Ghostwire: Tokyo review — ghastly formula
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While playing Ghostwire: Tokyo, an action-horror game that incorporates the most terrifying aspects of Japanese mythology and the eerie emptiness of modern Shibuya, I found myself most unsettled by something unintentional: the main character’s misshapen, claw-like hands.
I don’t think Akito’s hands are supposed took look strange. Since it’s the only part of him you regularly see, I get the sense the animators wanted them to look elastic. But in trying to make hands that look both mostly realistic and also inhumanly flexible, they’ve ended up camped deep in the uncanny valley. I spent an embarrassing amount of time holding up my own hand in front of the screen and looking from it to Akito’s, trying to pinpoint what about the latter looked so wrong.
Ghostwire: Tokyo is very close to being a great game — and it’s not a bad one. Its setting and atmosphere are excellent, the design is great, and the story and voice acting are perfectly adequate. But the gameplay itself isn’t particularly compelling, and without it, all of the other elements can only save so much.
The game stars Akito, a young man critically injured in a car accident minutes before the entire ward of Shibuya has their spirits ripped from their bodies. A ghost named KK jumps into his body and this joining is enough to keep Akito’s own spirit bound to the mortal plane. In joining with KK, Akito gains the ability to use magical powers for attack, defense, and radar.
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