GhostWire: Tokyo - 5/10

GhostWire: Tokyo
Ghostwire: Collectibles

(Spoiler-Free Review)
If you like an over-abundance of collectibles and detective vision, this one is for you!
Ghostwire: Tokyo is a game driven by collectibles...Seriously. Everything you do is tied to collecting something, XP, skills, Magatama, Music Tracks, Voice Logs, Jizo Statues, Landmarks, Food & Drink, Tanuki, Outfit Items, Prayer Beads, Relics, Torii Gates, and Visitors. 566, yes, 566 total collectibles throughout the game, and this doesn't include the 240,300 spirits (groups of 100 and 300). I didn't feel like I was playing the game to just play the game, everything you need is tied to a collectible. Jizo statues upgrade your ammo capacity, XP levels up your character for skills, and Magatama are collected to unlock more skill tree branches. Prayer Beads give bonuses, etc. Too many collectibles. Ok, now that the meat and potatoes have been talked about, let's get into actual gameplay. The world is awesome. The art direction in this game has been master crafted. The world is reminiscent of Control with the way the world comes alive, but with Japanese Yokai in the forefront (Nioh and Nioh 2 do Yokai 100 times better IMO, PLAY NIOH 1 & 2!). Side missions boast eye candy in the form of animated areas, chairs shift in to place to block areas, newspaper clippings shift to make a bridge to walk over. I can't say enough about the world and how great it felt to explore side missions. Main missions felt lackluster overall, but boss fights were done quite well, and the enemies overall have a great horror vibe to them. That being said, the encounters themselves, including boss fights, were held back due to the lack of optimized combat. Fighting a group of enemies is reduced to backing up and shooting until they die, or, better yet, throwing down one of two talismans that, IMO, make the combat trivial at best, and then obliterating said enemies. Movement and traversal leave something to be desired as it is stiff and cumbersome to move around, especially during combat. Playing on the "Hard" difficulty doesn't really feel like a true hard difficulty, due in part to the lacking combat. I feel what made this setting difficult wasn't the enemies, or challenge of an encounter, but rather the hinderance of combat and fleshing out of these systems. I dropped it down to normal due to not wanting to feel like I was fighting with one hand tied behind my back. I felt like I was always hitting objects for ammo 90% of the time, something I don't want to feel the need to do while trying to progress through and get to more encounters. This weighs down the pacing of the game heavily IMO, and something that I feel could have been implemented better, especially considering ammo is available all over the place, you just need to hit something (quite frequently) in order to obtain your ammo. The story is forgettable. After about an 1/8 of the way in I just skipped all dialogue everywhere possible just to get back to progressing through the game, which is unfortunate due to how well they designed this world and the inhabitants (dead or alive) within it. This was a typical open world, but, with a bit more love and care to the combat and story, could have been a great experience. I had a similar feeling about Ghost of Tsushima or Watch Dogs, in regard to it being a typical open-world game, however, GoT is a very well-made game with fleshed out combat and gameplay, and I can definitely recommend it to people when discussing it. This game, unfortunately, I cannot recommend. To end on a high note, you can pet dogs...and, you can also feed them. Nuff' said. Overall, I give this game a 5/10.