Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden Review

thesixthaxis.com:

How we relate, share and cooperate is central to the human experience. Without these connections most of us can’t function, and the resulting loneliness and isolation can often only have one outcome. That’s a bleak start for a video game review, but Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden is a bleak game. It’s one that’s built upon human connections, but where there’s love, there’s also manipulation, where there’s care there’s also control, and where there’s life there’s also death. While there’s love, affection and tenderness here, Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden certainly has more than enough death to balance against it.

A Banisher is, in essence, a ghost hunter. Their charge is to help spirits move on from the mortal plane when they’ve found themselves trapped here after their death. They don’t tend to be trapped on Earth unless their death was violent, unfair, or corrupt, and that, in turn, tends to make them angry, aggressive and unthinking. It’s a terrifying job, but narratively speaking, it’s captivating.

You play a pair of Banishers, Red MacCraith and Althea Duarte. Called to America by their mentor Charles Davenport, they find themselves embroiled in the curse of New Eden. A town on the coast of New England, the settlers here initially found much to love about their new surroundings before a Nightmare – a ‘super ghost’ – took hold of their meetinghouse and slowly started to poison the minds of the people that lived there.

Unfortunately, upon your arrival you find that Charles decided he could wait no longer, and tried to face the Nightmare alone, unsurprisingly ending in his own death. At this point you discover the importance of rituals to the Banisher, and you’re able to call forth Charles’ ghost, helping you to deepen your understanding of what happened.

You also get your first taste of the narrative choices that Ghosts of New Eden will lay at your feet. Ghosts can be banished or they can be convinced that their tie to the world is no longer necessary. Banishing is a