“The world rests on the precipice of transformation,” Ghostwire: Tokyo’s central antagonist bellows during the most recent trailer. Concluding with the equally-prophetic yet similarly-dramatic sounding line: “A new age will dawn!” A mouthful of the Tokyo metropolitan scenery no doubt being chewed by the Oni mask he dons. It needn’t take last week’s hands-off showing of developer Tango Gameworks' latest project to get a clearer affirmation that this game is at least all too aware of its own perception and is knowingly playing off it. Not that a touch of the ridiculous hasn’t been evidently present in the studio’s past work.The Evil Within– and its2017 sequel– may have hoped to excel through graphic horror and tense encounters, but it was the ludicrousness of its narrative premise that proved the real star, for better or worse. A pairing of games whose entire premise centered around shared dream-worlds run by cliched shady organizations and infested by power-hungry big-bads. As goofy and as tired Tango’s efforts may have looked going in, while not the best releases of their respective genre, you couldn’t help but offer admiration for how committed Tango were in finding that perfect balance between straight-faced and downright ridiculous.
A tale of a man that come the sequel, morphed into a desperate search for his lost daughter. In a setting that intentionally made little coherent, real-world sense. It wasn’t perfect, the first game especially [un]fittingly falling victim to its own dream-like, directionless setting. And while too on-the-nose its gore and particular flavor horror may have been, those games' survival-horror leanings did at least help see those games through to their respective ends. To Ghostwire: Tokyo’s credit, Tango seem to have taken the not-so-subtle hint in both games' reception, that “horror” – in as broad a term you may borrow – isn’t dictated by how much blood and gore you clutter any one screen with. It needn’t even be dictated to begin with; horror so often at its best, or at least most interesting, when it relies less on what’s shown and more on what isn’t. Playing off players' own pre-conceived assumptions. In this case: why has an entire Tokyo district’s worth of citizens vanished? Why are the streets infested by faceless, even headless, entities that move in that unsettlingly “sped up” manner of animation. Why, during one’s time watching the hands-off gameplay last week, was I reminded less of some umpteenth AAA action-adventure attempt and more with that most-recent craze of videos online being little more than casual, serene, evening strolls through city streets.
Ghostwire: Tokyo is of course not been marketed as horror in the way The Evil Within might’ve been, but there’s something off-kilter and awkwardly-engrossing in the way Ghostwire paints its fictional Tokyo rendition as a cityscape only just been snatched of its normality. Abandoned cars still waiting in line at traffic-light crossings; shops and cafes still buzzing with electric lighting and occasional jukebox tunes. Ignore the blatantly-obvious lack of footfall and this should be any run-of-the-mill mood, right? Of course, our abnormal, supernatural occurrence is what’s come into play to flip, but it’s not like Ghostwire is going out of its way to cast some thicker lens across the myriad of winding alleyways, streets and public spaces. The only real giveaway, minus the lack of people, is the surrounding fog – the reason why so many have fallen victim to losing their physical form. A fog that at the more hectic and combat-savvy moments, even then doesn’t switch too dramatically on an aesthetic level. The eeriness of these more blue-tinted moments suggest Ghostwire’s tonal intentions are less to do with terrifying the player and more to do with that feeling of unease. Affirmation that that weird city ambience of previous was just the tip of the iceberg.
But naturally, the fog – as much any reason to avoid touching it, as already detailed – serves just as much on the basis of progression as it does aesthetic. Which is where Ghostwire: Tokyo’s dare I say more measured reliance on old standards starts to materialize. Specifically, the old (if still used) standards of open-world, action-adventure titles with lite RPG mechanics. Even those that aren’t necessarily adorned with a plentiful number of towers to climb or safe houses to secure. Instead we have Torii gates to “purify,” which in turn clear a selective part of the greater district-wide fog – in turn, sprinkling that now-visible section of the map with quest icons to whet your appetite. To compliment the additional menus that detail unlockable skills and one’s “Synergy Level” as the game dubs it. It isn’t long before the memories – good or bad alike – of so many a AAA title in prior years comes flooding back and all the likely worries come flooding in on just how reliant on what’s come before the game is becoming.
It’s no deal-breaker though, by any stretch of the imagination; the presence of quest-markers and maps littered with icons to invest in doesn’t automatically equate to failure. Think back:Ghost of Tsushimafor example wasn’t afraid of a little doling out icons to its players and that game turned out alright, didn’t it? Likewise, it’s almost comical that one of the means of progression in a game like Breath of the Wild had you literally climb similarly tower-structured landmarks to unlock parts of the map. The point still stands though: just how reliant are Tango Gameworks on the conventions and formulae of AAA open-world structure to keep their players busy and occupied as opposed to intrigued with their surroundings.
If nothing else, Tango do at least offer promise with the visual styling and not just on the basis of how Ghostwire’s eery aesthetic is painted. More promisingly: how that applies to something like combat. Beyond just the flashy, multi-colored particle effects and occasionally-comical Kuji-kiri hand gestures required to fire projectiles and lasso foes alike. The best highlight in this department comes with how Ghostwire: Tokyo manages to visualize enemy health. Or in this case not visualize; deciding against potentially off-putting health bars or level markers and instead having that the more damage an enemy receives, the more visible that foe’s “core” is to being snatched up. Inflict enough and players can go in for the finishing blow. Mechanically, Ghostwire may not be doing anything particularly new outside of ammo-reliant projectile fire and close-quarters, first-person melee. But it’s visual indicators like this that do at least suggest Tango are acting smart with the screen-space put before you.
Smarter still with how the tone of the game can so quickly shift from unnerving to a touch comical in places. Take the small stores run by feline Yokai, for example. Where one can purchase any necessary inventory items all while that same upbeat musac of many a convenience store is playing in the background. Or an optional, game-wide secondary objective requiring you to gather up human spirits to then transfer them to public phone-boxes of all things. Stepping into any one phone-box and noticing the trickling of rain water sliding down the exterior of that tight, square-shaped space. Then there are the story-reliant missions that, in one instance, play with the geometry of the environment to have you navigating the floor of an apartment, only to then find one’s self walking on that respective apartment’s walls and ceilings. Drifting briefly into a place that’s no doubt a not of Earth locale. They’re not the most extravagant nor the most long-lasting of moments, but tally all these up and you may well have a game that at the very least isn’t afraid of being playful, maybe even self-aware, of its unusual paranormal circumstances.
Yet there’s something important to remember about all this though: Ghostwire: Tokyo is not a “humorous” game per se. In that if one were to slot the game on some hypothetical spectrum where serious and parody lie at either end, Tango are clearly aiming for an action-heavy venture with a tense, emotional story at its beating heart. Or at least are attempting one. Perhaps not as direct and as “taking its pitch as serious as it can do” as The Evil Within felt at unusual times, but one that continues that same measured balance of established gameplay roots and novel aesthetic. Even if that does mean relying on a few old tricks and go-to conventions that many a Western studio have implemented over the course of two generations of AAA open-world releases. A small consolation then is that Ghostwire: Tokyo’s biggest pull potentially is in its environment. Its deserted Tokyo streets and the unsettling paranormal influence taking told. A charm and quirk that so few games excel on, but one Ghostwire: Tokyo is at least admirably, but interestingly attempting to get right. To be completely alone in a city seemingly caught in freeze-frame – an unusual but curious prospect all the same.
