different abilities made it a little bit more tolerable). Dontnod however did a really good job to bring the rustic and melancholic atmosphere of 1600s New England and they might have something on their hands, if they wish to explore the possibility of making a franchise out of this title.

This was a good experience!
The world is super dreary and atmospheric. The game definitely won't scare you - but it has that classic spooky old New England feel to it and they did a great job capturing that. The concept here is also extremely unique and memorable, with two memorable leads to complement it. I loved the dynamic between the two and how you could seamlessly switch between the two of them in combat (which was also solid). Lots of cool ghostly moments along the way.
My main issue here is actually the story. And don't get me wrong, it's a good story in concept. In execution, while there are some strong emotional beats, the pacing could be a LOT better. There were times where I felt like it was dragging. It's a story that could have been told in about half the time. And as you advance towards New Eden Town, you're faced with a bunch of haunting cases along the way. Obviously, with things like that, some are going to be a lot more interesting than others. Essentially, I liked the main beats the story hit, I just wish some of the fat in between was trimmed a little more.
Overall, this was a game I was SUPER excited for, and I'm happy that it was a good game. I don't think it was quite the level I thought it could be, but it's definitely good enough to recommend!

Ficamos imersos num mundo que retrata a América do Norte na era da colonização britânica, com um design dos cenários muito bem conseguidos e gráficos muito bonitos.
Red Mcraith e Antea Duarte, dois banidores e amantes, são enviados para New Eden para auxiliar um velho amigo contra uma maldição que assombra toda a cidade. Onde são deparados com algo mais poderoso do que imaginavam, acabando por ceifar a vida de Antea e espalha o seu poder por todo o território em New Eden.
A partir daqui jogas com os dois protagonistas, Antea Duarte que assume a forma de um fantasma, fazendo a ligação com o mundo espectral e Red McRaith que permanece no mundo dos vivos. Embarcas numa estória de amor e redenção, com personagens bem desenhadas e todos eles com a sua própria personalidade complexa. Há medida que vais avançando na estória, terás de tomar decisões que impactam o destino dos personagens que encontras e o fim da estória no endgame. O impacto que tens nas vidas dos personagens baseia-se num método direcionado para a narrativa, onde terás de resolver casos de assombração tanto na main quest como em side quests. O modelo criado é bom, com diálogos bem escritos onde todos os personagens têm desejos e segredos que terás de descobrir iniciando uma investigação.
Quanto às estórias que terás de resolver nas main quests. Todas elas são únicas e fazem-te criar uma relação com os personagens envolvidos. Contudo, o mesmo modelo aplicado às side quests, aka casos de assombração, torna-se aborrecido. Isto é, o circuito é sempre o mesmo, começas com um interrogatório ao personagem que está assombrado, fazes uma investigação explorando uma área designada no teu mapa de New Eden, passas ao diagnóstico dos acontecimentos e depois ao julgamento, acrescendo ainda que os personagens envolvidos são sempre um fantasma e um humano ou dois com acontecimentos que os ligam entre eles. O facto de a causa de assombração ser sempre um fantasma e o circuito ser o mesmo, faz com que ao fim de uns quantos casos de assombração o processo se torne aborrecido, fazendo-te desligar do drama da estória de cada personagem, que no geral está muito bom, o que é uma pena. As mecânicas de combate também não ajudam, no geral. O combate é rígido e a falta de variedade de npc’s inimigos torna as lutas repetitivas e pouco entusiasmantes. Senti que o combate é pouco desafiante para o player, exceto na luta com o boss final e outra luta com um boss da main quest.
Banishers Ghosts of New Eden, traz-te um mapa consideravelmente grande para explorar a pé, com bonitas paisagens e segredos para desvendar. Contudo as recompensas pela exploração não são as melhores. Podes receber equipamentos, como outfits, conjunto de espada e tocha, rifles para o Red, anéis, broches e colares mágicos para a Antea, ou itens que usarás para melhorar estes mesmos equipamentos. Contudo, o combate pouco entusiasmante e uma skill tree simples que, apenas afetam atributos passivos dos protagonistas fizeram com que, ao fim de uma certa altura do percurso não sentisse que precisava de mais equipamentos. Basicamente acabei por ficar com os mesmos equipamentos durante a maior parte do jogo, apenas realizei upgrades aos mesmos.
Quanto à skill tree, é bastante simplificada para um RPG, apresenta-te 4 ramos de especialização dos atributos passivos dos protagonistas, onde escolhes melhorias para as passivas de Red e de Antea. Poucas alterações fiz nos atributos durante o jogo, pois nunca senti necessidade de alterar devido ao combate pouco desafiante.
Percebe-se que a Dont Nod criou este videojogo com todo o foco na narrativa, o voice acting é excelente e os nossos protagonistas estão bem desenhados. Expõem-te casos onde nenhuma das opções é ótima, criando problemas morais difíceis de resolver. Senti que Banishers Ghosts of New Eden retira inspirações de The Witcher 3 mas falha na variedade no tipo de conteúdo por trás das estórias. Se, de vez em quando, o caso de assombração não fosse um fantasma, mas outro tipo de espírito maligno ou um outro humano fosse o provocador da suposta assombração, por exemplo, poderia fazer a diferença. As mecânicas de combate ofuscam a mestria da narrativa, retirando-lhe o foco devido às mecânicas rígidas e combates repetitivos contra uma fraca variedade de tipos de inimigo, tornando aborrecido o processo. Os confrontos pouco desafiantes fizeram com que não sentisse muita necessidade de melhorar os protagonistas, e aliando à pouca novidade no conteúdo na exploração de New Eden, causou a falta de interesse em explorar o mapa à procura de novidades, fazendo com que passasse diretamente a completar as main quests.
No geral, se estás à procura de um videojogo focado na narrativa e não fores exigente com a experiência de um RPG, Banishers Ghosts of New Eden fará com que passes bem o teu tempo, com uma boa estória complementada com uma excelente narrativa.