[Review] GhostWire: Tokyo

[Mark-x]

Initial release date: 2021

Director(s): Kenji Kimura

Developer: Tango Gameworks

Engine: Unreal Engine 4

Publisher: Bethesda Softworks

Platforms: PlayStation 5, Microsoft Windows

GhostWire: Tokyo is Tango Gameworks' first new project since The Evil Within 2. Neither its announcement trailer from E3 2019 nor its newer trailer from fake E3 2020 really told us much other than that it would be supernatural in nature and pretty darn odd. Fortunately, Bethesda has followed up the newest trailer with some text-based info on its magical karate combat and spooky Visitor spirits.As we saw in the announcement trailer, people have vanished all over Tokyo—apparently a full 99% of the po[CENSORED]tion. With the humans gone, all kinds of creepy spirits roam the city with unknown intent. It falls to you (because of course it does) to find out what happened to everyone while purging the city of its new demon interlopers.Here's everything else we know about GhostWire: Tokyo and Tango Gameworks' new action-y direction.

 

GhostWire: Tokyo release date : 

GhostWire: Tokyo will launch sometime in 2021 according to the new gameplay reveal debuted during the PlayStation 5 showcase event in June.

 

The new gameplay reveal for GhostWire: Tokyo definitely displays some of the action game elements that Tango say they're going for, even if the setting is still just flashes of monsters and bright lights in Tokyo. You can spot all manner of spooks in the new trailer, from headless schoolgirls to things that look a lot like slendermen to spooky child demons in raincoats. 

 

What will GhostWire: Tokyo's gameplay be like?

During its reveal in 2019, Ikumi Nakamura explained that GhostWire isn't like the survival-horror games that Tango Gameworks is known for. "Though there is an eerie element to the world, this is the studio’s first foray into the action-adventure sphere," Bethesda said in 2020. The new gameplay reveal trailer shows that we'll be playing in first-person and our protagonist seems to be wielding a lot of magical abilities through hand gestures. Think Skyrim spellcasting, but a bit more complex."Assisting them in creating a more action-oriented game is Shinichiro Hara, who worked on the push-forward combat and Glory Kill system in DOOM (2016), and is now the Combat Director on GhostWire: Tokyo," Bethesda say. "Hara and the combat team at Tango have created an intricate, combo-based system that utilizes movements inspired by traditional Kuji-kiri hand gestures."You can initiate takedown moves on monsters from afar in GhostWire. When enemies are vulnerable, their "core" is exposed, which you can pull out with your spiritual wires (right, of course) to kill them. Certain enemies are of course vulnerable to certain kinds of attacks.

 

“We want the player to feel like a badass, spell-casting, high-tech ninja exorcist defeating countless evil spirits,” says Hara in Bethesda's recent breakdown. “In order to achieve this, we chose intricate, deliberate hand gestures as the primary weapons, instead of simple guns. Unlike guns, our gestures allow us to put a lot more movement and personality into the player action as the player’s hands are organic extensions of the character. 

"This system is unique to GhostWire. It’s karate meets magic. Often, magic casters have this image of not being physically strong. That isn’t the case with GhostWire. In GhostWire, you’re casting magic with martial arts movements.”In the new trailer, you can spot the protagonist wielding fire, water, and electrical magic attacks along with a standard bow.