Ghostwire: Tokyo Review Summary

Immersive Tokyo Setting: The game features a detailed and visually appealing recreation of Tokyo, blending modern elements with supernatural aspects. Players appreciate the accurate and immersive depiction of the city.

Enjoyable Gameplay: The gameplay is described as fun, dynamic, and engaging. Players find it smooth, fluid, and enjoyable, with unique elements that make it stand out.

Unique Atmosphere: The game offers a unique and immersive atmosphere, blending eerie and mystical elements with modern visuals. Players appreciate the atmospheric masterpiece and detailed world-building.

Rich Japanese Folklore: The game deeply integrates Japanese mythology, folklore, and urban legends. Players appreciate the accurate and detailed representation of Japanese culture and traditions.

Compelling Storyline: The story is praised for being engaging, emotional, and well-written. Players find it captivating and unique, adding to the overall enjoyment of the game.

Weak and unengaging story: The storyline is widely criticized as bland, unremarkable, and lacking highlights. It is described as simplistic, generic, and full of holes, leading to a confusing and unappealing narrative.

Repetitive and boring gameplay: The gameplay is noted for being repetitive and monotonous, with tasks and levels that quickly become tedious. This repetitiveness extends to combat and side quests, making the game a slog to complete.

Poor combat mechanics: Combat mechanics are criticized as weak, repetitive, and lacking substance. The combat system is described as uninspiring, clunky, and awkward, with enemies that are either too easy or frustrating bullet sponges.

Open world issues: The open world design is criticized as terrible and a joke, with excessive collectibles and a lack of meaningful activities, making exploration feel like a collect-a-thon.

Poor optimization and performance: The game is criticized for poor optimization, especially in areas with multiple objects, leading to frame drops and performance issues. The PC port is noted as being particularly bad.

Exploration and collectibles: Exploration is a significant part of the gameplay, with players able to find collectibles and Easter eggs throughout the open world. This includes exploring empty streets and various parts of Tokyo.

Combat mechanics and variety: Combat in the game is described as relatively simple and accessible for beginners, but it can also involve a variety of skills and tactics. Players can engage in combat against ghosts and other enemies, using finishing moves and different combat strategies.

Skill tree and progression: The game includes a skill tree and leveling system, allowing players to upgrade their skills and abilities. This progression system is tied to the character's development throughout the game.

Map navigation and size: The game features a large map with many markers, requiring players to navigate and explore different areas. The map size and navigation mechanics are notable aspects of the gameplay.

Repetitive gameplay elements: Some players find the gameplay to be monotonous and repetitive, particularly in terms of combat and level design.

Poor optimization on PC: The game's PC port is criticized for poor optimization, leading to various performance issues. Players report that the game is not well-optimized for PC, resulting in a subpar experience.

Frame rate problems: Many players report frame drops, FPS issues, and stuttering, which significantly impact the gameplay experience. These issues are widespread and affect various hardware configurations.

Launch and technical issues: Several players encounter severe technical problems, including the game not launching, black screens during cutscenes, and codec issues. These problems prevent players from enjoying the game altogether.

High hardware requirements: The game demands medium to high-end PC hardware to run smoothly. Players with lower-end configurations struggle to achieve acceptable performance, even with upscaling technologies like DLSS.

Crashes and stability issues: Frequent crashes and freezes are reported by many players, indicating significant stability issues. These problems occur across different platforms, including Steam and Steam Deck.

Wait for a sale: Several reviewers suggest buying the game on sale, indicating that the full price may not be worth it for some players.

Recommendations for Japanese culture enthusiasts: The game is recommended for those interested in Japanese culture, ghost stories, and open-world exploration.

Highly recommended game: Many reviewers fully or highly recommend the game, indicating a strong positive reception.

Not worth full price: Some reviewers feel the game is not worth the full price and suggest waiting for a sale or even getting it for free.

Atmosphere and combat praised: The game is highly recommended for its atmosphere, combat, exploration, and detailed environments.

Community fair range: $20.00 - $30.00.

Game completion: 40.0h.

Story completion: 15.0h.

Session length: 2.0h.

Endgame: 20.0h.

The game starts with a strong story and combat that becomes more enjoyable as players progress and unlock new skills and abilities. The progression system and ability usage are particularly engaging.

Reported time to anchor: 2h.

Gameplay Enthusiast: Focuses on combat and parkour, enjoys the overall gameplay experience. Motivation: Enjoyment of core gameplay mechanics. Stance: sale.

Folklore Enthusiast: Explores the game world for lore and cultural elements, enjoys the setting and atmosphere. Motivation: Interest in Japanese folklore and culture. Stance: sale.

Completionist: Focuses on collecting all items and completing all side quests, enjoys the grind and challenge of completion. Motivation: Achieving 100% completion. Stance: deep sale.

Steam Deck: The analysis of user feedback reveals significant issues with the Steam Deck experience, particularly in terms of stability, performance, and graphics optimization. The addition of Denuvo DRM post-launch has been a major point of contention, leading to crashes and stuttering. Users have also reported problems with crashes, loading screens, and the need for tweaking settings to achieve acceptable performance. While some users have had positive experiences, the overall sentiment highlights substantial technical barriers that need to be addressed.

External guides: The primary user complaints revolve around the necessity of using external interactive maps for navigation and finding collectables, which significantly impacts the user experience. Additionally, there are mentions of the game's complexity and the need for external resources to understand game mechanics and content.

Comparison to Evil Within 3: Players have noted similarities or differences between this game and Evil Within 3.

Refund policy issues: Some players expressed frustration over not being able to get a refund due to the time elapsed since purchase.