Ghost Of Tsushima: The Kotaku Review

Ghost of Tsushima is a game of compulsion. Like most open-world adventures, everything is designed to get you to explore what’s over the next hill or across that nearby river. The map is peppered with question marks, many of which surround towns and temples in which you meet allies and upgrade equipment. Helpful diversions like hot springs and fox dens have obvious environmental tells. The wind, a major contributor to the game’s overall aesthetic, literally guides you to objectives. But there’s a big difference between scouring a map to completion and actually having a good time, no matter how obsessive a person you may be.

[luckytrouble]

Honestly all, if you want a good review, just check out ACG's review on youtube. It's a really good look at where the game rises to the top or falls short in all design aspects, while highlighting what makes the open world of Ghost of Tsushima different from the rest of the open world games out there.

What I find dumb as a whole is that reviewers are picking this game, the final PS exclusive of the generation to say "open world fatigue" while they will surely sing the praises of Cyberpunk and Assassin's Creed this Fall, both of which will likely innovate less as a whole (mostly looking at Assassin's Creed).

If you're getting tired of open world games, fine, but I damn well better see equal criticism come down the way over the coming months. If not, the criticism here rings completely hollow.

[gameslayer2411]

I'm honestly excited about this game! Got it pre-loaded already and am ready to jump in come Thursday Night! I watched Arekkz spoiler-free review of the game, and it got me just that much more excited. Enjoy the game!

[luckytrouble]

I hope you like it!

[Zhipp]

We don't know whether assassin's Creed Valhalla will innovate or not. For all we know, they've revamped a lot of the stale Ubi open world design elements from previous games.

Actually, just going off the comments in some of those Valhalla videos, a lot of people are feeling open world fatigue, and have been for a while. Stale design and mechanics is a valid criticism. Not a deal breaker for me, because I haven't played enough open world games to be tired of it, but it's definitely something that should be pointed out.

Also Cyberpunk is a completely different genre, so I don't get how that plays into this discussion at all.

[luckytrouble]

Cyberpunk will be an open world game with an overarching story, side quests galore, and assuredly a bunch of random feeling side stuff just to help build the world. All fairly standard stuff for the open world skeleton Cyberpunk is using as a foundation.

If you read the review for this game, near the end is where it basically gets blasted simply for being an open world game. Not because of what it did with the open world. Just because it's an open world game. In that respect, Cyberpunk will fall right into the same very general bucket, as will Assassin's Creed. Innovations and actual gameplay be damned, they have the now apparent curse of being open world.

[Zhipp]

The big complaint I'm seeing with Ubisoft open worlds and Ghost of Tsushiama is the repetitive, barely fun, busywork that was put in just to fill the world with tasks to do. When you have multiple games from different developers all filling their worlds with the same empty content, it's more that tiring. It's exhausting. Open worlds in general have been stepping away from this "Ubisoft open world" design anyway, and with good reason.

Cyberpunk is a WRPG. The design goals for that world are not going to be the same as those for AssCreed, or GTA, or Zelda. I'm not convinced that there will be pointless busywork in that game (The Witcher 3 had some, but not anywhere near to the Ubi degree). If there is any, though, it'll be of a different nature to the way Ubisoft, and apparently Suckerpunch, handle it, because most of their side content will be narrative in nature.

Also I didn't read this review. I did read Polygon's though. Even so, I think you're misinterpreting when you say they just don't like it because it's open world. If that were the case, they would not have reviewed games like The Witcher 3, RDR, BOTW, and Horizon highly. Instead of assuming that they're massive hypocrites, or on some kind of crusade against Sony, maybe you should look at the things those games did differently to set themselves apart.

[Phantom68]

If you want a good review write one yourself. It is good for you. Reviews are personal opinion and are far from being truly objective

[luckytrouble]

Reviews should be primarily objective, colored by subjective interpretations of the objective information. Open world fatigue is a bad criticism for the fact that it is 100% a flaw of the reviewer's lack of diversity in content consumption rather than the game itself. The only objective fact is that the game is open world, and calling it bad for that alone is doing nothing to actually analyze the game itself.

[Einhander1971]

This game looks fantastic, but not a big fan of open world. Aimlessly wondering around Bores the crap out of me.

[DrDeath]

Sometimes for sure it does.

Gotta be in the right mindset thats all.

[King_Noctis]

I’m a big fan of open world game, but even I starting to get bored of it. We can thank companies like Ubisoft for causing this “open world fatigue” issue though.

But at least Ghost of Tsushima is set in an era that not alot of AAA games explore, and I think that is a breathe of fresh air in the open world genre.

[fonger08]

So it’s a 8-9ish game, about on par with what Suckerpunch usually delivers. Can’t wait to get this though.

[dumahim]

55+ hours to fully complete.