Ghost Of Tsushima (PS4)

Set in 13th century Japan, the island of Tsushima is the first to face the Mongol invasion. You play Jin Sakai - a young samurai of the House Sakai - on the front lines facing the Mongol hordes where your entire clan is wiped out with you the sole survivor apart from your uncle Shimura who is captured. Resolving to do whatever it takes to save protect Japan, liberate the island, and save your uncle, Jin is forced to set aside the honours and traditions of the samurai and wage a new kind of war against the enemy - that of the Ghost of Tsushima.Ghost of Tushima is an open world game where you can run, climb, swim, and ride through the vast grasslands, forests, mountains, and villages of the island of Tushima, in your quest to gather allies and repel the Mongol invaders.The game prompts unguided exploration of your environment and lacks a mini map to show you nearby points of interest, relying instead on the wind to direct you to your destination. The island is littered with all manner of points of interest, including hot springs that increase your health, quiet spots where you can contemplate your adventures and compose Haiku, survivor camps filled with traders who will upgrade your weapons (for a price) or offer useful information about local events and nearby missions, random encounters with roving bands of Mongol warriors, bandits or citizens in need, towns under siege, or enemy strongholds to be attacked.The playing area is huge with the island split up into three sections - each of which will corresponds to an associated chapter - and you're probably looking at well in excess of sixty hours of game play from start to finish if you make the effort to explore the environment to it's fullest.As a samurai your main weapon will be your katana. Initially you will start with only basic fast and heavy attacks but as the game proceeds you will learn new combinations and techniques to add to your arsenal, including several stances - each of which is more effective against a certain type of enemy. Combat usually involves facing a number of different enemies at once, such as swordsmen, spearmen, shield bearers, and "brutes", and so the key to success is to rapidly change between stances and use the most effective technique for the job at hand. You will also obtain charms that can be attached to your weapons, each of which will provide your character with a specific buff to your abilities.Despite your increasing skill with a blade it soon becomes apparent that winning this war is going to require a different kind of warrior, and to this end you also start to learn and adopt the tools and skills of the assassin, utilizing stealth, silent kills, and "ghost" weapons such as the kunai and black powder bomb to confuse and disorient your foes, stalking and striking from the shadows to remove your enemies with one swift blow. It reminded me a lot of the PSOne game Tenchu, for those old enough to remember that.In most scenarios you have a free choice regarding which approach you wish to adopt. Challenging foes directly is the honourable samurai way but may result in you being vastly outnumbered by your enemies, whilst sneaking through the shadows will allow you to avoid conflict or whittle enemy numbers down one by one but is an approach that leaves Jin conflicted and shamed.Samurai, Ghost skills, and stances have their own independent skill trees that can be upgraded each time you level up to unlock new abilities, so it is for you to decide what kind of warrior you wish to be as the story progresses. Also available are numerous upgrades for your weapons and armour, new costumes with distinct advantages, and legendary weapons and techniques that can be learned or obtained. Also important is your "resolve" - a limited but replenishing resource representing your will and tenacity that enables you to restore your health and unleash deadly attacks.In terms of controls the game has a lot in common with Witcher 3. Combat occurs over 360 degrees with you being able to strike out in any direction with a flick of the control stick and pressing the attack buttons, using a combination of swift strikes and heavy blows that break your opponents guard as well as blocking incoming attacks with your blade, dodging or rolling out of the way, using counter strikes, and using environmental hazards such as explosive barrels and hornets nests to distract or destroy your foes. It all makes for an extremely fluid and cinematic combat experience.There are lots of nice little touches to the game that really help to nail the genre, such as the ability to challenge opponents (think Red Dead Redemptions quick draw shoot outs but with blades!), duels where you face off against a single (usually powerful) opponent, and the ability to finish off downed enemies with a merciful killing blow.The graphics are excellent and the environment beautiful, and the game really shows that there's still some life left in the old console yet. You even have the option of playing the game in a grainy black and white filter akin to a traditional samurai movie. Effects, soundtrack, and voice acting are equally excellent and you have the choice of playing with an English translation or Japanese language with subtitles if you are looking for a more authentic experience.In terms of complaints there's not much to moan about. One issue is that there is no punishment or penalty for adopting the "dishonourable" ghost techniques or any reward for adopting the honourable samurai techniques even though Jin being conflicted by having to balance these two approaches is a persistent theme that runs throughout the game, although this doesn't really effect the quality of the story.Additionally, whilst there are a number of different costumes to be obtained that provide boosts to skills like archery, exploration, and stealth, as the majority of game play will involve sword play there's little incentive to explore these and the temptation is to stick with Samurai armours that boost things like your damage, health, and damage resistance. Also, whilst your sword can be upgraded, it is the only hand to hand weapon you will use throughout the game and it would have been nice to see some of the other weapons used by samurai in the game.Ghost of Tushima is a truly excellent and compelling gaming experience that's worth every penny and gets my highest recommendation.

This game is great. Not flawless, not perfect, but the niggles either come with the territory or are compensated for by other things.You play Jin Sakai, a samurai on the island of Tsushima. You start the game by being defeated by the invading Mongol Army. They kill all the other samurai and take your uncle hostage. You have lost everything, you need to drive the invaders out and free Tsushima.And you're off.People talk a lot about how beautiful this game is. And it does look good. But the gold standard for beauty is obviously Red Dead Redemption 2. It doesn't look as good as that. But it looks better than most other games. And it's very stylish. It was designed to look like Kurosawa films, and it also has some of the very stylised looks of Hero or House of Flying Daggers.Gameplay is pretty standard for this sort of open world first person game. You travel around the island carrying out missions. En route you meet other characters, acquire gear, weapons and skills to improve your character. Sometimes you need to fight, sometimes you can sneak.The best thing about the game is the fighting. This is sword fighting done brilliantly. It is SO much fun. You need to learn different stances, that basically equip you to fight different enemies. So if you're facing swordsmen you do one thing, men with shields another, different again for spears and so on. The first few hours you can pretty much get by without them but after that they are invaluable.The worst thing about the game is that it is quite repetitive. After a while, there is a lot of ride round and do this and kill these bad guys and then do it again. That does kind of come with the territory for a lot of these open world games, and personally, I don't mind it - i like the escapism - you might feel differently.Is this as good as God of War or RDR2? No. Is it very good indeed? Yes.Keep an eye on the price. I paid £30 on Amazon. As I write this, it's £38.50 - it'll come down again soon, I am sure.

An incredible story with beautiful graphics and exciting gameplay with the best combat in a game yet and if you love Samurai then this adventure game has it all...stealth, combat, exploration....its simply incredible.

3rd person open world game set on beautiful Japanese island of Tsushima. You are a samurai warrior trying to defeat a Mongol invasion, torn between following the samurai tradition and the need to resort to guerilla tactics.Pros:-- Visually stunning and beautiful landscape- Haunting pipe music and claps of thunder- Fast travel is actually fast! (Assassins creed please note!)- good story- nice mix of things to do/collect very similar to Assassins Creed- cool combat system where you are attacked from all sides - you need to learn to parry and change combat stances to successfully defeat swords/shields/lances/brutes- plenty of tactic options - stealth, ranged attacks, melee, etc- fun to playCons:-- not as big as the Assassins Creed worlds- lining up with the bottom of a ladder to climb it rather than jump behind it! Grrr- characters were all rather stiff and serious - some variety would be niceOverall I really enjoyed the game and look forward to the next one.