Ghostwire Tokyo Review
A year after releasing on PlayStation 5, Ghostwire Tokyo has finally arrived on Xbox platforms. Coming from Tango Gameworks, whom you'll know from recent breakout success Hi-Fi Rush. Ghostwire Tokyo gives you a stunning recreation of a barren Shibuya district cityscape dotted with supernatural demons and creatures of Japanese folklore. Ghostwire has so many ideas that I wanted to love and could see turning into something special, but sadly, as pretty as the game is, it's not enough to carry the rest of the otherwise empty errand-running experience.
Ghostwire Tokyo centers around a supernatural buddy cop-esqu team comprised of Akito, who's the last human alive after Shibuya is overtaken by a fog that brings all sorts of ghostly entities and spirits to take over the city. Alongside or inside of him is KK, a spirit who's possessed Akito in a group effort to rescue Akito's sister, who's conveniently been kidnapped by the same man responsible for the fog takeover. While the story is by the numbers as far as open world games go and won't necessarily blow you away, it works well enough as a vehicle to explore the different spiritual aspects of your roughly 12-hour journey throughout Shibuya. The team at Tango did an excellent job recreating the city, from every little side street to the big central city center that's now quite literally a ghost town.
To defend yourself against these otherworldly beings, Akito gains the ability to use a sort of magic called etheral weaving. While each of the 3 elemental stylized powers has different variations (i.e., your single-shot wind blade becoming the equivalent of a rapid-fire burst smg) I found myself rapidly switching between them to stay alive during combat without much thought. The limited ammo supply was more of a factor in battle, hoping you'd have enough to stay alive or replenish your powers by "purging" enemies on the brink of death. If you like a more quiet approach, Akito is skilled with bow and arrows, combined with different talismans to hide and distract enemies, letting you plan out encounters if you desire.
Ghostwire Tokyo tries to be a handful of different things while not quite excelling at any of them. The tone and setting, while creepy at times, never quite delivers a true horror experience. The map, while large for the most part, goes unused and serves as a plate to scatter the game's nearly 2000 collectibles. There are entire sections of the map that feel like space filler and don't truly serve a purpose. Combat, while flashy and something to admire, falls short almost entirely; aiming doesn't feel as smooth as it should and becomes small fits of mindlessly spamming attacks to continue on if you choose to not run away from them entirely. One of the new missions included with the Xbox release "Spider's Thread" update takes place at the local middle school and becomes a true horror journey trying to unravel a ritual done by a group of students. It honestly felt like a different game at times, being chased by creatures you're unable to damage and trying to sneak your way through the school's narrow hallways. Sadly, the short time I had at the school was the highlight of my entire experience playing Ghostwire Tokyo.
I'd love to see Tango Gameworks take another jab within the universe, focus on the horror and things they excel at, and really focus on a smaller experience. We just saw them do it with Hi-Fi Rush, and doing it within the Ghostwire Universe could really add a genre that Xbox doesn't really have a stake in yet to their portfolio. As of now, it's definitely worth picking up, at least to see the world they've built and dabble in the roughly 10- to 11-hour story.