Ghostwire: Tokyo’s early hours are full of supernatural shooting and cute pups
It’s been a long time since I searched the streets for a phone booth — and it turns out to be an even more desperate experience when you’re being tailed by vicious spirits. But it’s something I found myself doing constantly while playing the first few hours of Ghostwire: Tokyo, the latest release from Tango Gameworks, the studio behind the unsettling horror series The Evil Within. While Ghostwire covers some similar ground, with lots of creepy folklore monsters lurking around, it’s also a clear shift from survival horror to action-adventure. And early on, I’m having a blast with the mix of tense firefights and horror-like exploration.
As the title implies, the game takes place in modern-day Tokyo, albeit a disturbingly empty one. Thanks to some kind of supernatural phenomenon, all humans have disappeared, except for one — your character, a seemingly average dude named Akito — who is now possessed by an entity known as KK. There are a few different mysteries at play. There’s the whole evil fog that has engulfed the city, ushering in a host of evil creatures; there’s KK’s backstory as a paranormal investigator; and then there’s Akito himself, who is searching for his missing sister. In order to figure out all of that, Akito and KK form an uneasy truce. KK serves as both a guide — his voice is always in your head — and the source of some nifty mystical powers.
The thing that has struck me most so far (I’m about seven hours in) is how action-focused Ghostwire is. Navigating the streets, subways, and other parts of Tokyo means using magic called “ethereal weaving” to blast a whole lot of bad guys. It can feel almost like a first-person shooter at times; battles often involve using multiple kinds of magic to knock out foes as
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