Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden - The First Preview | gamescom 2023

ign.com:

At a glance, Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden owes a lot to Sony’s recent God of War outings. Its close third-person camera perspective, linear-but-open level design, and mix of environmental puzzles and hard-hitting melee combat are all present. But there’s more than meets the eye here. After playing a whole quest I’ve discovered that beneath that surface lies a soul just as connected to the Life is Strange series developer Don't Nod is famed for as it is to Sony’s godly behemoth.

You play as Red, a Scotsman in 1695 North America, who’s taken up the profession of Banisher – a sort of exorcist Witcher who hunts ghosts rather than monsters. But he also has a greater, more personal purpose. Red’s romantic partner, Antea, recently met a tragic fate, and so his primary objective is now to find a way to bring her back to life. That’s one option, anyway. Beyond its third-person action flourishes Banishers is hiding a choice-based adventure firmly rooted in developer Don’t Nod’s DNA. It provides a mix of violence and delicacy that could be felt clearly as I played through an hour-long mission from one of its earliest chapters.

Arriving in a small 17th-century east-coast settlement made up of ramshackle log cabins and huts that had seen better days, I was quickly introduced to the town’s matriarch. An imposing woman by the apt name of Thickskin, she had little time for small talk but all the time in the world for big beasts. After tasking me with a mission to rid the town of a mysterious ghostly monster that’s been terrorising its inhabitants for some time, I set off into the wilderness in search of clues. First, though, I’d need a gun, and in order to get it I had to navigate a conversation with Thickskin’s much less evocatively