I really enjoyed Vampyr and reading about this game I was hoping I would enjoy it as well. Vampyr is the tighter and more enjoyable of the two games. This game drags and many cheap tricks are used to waste your time and keep you playing it well beyond the game's ability to captivate your interest.

Pros:
- The idea behind the game is great. A ghost of your lover stays at your side to help you and enhance combat.
- The setting is cool. Exploring early America in the late 1600s.
- Red is a great character.
- Combat is pretty fun and leveling up has meaningful benefits.
- Exploring the side missions where you solve hauntings is interesting and sending off ghosts is pretty cool.

Cons:
- Where Red is great, Antea can be insufferable. Red is always kind to her, but she can be very condescending and critical to Red. She blames him for her death. You play as Red, yet she is front and center.
- The game is loading with "the message". Woman are strong, mean are weak, colonialism is bad, and a lesbian in every camp. There are two sisters. One is a lesbian and the other is so badass, she should be the main character. She is the most masculine character in the whole game. She even has a badass name. Thickskin.
- There are a ton of side tasks and puzzles that are way too frequent and cut and paste. One of the most annoying puzzles that they use way too often are these vine puzzles. At first they were fun, but they stopped being from 50 times later and they are later needed to proceed with the main mission.
- Although it was interesting to send off ghosts, the insane amount of ghosts gets to be a bit much. The game takes place at several small camps and pretty much every person is haunted. Half the camp dies and haunts the remaining half.
- In the end, you have so many useless items in your inventory, I have no idea what the purpose of them are. Linen, leather, etc. You use very little for crafting and they are worth practically nothing when you sell them. Yet you end up with hundreds of each item, because the game world is littered with useless crap everywhere. You will go through some trouble to get to an area only to find these useless items. How much of my time was spent chasing after linen and leather? A lot.
- The world is broken up into smaller areas with these cheap tricks like crevices, ledges, crawl spaces, and climbing walls. How the settlers got around is beyond me because there are no connected roads or paths. Every area is laid out like a maze to simply make moving around more tedious and time consuming. It really got annoying after about 20 hours of it, with 20 more hours to go. I see no reason why the game could not have been more open world and easier to get around. Fast travel locations were mostly frequent enough, but you should have been able to quick travel from anywhere to those points and not need to go to those points to only travel to other points.

Overall, the bad, cringe, and annoying outweighed the good. I was drawn to the game and did enjoy the ending, but it was also a chore half the time and there are just too many things that could have been better. I doubt I will buy any other games from the developer since they are obsessed with preaching the message and I just want to enjoy a game without being preached to.

After seven hours of playing, I can say that this game truly deserves more recognition. For me, the character design, setting, and voice acting are exceptionally well-crafted and polished. As for the gameplay, it's not too difficult and is quite accessible for newcomers. I'm really excited to finish the rest of the game! Hopefully, in the future, DON'T NOD will continue to create more games with fresh and unique themes like this one. 😚

6/10 (Flawed)
Decent concept, too many rough edges to recommend.

Banishers is an absolute sleeper and if I knew how vast, well-written and moving it was, I wouldn't have waited for a sale. At first, I thought this would be a very linear, story-based light-action game. It's revealed itself to be much more than that. The swapping technique is well-implemented. Combat is solid and while it's not altogether wildly deep such as some other 100 hour ARPGs in that aspect, it is fun and feels good. Finding the right powers, character and moves work best against the various specters.

What most took me by surprise was the writing. There's no black or white. It's all morally grey and who you decide to be and do from the binary choices are up to your personal beliefs. The writing and detective work is such an experience I appreciate. It makes me actually want to listen to the voiceovers instead of power-reading subtitles and skipping along like busywork. It feels meaningful and you want to know these people's stories.

It doesn't hurt that the atmosphere is top-notch. While you will see a lot of rocky surfaces, they are the finest detailed rocks you will see in a game. Also, once you get into the Dark Woods. Hats off to the level designers. The swooping, puzzle-like maps feels like a Elden Ring/Metroid-baby. Where new powers unlock old places and shortcuts aplenty can be unlocked.

It all comes together so nicely that I'm taking my sweet time with it and plan to soak it all in. This is a stunning vision that shouldn't have been so overlooked but when the game market is as saturated as it is, it's hard to find footing. I hope this franchise gets cult-status and blows up. I would buy a Banishers 2 in Salem. Or Banishers 3 in Japan. Love this game.

So far the story is engaging and the it is flowing nicely. The retrace your steps aspect of the game could use some polish to make going back to get everything, collect them all, more enticing but it is not a deal breaker. I got it 50% off and at 25 bucks I feel the game is worth that value.

The game is clearly inspired by the newer God Of War. Unfortunately, it also tries to imitate God Of War in terms of time and somewhat in scope - but the actual content and gameplay mechanics just can't keep up.
As a result, you get a beautiful game with an interesting story and characters - but it feels at least 40% longer than it should be.

game good

Enjoyed the story.
Some customization options with your build were nice but still felt a tad limited.
Combat was fun but felt clunky sometimes.

If you like action games with a rich and compelling story, this is for you.

Don't Nod really knows how to tell a story, huh. Expertly weaves the main emotional storyline with the side stories as you help people throughout New Eden with their ghost infestation, all while setting up a very interesting morality system that's a big improvement over this game's predecessor, Vampyr. Also, major props for the main characters Red and Antea- a loving couple, beautifully written and acted. Very similar to South of Midnight earlier this year, this game's combat is too stiff and limited for the amount you do, and the game is probably too long...but while nearing the end, I put off the point of no return for a while just to spend more time with Red and Antea. I know why this game didn't hit it big and why it's not an all-time great, but its strengths are so good that it's still worth trying if you value storytelling and choices in games.