GameTech: Ghosts of Tsushima offers a promising samurai adventure

Ghosts of Tsushima.

Ghosts of Tsushima is the first offering in five years from Sucker Punch Productions, who made the anti-hero inFamous series and the excellent Sly Cooper platform games.

This time around, they have chosen ancient Japan for their setting, as you play the samurai Jin Sakai (we’re more familiar with gin and sake) during the Mongol invasion of the 1270s.

Although Ghosts of Tsushima will release in less than two months, we only just got our first real look at the gameplay. It very clearly follows the mould of Ubisoft open-world games, with Jin roaming around a large island, clearing Mongol outposts, finding new armour, gathering materials and unlocking new skills.

In fact, if Ubisoft were considering ancient Japan for their next Assassin’s Creed game, Ghosts may have gotten there first.

While the open-world template seems somewhat bland, there were a few touches that give us hope Ghosts could be something special. Chief among those is the way the player is guided to points of interest around the world.

While most open-world games use markers or HUD displays, Ghosts of Tsushima will use the wind and animals to guide you. As Jin roams around the island on foot or horseback, he can call the wind to ‘blow’ in the direction of points of interest.

The gameplay demonstration also showed birds guiding Jin to secrets and foxes leading him to treasure.

The commitment to immersion doesn’t seem to stop there. Jin has three different stances he can use to fight enemies, with the emphasis very much on typical samurai combat from classic cinema.

In one stance, we saw Jin slice down enemies in one precise sword swing, while in another he attacks in a flurry of beautiful swirling arcs. Jin will also use stealth to sneak into enemy Mongol camps and take them down in silence.

As an island, Tsushima seems very beautiful, but a little too heavy on certain stylistic choices, such as grass that sways a little too much, and bright flowers that seems a little too idealistic.

In saying that, this is certainly a better choice than realism and there’s only so much variety an ancient Japanese island can provide.

Therein lies our biggest concern with Ghosts of Tsuhima. It’s shaping up to be a fantastic tribute to old-school samurai cinema (there’s even a black and white mode), but hopefully there's enough unique gameplay to make it rise above the pack.

PGA TOUR

Meanwhile, long grass might benefit samurai, but it won’t do your golf game much good.

Although we are now allowed to play golf in real life again, many of us are still too lazy to do so.

The perfect alternative might be PGA Tour 2K21, which is due for release on August 21 on PC and consoles.

There are 15 real-world PGA courses in the game, but players will also be able to create their own courses, which should make for endless replayability.

Online play will allow people to group together into societies and have season-long tournaments, while many of the top brands like Adidas and Polo Ralph Lauren will be featured in the game. Pitch and putt this one on your list.

UNREAL ENGINE

Finally, from long grass to the barren desert. Unreal Engine 5 was revealed recently, showcasing its capabilities with a short ‘game’ demo set in a desert ruin.

The game, which played like Tomb Raider, showcased some of the most realistic environmental graphics ever seen, and was running on a PlayStation 5.

Although fully playable games may take a number of years to reach this level of fidelity, it was an exciting glimpse into the future of gaming and digital worlds.

Let’s hope the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X live up to that level of promise when they release later this year.