ASH PLAYS: Ghost of Tsushima

Since lockdown I imagine a lot of us have had more time for gaming than usual or you haven’t but in this case did it stop many of us playing Ghost of Tsushima? Probably not, does it deserve the relentless hype? Yes.

For some time now, I have felt we have been bombarded with open world games and for some of us, that is all we want, immerse ourselves in the glorious scenic open worlds. Question is however, how many games have done that well? Probably not as many as we think, Ghost of Tsushima on the other hand visually & audibly pleased me as much as Hideo Kojima‘s Death Stranding and what an experience Ghost of Tsushima delivered.

Sucker Punch Productions, known for Infamous and the Sly series have produced something like nothing else we have seen come from this production company. Think God of War (PS4) meets Horizon Zero Dawn but moulded together and polished perfectly, that is how high I’m setting the bar for this release. On the other hand, for those who can’t afford those games yet, they can resort to other viral games like 바카라 사이트.

Based on the Island of Tsushima in Japan, it tells the story of the Mongolian army invading the samurai, battling between honour, code and sacrifice brings us Jin Sakai, the head of the Sakai clan and samurai warrior. Defending his people, his father’s honour and truly learning about the cost of honour. Khotun Khan being Jin‘s biggest challenge and the leader of the Mongolian army, the main antagonist creates such an indisputable role to this title and bringing many dark moments and making the story feel truly fleshed out, violence and revenge are just the start of this story. The character development shows great detail which in these days of gaming I felt was lost somewhat apart from a few selected reason titles but Ghost of Tsushima does not shy away from this in the slightest.

I’ve sunk about 40 hours into this title and at no point did I feel repetitive tasks occurring again and again but a chance to really captivate how side quests should play out but using story lines from each character which holds roughly four to eight side missions each, learning about each story and what has led them into denial, frustration or vengeance really had me gripped, basing the main missions around Jin and other important tales to link the game together so elegantly in side missions, it makes perfect sense and I wish more games would take influence of this.

This is not the only objective you will have to face but ‘simply’ liberating Tsushima from the Mongolian army which faces many challenges. The environment plays into the hands of this game perfectly, ominous invaded land or beautiful scenic liberated areas, it never stops, the interaction with the environment whether it’s doing shrines and petting foxes or helping civilians along the route you’re taking and so much more. Minimal hub making everything that bit more satisfying than most titles out there, using the wind as direction or fire smoke to locate a mission. I can not compliment this enough.

Combat, four stances and each working against enemy types, staggering or parrying to counter strike, assassinations from behind or above, using the environment to play against the enemy, the options are endless and really tailored to your play style. Boss-like battles going into a loosely influenced Dark Souls clutches but all flows so perfectly within section to section. Bows and arrows, poison tools, grenades, it doesn’t sound like a lot compared to most open world games but when combined in tight situations you really see this combat system shine and I am a fan of it.

With so many great games out at the moment, Ghost of Tsushima manages to stand tall and proud amongst the huge titles released around this time and has no doubt been the highly praised game it deserves.

“Honor died on the beach”

And that rounds off our next guest column from Ash! Be sure to follow Ash on his socials and stay tuned to Distorted Sound next as we bring our next column in our Ash Plays series!