Game Review: The Paranormal Thriller ‘Ghostwire: Tokyo’

The talented team at Tango Gameworks has returned with a new horror game, Ghostwire: Tokyo, advancing with their already impressive Evil Within series.

The game is set in a post-disaster Tokyo where the player character Akito is saved from death by a spirit known as KK. This spirit can possess the body of Akito and give him supernatural powers to complete his quests.

Playing from a first-person perspective, players must explore a highly-detailed city to complete various mission objectives, all the while staying clear of a deadly fog and evil creatures who know roam the city.

Players will use special attack and defensive abilities which they can upgrade over time, but must also be aware of the need to replenish the magic that powers them. Being selective with attacks is a wise idea vs trying to rapidly cut down all enemies encountered.

Players can also obtain a mystical bow which can help when powers need to be recharged; seeing how dangerous and abundant enemies are, this is a good thing.

Akito ‘s sister is targeted by the main enemies in the game. This enables conflict between Akito and KK as they must work with one another despite seeming to have differing agendas.

The city environment is detailed, and full of power-ups like food that players can gather for their health, as well as Charms that can be redeemed at phone booths which will aid in their quest. The highly-detailed city is great to explore when not engaged in combat.

I did not see an option for English narration and while I had no problems at all with the Japanese spoken in the game, looking at the translation on the screen at times distracted me from some of the more intense segments and action.

The powers Akito deployed were very colorful and well implemented, and the various defense modes really added to an already intense and engaging game. My only real issue with the game that the pacing ground to a halt with expositional narrative scenes, and they frequently played back to back. Having that happen when you just completed one cut scene, only to have another arise soon after a brief moment of player-controlled action, often gave me the impression that I was watching the game versus controlling the action.

Fortunately, as the game unfolded the action and story were more than enough to keep my attention and made Ghostwire: Tokyo one of the more unique and engaging games in recent memory and one that I recommend any fan of the horror genre to play.

4 stars out of 5

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Gareth Von Kallenbach

Gareth is the mastermind behind the popular pop media site Skewed and Reviewed. He lives in Arizona with his wife Em McBride.