Ghost of Tsushima

Ghost of Tsushima is the best Sucker Punch game to date. Anyone who is a fan of the developer, or samurai games in general, should not hesitate to pick this one up.

Ghost of Tsushima is an enormous and densely packed samurai adventure that often left me completely awestruck with both its visual spectacle and excellent combat. By steadily introducing new abilities instead of stat upgrades, its swordplay manages to stay challenging, rewarding, and fun throughout the entire 40 to 50 hours that it took me to beat the campaign. A few aspects are surprisingly lacking in polish in comparison to other first-party Sony games, especially when it comes to enemy AI and the stealth part of its stealth/action split. Still this is an extraordinary open-world action-adve...

“There's a great deal of pain in Ghost of Tsushima, but there's just as much healing.”

Playing Ghost of Tsushima has been a dizzy dance of expectations versus reality. At so many separate junctions, I’ve slammed into what I wanted to happen, blindsided by the actual events. This game wears the fresh skin of an open world RPG, one crammed full of crafting, karmic choices, and skyrocketing power levels. What I expected, and what I experienced, struggled for weeks to reconcile their differences. So much of this is reminiscent of other titles, different ideas, and similar genres. I’ve been confounded at every turn, and yet I’m enamored all the way. That’s the critical sticking point...

Ghost of Tsushima is a love letter to the classic samurai movies of Akira Kurosawa and one of the best games on the PlayStation 4.

Sucker Punch Productions has been hard a work for an incredible amount of time since their last full release, Infamous First Light, way back in 2014 (and even that was a smaller production overall). Ghost of Tsushima represents the studio’s fourth IP in its 23-year history, and with such a lengthy development time, represents no small amount of risk to the company. Was it all worth it? Well, we’ve spent the past few weeks exploring Tsushima island as Jin Sakai and have our Ghost of Tsushima review ready for you to slice up below.

Ghost of Tsushima is a masterclass on how to make a palatable and focused open world experience.

Ghost of Tsushima may not be the perfect send off to the PS4 generation, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t have a great time playing through Jin’s life-changing journey. The worst thing I can say about Sucker Punch’s newest game is that it lacks originality. It just barely stands out. But if you really love well-crafted worlds and taking gorgeous pictures, Ghost of Tsushima is definitely worth a playthrough.

Ghost of Tsushima offers an amazing open-world experience and satisfying combat, only mildly held back by its writing and characters.

Had Ghost of Tsushima released earlier into the PS4’s life, chances are it would be revered. But now, in a world in which the likes of Red Red Redemption 2 and Assassin’s Creed Odyssey exist, it feels a little underwhelming. Still, it is quite possibly the best samurai game ever made, and is well worth picking up if you’re after another epic open-world to get lost in. Just temper your expectations as much as your steel.

The new chapter of Ghost of Tsushima adds to Jin's backstory in a way that makes it feel essential, while adding even more of the best stuff from the vanilla game.

Ghost of Tsushima is pretty similar to other open-world games, but a strong combat system and a solid samurai story give it some staying power.