Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden

So I was screwing around looking at the Xbox store and saw this game just came out. Ghost hunting, haunted stuff, heavy story action RPG with supposedly awesome writing and 5 star reviews. Checked a couple sites and see very favorable on steam. Check ACG thinking “I haven’t even heard of this thing” and he has a review up and it’s a buy.


I haven’t heard Jack about this game. Anyone playing it? I might take a plunge here shortly.

Copy that.

So I’m playing it now. Will report back. So far though this voice acting - top notch and not dialed in. Had some combat swings and everything seems fine so far but I’m playing this because of the story and horror aspects. I might not be a good judge of combat.

Edit: Music and ambience is surprisingly good. Runs smooth on Series X.

Ok about 4 hours in.

If you are into really good eerie horror games, with a great story, some fantastic voice acting, FANTASTIC atmosphere and music/sound, and figuring out ghost stories and then deciding what to do with that ghost after the backdrop of their story (Which so far are fucking awesome) I would get this. I cannot comment on performance on anything other than Series X but on the X performance mode runs fantastic and looks pretty damn good.

Combat: I play it on easy so really can't comment and still early in the game. There are abilities for both characters and upgrades and resource gathering for those upgrades - but in this case I am not looking for Elden Ring serious combat or something like Lies of P. I do not mind hacking and slashing through stuff here. Maybe it gets better and maybe it's casual but I don't really care.

The early stages and story remind me of a game that has stuck with me for a LONG time and that is Funcom's the Secret World. In that game (MMO) there was an area that was heavily lovecraft based with a series of quests called the Franklin Mansion - along with a haunted amusement park. The story and atmosphere there was awesome and it was one of the best MMO quests I have played through. The writing, atmosphere, voice acting (Which is better in Banished by far) emotional attachment, and music has matched or gone beyond that level.

If you like games like this, it will be right up your alley. Usually I even do not bother with conversation trees when talking to characters and I am now finding myself asking all the questions about the area and their personal experiences and that has NEVER happened before.