It's sad having to admit it but it's time to face reality and accept that I'm giving up on Ghost of Tsushima for the second time. This time is has to be the final nail in the coffin when it comes to this game for me. The first time I made it all the way through act 1. This time I didn't even make it halfway...
Beautiful mediocrity...
That's the best way I manage to describe this game. It looks beautiful. One of the best looking and most atmospheric games out there. The game is so beautifully crafted that I could spend hours using the photo mode to take pictures of the awesome sceneries they've put together for this world. It's a true work of art and that can't be denied.
But then you have to play the actual game in between and you realize just how mediocre it is. There's a total of five enemies in the entire game. Throughout the gam you unlock techniques to deal with each one. Because of this almost every battle scenario feels the same. Some times there's more of the spear guys and sometimes there's more of the shield guys. That's basically it for variety.
Main story quests are ok. They tell the story of Jin Sakai working together with the people to reclaim their island after the mongols invaded. It's pretty straightforward. That's what you do. There's no real twists to it and that's ok. It's a story of vengeance and liberation. It doesn't have to be much more than that.
The side missions however are all quite atrocious. You talk to some people who are having trouble with the mongols in one way or another. You then go somewhere to fight the mongols and then the missions is over. This is basically true for all the side missions I've done in the game so far which is quite a lot of them. I had to stop at some point to try and focus on the main story.
After reaching a point where I just couldn't go on I had to stop and google if this is all the game has to it. Turns out it does. There's a whole bunch of people out there who feels just like me. Ghost of Tsushuma is beautiful mediocrity at its best.
Oh well. All games can't be winners no matter how well they've been received in the past. The game is releasing for PC soon and I know a few people here are excited for it. I hope I don't ruin the experience for any of you with my little rant. I hope all of you who try the game after me will have a better time with it.
All images in this post are screenshots taken by me.