In 2024, the developers of the Life is Strange saga are playing God of War with Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden, an ambitious action-adventure game that tells you about love and ghosts…
This year, the French from Don’tnod continue their emancipation from purely narrative sagas like Life is Strange by exploring the path of the action-adventure game, a genre which notably gave it its first letters of nobility with the respective releases of Remember Me and Vampyr. Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden takes us to 1695 as Antea Duarte and Red Mac Raith, a banisher and her disciple/lover, strive to carry out their missions against wandering spirits. A perilous job which consists of protecting the living and allowing souls to begin their ascension, or their eternal banishment. By an unfortunate event, Antea is mortally wounded, leaving Red alone to face a delicate task and a dilemma that weighs on his shoulders for the rest of his adventure: what to do with the soul of his deceased who still haunts his world?
Sherlock in the land of ghosts
In each semi-open region of Banishers, a multitude of mysterious and ghostly cases await the resolution of our playmates, Red and Antea, leaving you the choice of an often non-linear approach. The first part of each plot and subplot consisting of a clue examination session and a few unannounced clashes against wandering spirits. The search for hidden elements is also often on the program, and perhaps constitutes the major occupation of the adventure, sometimes even forming a point of frustration as it is omnipresent. It still allows the resolution of very clever environmental puzzles where everyone’s abilities are exploited: Red can pull on fragile ropes to free passages when Antea can use his spectral powers to reveal clues invisible to the naked eye and even teleport us short distances. Let’s also remember the occasional rituals initiated by Red which allow ghosts and scourges to be invoked, and which constitute the little immersive touch in the practices of a banisher. In terms of lifespan, you will have it for yourself, the journey can be completed in around twenty hours if you choose to ignore most of the side quests, but can also occupy you for around thirty hours, from which a few unnecessary arches would have been amputated.
The second part of a plot generally confronts you with a moral choice which has the merit of often making us hesitate: should we banish or spare the soul you are inspecting, or should we allow its ascension towards eternal peace? Dilemmas which pleasantly close each little story by modifying the main narrative thread of the adventure, unlike the usual dialogue choices that you will have to make and which really only serve to deepen the narration. In this regard, it is pleasant to note that each villager you meet has more or less something substantial to tell you, offering a little life to very cold environments. And throughout your story, it is a completely different dilemma, all the more overwhelming which continues to weigh on your shoulders, that of Antea’s destiny which rests entirely on a terribly difficult choice. By blaming as many people as possible, you will help bring her back to life. But at what cost ?
A convincing universe for a charming duo
Set in the 17th century, the historical setting of Banishers is first translated into the game’s often wild regions, where the lush expanses regularly force you to find hidden passable paths, creating as much a clever game of hide-and-seek as some frustrating misdirection; enough to betray a fast travel system that is too limited. Failing to captivate, the whole constitutes rather charming and coherent settings, although a little too homogeneous for my taste. Red and Antea are ecstatic from time to time in front of panoramas which often barely excite our retinas, even in quality mode. The explorable surface area is nevertheless massive, and contains secrets to be revealed, expanding an already highly generous lifespan. The context of the scenario is also illustrated in its rural communities and the visible beginnings of colonization, marked from the outset by a racist criticism of Antea during our first hour of play: “Your servant can warm herself by the fire”, suggests a demonologist to Red, even though he is a simple disciple of this first.
In this regard, Don’tnod obliges, the overall writing undeniably constitutes the first asset of the experience, the duo of Antea Duarte and Red mac Raith animating the epic with verbal jousts and philosophical exchanges which evolve with their emotions. One is as implacable as a severe language teacher and the other allows herself a few funny sentences like: “What fly could have bitten his ass”, between two observations in well-polished French . Without extravagance, the banishers form a charismatic duo with remarkable dubbing quality. All the characters in the game also benefit from excellent vocal performances in the language of Molière. An advantage which makes it possible to compensate for very unconvincing animations, which make the interactions a little dull despite nice staging. In this regard, Banishers can pride itself on offering some epic sequences which, however, it sometimes has difficulty sublimating..
Solid gameplay after a slow build-up
Banishers, with a little imagination, is a bit of a game at the crossroads of worlds between Sherlock Holmes (minus the deductions), God of War and a Ghost Whisperer serial, in the best possible sense. As for the fights, very inspired by the Santa Monica game, Banishers experiences a slow rise in power, forcing us to settle for somewhat sterile fights for the first four hours, before letting us unlock some really pleasant advantages. The sensations then become rather exhilarating, our two heroes benefiting from complementary skills. At first barely equipped with a small handful of melee attacks, Red subsequently equips himself with a rifle with infinite ammunition which can only draw one bullet with each reload and which thus offers a new approach to combat. terrain and an attractive dynamic. Its other assets lie in a powerful charged sword blow and its ability to instantly banish an enemy once the special movement bar is sufficiently charged.
Antea, for his part, benefits from more agile movements and powerful swings. The protagonist being technically dead, she can be invoked as a temporary – highly valuable – ally at any time in the game and will develop new assets over the course of the game which I am careful not to reveal to you and which demonstrate good progress. Well mastered, the interventions of each person can constitute beautiful combat choreographies during demanding confrontations, but with widely adjustable difficulty. Note that on easy or normal, everything can quickly become boring. Also the bestiary changes very little during the adventure and is limited to ghosts of varying robustness, some sometimes equipping themselves with firearms and corpses as body shields. A handful of bosses fortunately fuel the diversity of enemies. The biggest problem to highlight is these unbearable and completely incoherent lines of dialogue released in a loop during each confrontation, when Antea suggests for example “I can help you”, even though the fight is over and she has fought it to the limit. Finally, note the presence of a slew of harvestable items and chests to open which allow you to unlock the skills of a skill tree with several branches, which knows how to be concise.
Conclusion
Strong points
- A duo of charismatic protagonists
- A well-written universe that holds up
- The NPCs all have something to tell you
- Cases of haunting that we explore like a pleasant investigation
- Additional combat skills
- Some stylish bosses to encounter
- A semi-open space which breaks the linearity of the game
Weak points
- Clashes that can become boring
- A slow ramp-up in gameplay
- Sometimes frustrating moments of searching in a labyrinthine space
- A fairly limited bestiary
- Very frozen facial animations
- Very annoying lines of dialogue in combat
Generous in its narration as in its gameplay, Banishers firstly offers a level of writing which without any harm maintains the good reputation of Don’tnod in the matter, offering multiple narrative arcs with striking choices which consolidate all the coherence of the ‘universe. At first a little summary, the clashes benefit from an exhilarating evolution, enabled by a concise skill tree and a natural progression of the characters, very complementary on the ground. We also retain certain lengths, marked by dispensable intrigues, a slow increase in the power of the gameplay and a somewhat frustrating research part.
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