Ghostwire: Tokyo Preview: Spooky Ghosts, Nice Time

Approximately six hours later Ghostwire: Tokyo, it has become evident that the title is a bit of a mixing of different mechanics in all genres, all united to be larger than the sum of its parts. I thought I was exhausted from the Assassin's Creed style exploration, for example, but it turns out that everything I really wanted was that the real surroundings interesting. The Ghost Streets of Tokyo have a lot to do and, surprisingly, I was happy to please him.

The premise of Ghostwire: Tokyo is that the people of, well, Tokyo has disappeared thanks to a mysterious fog that allows ghost visitors, who are basically angry spirits, the village. Not all these spirits are enemies, but even the most friendly are not always benign. Akito, the player's character, is inhabited by a dead hunter of these visitors called KK from the beginning and the two are going to face Hanny, the man behind everything.

Even though KK's presence allows Akito to greatly avoid the dangers of fog, there are heavier areas that still cause damage whenever they come across them. The cleaning of fog areas is achieved by cleaning several Torii doors around Tokyo in a similar way to as Assassin's Creed normally reveals the map through climbing towers. However, unlike Assassin's Creed, basically there is no way to avoid a fight in the process, and the revealed areas of the map are creepy and are full of enemies and possible friends.

Combat in Ghostwire: Tokyo can be quite intense, but only if you allow it. Most of the fights revolve around the use of a set of overturning skills of ethereal tissue to harm remote enemies, and once visitors have been hurt enough, their nuclei are exposed. Depending on how many somber bugs surround you, it becomes a game to find out the time of everything to keep them away, making sure to destroy the cores when they are available and juggling with how many shots are left. Fortunately, defeating enemies provides more ammunition for Ethereal Weaving, so there is always a reason to download strong and fast instead of keeping everything for a possible fight against a boss.

As more skills are unlocked and more difficult enemies begin to play, complexity increases, but it never becomes too overwhelming. There is relatively little here in terms of direct horror, but the tension and suspense of trying to sneak through a sanctuary to clean a door before it is alert to too many enemies is quite exciting. And even if they are, players are well equipped to deal with them.

All this is at the service of defeating Hanny, but KK and Akito have different reasons to want to get involved. Akito's sister, Mari, is the goal of Hannya for some kind of ritual, while KK seems to have both personal and professional reasons to want to tear down the architect from the current situation in Tokyo. I have no idea how much is really from Ghostwire: Tokyo But two chapters feel like it only had begun to scratch the surface.

Speaking of just scratching the surface, my initial impressions of a preview without intervention earlier this year were completely accurate; GHOSTWIRE: Tokyo is the type of video game that really benefits from playing it instead of just seeing it. The various trailers and screenshots do not really provide enough information about how complicated it can become the combat, the impressive decoration of the scenario throughout the area or the amount of verticality involved. Yokai called Tenngu Tokyo's litter, following the fog, and when he grabbed them, Akito can approach the top of the buildings and then slide towards others. Honestly, there is a frankly surprising amount of climbing in Ghostwire: Tokyo.

And that is the overwhelming feeling that Ghostwire: Tokyo has left me so far: surprise. I am surprised how much I like to wander through an abandoned Tokyo, which is full of small details that make it feel alive even though Akito is the only one living person. I am surprised how fun it is to perform small tasks for spirits and release relics given how much I often hate the disorder of the open world. In a world where videogames are constantly coming out and it can be difficult to determine where to spend time, Ghostwire: Tokyo will be pleasantly surprised if you leave it. However, it remains to be seen if that is true during dozens of hours.

GHOSTWire: Tokyo is scheduled to launch for PlayStation 5 and PC on March 25. Anyone reserving the Deluxe Digital Edition of the Video Game through PlayStation Store will also have anticipated access from March 22. The newly released Visual Visual Novel, free of charge, Ghostwire: Tokyo - Preludio, is currently available at PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4 for anyone who wants to learn more about the full video game before launch. You can check all our previous coverage of the next Gameworks tango video game and Bethesda here. The preview was carried out with the PS5 code provided by the editor.