Ghost of Tsushima is now out, and you may be wondering if it's worth picking up Sucker Punch's samurai story on PS4. As a Sony-backed studio, it's exclusive to the PlayStation platform, and comes with the usual level of detail and money thrown at gorgeous visuals and art.
Tsushima is the first game for the studio since PS4 launch title Infamous: Second Son, which had plenty of pretty lights and reflections to show off the new console. But now, at the end of its lifecycle, how have they squeezed every ounce of power out of the PS4 for a beautiful swan song of the generation?
The story of Ghost of Tsushima follows a disgraced samurai Jin Sakai, who has failed to prevent the Mongol invasion of the island of Tshushima at the end of the 13th Century. You must drive off the occupying army using more stealthy techniques than the samura are used to, adapting to subterfuge and assassinations as well as running in gung-ho with your katana.
We've rounded up all the current review scores for Ghost of Tsushima, so you can see if it's worth getting, and pulled a few excerpts from unscored reviews so you can get a feel for what the scores mean. Here's what the critics thought of Ghost of Tsushima.
Ghost of Tsushima reviews roundup
As you can see, there's a wide range of scores in here. The general consensus is that this is a game very much like the Assassin's Creed series, with a good story but lacking some depth to push it into the hall of fame. You'd have a pretty good time with it if you've been waiting decades for Ubisoft to make an Assassin's Creed set in Edo-era Japan.
Scored reviews:
- Game Informer – 9.5/10
- Destructoid – 9.5/10
- Shacknews – 9/10
- IGN – 9/10
- GamesRadar – 9/10
- Easy Allies – 8.5
- Press Start – 8.5
- Videogamer – 8/10
- The Sixth Axis – 8/10
- Trusted Reviews – 4/5
- USGamer – 4/5
- NME – 4/5
- Jeuxvideo – 7.5/10
- Everyeye.it – 7.5/10
- GameSpot – 7/10
- The Guardian – 3/5
- VGC – 3/5
- VG247 – 3/5
Unscored reviews:
Eurogamer – No badge
"Going back to Ghost of Tsushima's roots, as an American game inspired by the comics and the movies of Japan, in a way it's quite apt. It's what happens when you want to pay homage, but don't want to add anything new of your own. It's Hollywood."
"Ghost of Tsushima has a distinctive aesthetic, after all, but it’s only skin-deep. The core game underneath that alluring exterior is a pastiche of open-world game design standards from five years ago; it lacks a real personality of its own."
"After a string of creative and daring hits, including Death Stranding, The Last of Us Part II, and Final Fantasy VII Remake, Ghost of Tsushima is something of a letdown. We’ve also seen that it’s entirely possible to take the well-worn open-world structure and twist it in some way to keep it fresh, whether that’s Horizon Zero Dawn’s imaginative setting or Spider-Man’s web-slinging, but Ghost plays things too safe...Ghost of Tsushima just doesn’t dig far enough into what makes it unique. It’s big and beautiful — but you have to have the patience of a samurai to discover what makes it special."
Ars Technica – Approved
"If you need to get lost in over 30 hours of heroic gameplay right now, in a single-player adventure with no online connectivity gimmicks or content locked away as DLC, Sucker Punch has you covered with an instant contender for 2020's game of the year."
"Ghost of Tsushima is pretty as heck – sporadic capturing left me with almost 50 GB worth of screenshots and short video clips to sift through – but at its core, it’s just another open-world game. I found myself audibly sighing every time I crested a hill towards a mystery objective only to find another fox to follow or another haiku to compose. These diversions, while unique at first glance, proved to just be busy work as time wore on."
"Look past its old-timey foibles and Ghost Of Tsushima absolutely has its merits. It’s the prettiest seven-out-of-ten we’ve ever played, with a world that begs to be seen and explored, despite never providing the reasons to make that exploration and time feel entirely rewarded. While the technical and artistic achievements on show here are undoubtedly high notes for the end of the PS4’s life, the mechanical underpinnings that bring this world’s missions and story to life could’ve been lifted wholesale from generations past."
What do you think of the Ghost of Tsushima review scores? Sound like a game that you want to play yourself?
