AJ Lamm

Genuinely an achievement, I spent most of my play-through in sheer awe at the level of visual fidelity, but as importantly the scope of the world itself and the game design ideas found within. Closet thing I can compare it to is Breath of the Wild meets The Hunt. Story wise I do appreciate the “macguffins” being given a level of thought few games do, making it not only integral to the plot, but interesting to seek out knowing that each location will somehow have that concept creatively interwoven as a part of the location/level design. If you own a PS4 Pro or a PS5, you owe it to yourself to at least try it out, I’m surprised we didn’t hear more during the award season to be fair.

Frankly, it’s rare that I even enjoy open world games anymore, just too many over the years have been carbon copies of each other, it’s beyond annoying. From the very beginning what I love the most about this game is the perspective, almost reminds me of Condemned: Criminal Origins but with spirit based shooting mechanics. It’s pretty trippy and as stuff runs at you, it purposely funnels you to use timed blocks to stay alive, it’s definitely unique. Now one of the stand out reasons this particular open world works is it isn’t huge like some games (though the developer doesn’t consider it one which is silly because it clearly is one). The Ghostwire Tokyo Map Size is 1.125km² (1,250m north/south, 900m west/east). This means it's a relatively small map. However, there is still a lot to explore, the game contains 556 Collectibles. Filled to the brim with famous Japanese landmarks recreated with stunning levels of accuracy. Although they sometimes go by different names, they're faithful recreations of locations like Shibuya Crossing. Add to this the supernatural element which has you taking with mythical creatures, even cats and dogs. It’s wild stuff. Not a perfect game but I got it on sale for 30 bucks, definitely worth the price of admission!