Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden Review – A Tragic Romance Horror

Banishers is that rare and pleasant case of a game that immediately captivated many players with its first trailer, revealing both a very interesting theme and its very stylish and promising execution. The exorcism of demons, set in a relatively realistic depiction of the history of the colonization of America, takes on a completely different dimension when your life partner and love crosses over to the other side. An interesting horror for some, a tragic romance for others, but a promising plot and story for all – especially since French studio Don’t Nod has a habit of letting you influence the story quite fundamentally with the choices you make in their games.

• Platform: PS5 (review) XSX|S, PC
• Release date: 02.13.2024
• Manufacturer: Don’t Nod (France)
• Genre: Action adventure game
• Czech localization: No
• Multiplayer: No
• Data for download: 45 GB
• Play time: 15+ hours
• Price: 1539 CZK (Playclub)

Until death do us part

New Eden, 1695. The miserable life of the settlers, in addition to the merciless wild nature that surrounds them, is further complicated by supernatural forces that gradually take the lives of many of them. They call for help a couple of “Exorcists” (the Czech equivalent of this name could be, for example, Zazenevaci), lovers Anthea Duarte and Red Mac Wright. They take their work very seriously, but underestimate the enormous power of the demon haunting this community of settlers. As a result, Anthea loses her life, and when she returns in an intangible form, Red must decide whether, even under such circumstances, she will continue to follow the desired rule of “life for the living, death for the dead.” Under certain circumstances, Anthea’s spirit could remain with him forever … or even return to the living. But will the price be too high?

The setting and plot are certainly interesting in their own right, but it’s the characters that make a good story, and I’m happy to confirm that both of the main characters are absolutely excellent. They come across as mature individuals who understand the dangers of their jobs, and who even more so enjoy the security, trust, and comfort of each other’s arms. But almost every other character in the story is also well-written, even those you only meet briefly in optional side-stories. More or less everyone in this world has some common misfortune caused by the brutal and dangerous life in the desert. But the connections between them are often even stronger, and unfortunately, your task often breaks those connections, leading to some truly dark events and difficult decisions.

But won’t the price be too high?

Like the original trailers, the game itself more or less won me over from the very first moment. The atmosphere is completely immersive, the audiovisuals are very decent (for games from this studio, a pretty noticeable shift from a relatively “cartoony” stylization to realism), the acting is top notch and, perhaps most importantly, the chemistry between Red and Anthea is absolutely believable. Perhaps the only nitpick is a certain change in their mood in the second half of the game, which didn’t sit well with me, given their previous behavior, but perhaps I was the cause of this with my own choices – after all, you influence the story in almost every chapter with pretty fundamental decisions, and thus you will get one of five significantly different endings. For the best of them, I strongly recommend not skipping the side quests, which should not be a problem, since their “little stories” are often just as impressive as the main one. In many ways, the game reminded me of the TV series “Into Demons”, which also works well, mainly due to the great chemistry of the central love couple.

Life for the living, death for the dead

Based on the previous games and demos, I kind of expected Banishers to be a “cinematic” adventure game in the style of the Life is Strange series, which the same developers are also responsible for. Instead, it’s an action adventure with light RPG elements. In addition to the impressive audiovisual design, the gameplay has also improved compared to previous games (like Vampyr). The combat system is especially worth mentioning: in addition to being able to hack and shoot, it allows you to instantly switch between two characters during combat, which leads to some pretty impressive combos. While the production value of the game isn’t that great, I was reminded of the current/Norse God of War series on multiple occasions during the fights, including some impressive boss fights. You also collect and upgrade your gear and abilities here, but it’s not a very deep or complex system.

At the same time, the difficulty setting will allow you to turn the game into an adrenaline-fueled fight for your life or, on the contrary, go through it without much effort, more like a movie performance. The game map is relatively large, but individual locations are a fairly closed set of all sorts of corridors and glades, so you can’t get lost in any case. The game will also notice new side quests so that you don’t accidentally miss them. I highlight all these things mainly because I believe that the central theme of the game will attract even relatively casual players who might not otherwise reach a game of this type. After all, it is no coincidence that the game is released on Valentine’s Day.

It’s no coincidence that the game is being released on Valentine’s Day.

Adequate length is also important for the overall experience. It will take you about fifteen hours to complete the game, but you can significantly increase this time by completing all the side quests or playing on a higher difficulty. But it is likely that you will want to play this game more than once. The ending of your story does not depend only on some choice at the end, you influence it from the very beginning of the game – so if you want to see a different one, you need to play the game again. But it will be easier for you, because you can already see the changes in the process. On console, you have the option to choose between graphics settings for quality or performance, of course, I chose the latter and was pleased with the smoothness and overall technical state of the game.