Ghost of Tsushima (PS4) Review | VGChartz

VGChartz's Paul Broussard: "But is it worth your money? That will probably depend on how much the issues I’ve described bother you. Ghost is a game that has a sizable amount of content, but much of it lacks depth or substance. If that isn’t a deal breaker, and you’re intrigued by the prospect of a title that comes as close as video games can to capturing the feel of feudal Japan, then Ghost is probably a solid buy. However, if you’re looking for thoughtfully crafted, fleshed out stealth or combat, I’d advise searching elsewhere, because like a ghost, neither can be found."

[Findingcrybabies]

I might not agree, but I respect their opinion. I went to the site expecting to see them give Last of Us 2 a 115 out of 10, they gave it a 7. Different strokes and all that I would give Tsushima a 9, but I haven't completed it yet either so that may change. He is right about the AI being really bad.

[laserap]

This same guy rated Dark Souls a 5/10.

This guy seems to be extremely harsh with his reviews. He's an outlier

[badz149]

or just a TROLL

[Unspoken]

Is this yet another PlayStation game that looks great on the cover, but when you play the game it's a shallow card board cut out? What is it with the trend of polishing garbage and selling it on the PlayStation platform as gold? Games aren't what they used to be for sure.

[cell989]

He shouldn’t be reviewing genres that he doesn’t like

[hulk_bash1987]

He must hate fun and challenge. Lol. In all seriousness, this game was amazing. It was almost everything i wanted it to be. Sucker Punch created one of the most vibrant and atmospheric open worlds ive played in a long time. And the combat is engaging, the stealth is a bit too easy imo. But overall its just plain fun to play.

[Machina]

He gave the Dark Souls Remaster 5, which isn't quite the same thing as saying he gave (the original) Dark Souls 5.

But yes he's a harsh reviewer; we're a tough outlet in general, we've always had a stringent scoring system and take on writers who have that same outlook.

[TheKingKratos]

What The last of us 2 have any thing to do with this game ??

Stop trolling as much as i love Ghost and it is a badass game ... Goty is locked for TLOU2 and it will win many sites game of the gen as well

[Stanjara]

Dream buddy.
GOTY is Cyberpunk.
LBT2U will take graphics, and performance for Joel.

[OB1Biker]

Nah I dont respect that sort of review. Not professional. Game isnt broken or straight bad.

[InUrFoxHole]

Lol the game isn't that good. You might like it and thats cool but its really just meh

[RgR]

@InurFoxhole

Lol the game is amazing. You might not like it and that's cool but it's really just incredible.

[NecrumOddBoy]

5/10? Come the f*ck on.

[morganfell]

You do not know the history of that site do you? A decade of lying about sales trying to prop up Microsoft. And regarding comments in this thread like below, anyone with a history of screaming in support of Nintendo and saying Paper Mario is better than anything coming out for PS5/Xbox Series for a year is NOT playing GOT.

[timotim]

Got to make it about Microsoft even when they have nothing to do with it...🤷🏾‍♂️

[morganfell]

No, I am making it about vgchartz. And it bears directly on that site and the issue at hand.

[King_Noctis]

VGchartz’s data is never accurate. If you want to call them out for MS’s sale numbers, you should do that as well for Nintendo and Sony.

[neutralgamer1992]

Tim

No that's a fact this site is run by a pro Xbox fanboy who for over a decade reported wrong numbers to make ms look good

If you have been long enough than u would know it. Xbox fanboys use to love this site during Xbox 360 days. So yes Morgan is right it's hard to trust a site like this when their past history is so shaddy and now with a review like this

They gave crackdown 3 same score so I guess crackdown 3 is same quality game as ghost

And than people like u wonder why people don't take this site serious

[morganfell]

"VGchartz’s data is never accurate. If you want to call them out for MS’s sale numbers, you should do that as well for Nintendo and Sony."

Where am I not doing that? They over reported 360 numbers and under-reported PS3 numbers. Its why they were banned from being referenced on numerous sites at that time.

[timotim]

@Neutral

No...they are a site that simply reports wrong numbers PERIOD. Not just for Microsoft, for ALL.

[OMNlPOTENT]

While I do agree that a 5/10 seems low for this game (haven’t played yet but seems about an 8 from most people), the Paper Mario comparison is weak. Some people legitimately prefer more light hearted adventures and would prefer it over anything coming out for either console. Reviews are opinions, and he probably just has a very unpopular opinion.

[coolbeans]

Sorry for the late response, but I think it's worthwhile now that I recalled this one. You're just using a red herring. Bringing up some fudged sales numbers (that've tipped too low AND too high for all consoles over the course of its history) doesn't really mean much for a guy who joined the writing staff for reviews & opinion articles in 2018.

You're building this manufactured dilemma of how bad sales numbers (from different writers) somehow poisons the rest of said content, rather than evaluating it on its own terms. Considering the other times I've maintained correspondence with you, it seems like a typical card you play. "Nope, nope...you're bias already...don't care...bye now!" It doesn't do you any good.

[SyntheticForm]

Agreed.

This game is checklisty and formulaic, I'll admit, but it's damn fun, beautiful, and stylized brilliantly. I love the calligraphy, the narration of the tales, and the art shown in said tales. I enjoy the combat very much, and I really hope Sucker Punch continue with this because I'd love a sequel on PS5.

This game is great, and imo, deserves no less than an 8.

[East76lands]

Mmmm, even being as harsh as I can on certain aspects of this game which is certainly not perfect I find it very hard to fathom giving it a 5/10 score, in fact I'm close to being perplexed lol.

[Seraphim]

that's my thinking. "Come the f**k on." any reasonable and logical person would likely score it, at the very F'n least, a 7 imho. Personally I'm thoroughly enjoying it but will admit the game is lacking. And where it's lacking is why I say, based off it's own merits, any reasonable and logical person would likely score it a 7 at the lowest. The game is well polished, fun, has an incredible world, etc, etc.

Another comment mentioned this same guy gave Dark Souls a 5/10. At least that had technical hiccups in the original but still... Maybe he's in the wrong industry or doesn't like these games. If the latter is the case he has no business reviewing games. You take the game for it's merits. But I digress, that's often been the issue with gaming journalism for decades. They aren't objective, they view themselves as critics instead of reviewers, they are sometimes incredibly biased, and so on and so forth. If I'm reviewing a genre I dislike I'll give the game credit where it's due regardless of my opinion. A user review is an opinion. A journalists review should be objective and unbiased basing the review, content of and score solely on the merits of the game. Unfortunately we'll never see that and it's one reason I don't consider reviews when deciding whether or not to buy a game. 2 cents.

I remember a day when 5/10 was reserved that were broken and buggy. Now solid-great games get scores like this or less tossed at them on the regular. It's truly sad.

[spwittbold]

I'm someone who is a huge fan of Samurai/Ninja genre video-games and while I'm enjoying it, the game certainly suffers from "Open-World" syndrome making the quests/game feel frankly, a bit stiff in the story and combat department. It's a "good game," but definitely isn't for everyone and it does not deserve a 10/10 from anyone. As much as I enjoy it I'd still only rate it a 7 or 8 out of 10. I'd reserve 9s for "must play" games, and I could by no means recommend this to everyone. It feels alot like Zelda: Breath of the Wild but it's sad when a Switch game feels "smoother," to play than a PS4 game.

[Masterchief_thegoat]

Metacritic user
got 93
The Last of us 2 55. Man this is some trolling bs lol. even though I don’t agree with user reviews of tlou2. Got is the highest user review for ps exclusive

[coolbeans]

1.) Appeal to majority is a fallacious argument.
2.) Appeal to metacritic user majority is stupid in a special way.

[Masterchief_thegoat]

The key word is not agreeing with user review On that site. Got is the highest User reviewer for ps. Which btw, I like got more than the last of us 2

[coolbeans]

You're just restating your first comment with a different veneer. The point still stands: your whole comment consists of challenging what this reviewer has argued with "GoT's metacritic user rating disagrees." You're building the point up based on a fallacy than an actual counter-argument.

[RgR]

When you go to buy a car would you trust user reviews of that car from a different site or not?

I sure as hell would. Same for any product. The mainstream site can give a game crap or praise. But if the user reviews tell a different story then I would most certainly watch out. The user reviews is its own counter argument.

Or did you expect him to write an essay counter arguing the review?

[coolbeans]

@RgR

When considering the user reviews of said site have no validation as to who has or hasn't even driven the car? I'm tempted to treat them with ambivalence. Just look at Masterchief_thegoat's TLOU2 comparison. Hundreds/Thousands of users decided to review-bomb it.

You're misapplying an otherwise fine point for this argument. I'm not saying you can't feel which way the wind's blowing in general sentiment for a game; you're just being disingenuous if you're invalidating a different opinion with appeal to majority.

How about just settling for, you know, challenging the review's text with your own points? A radical suggestion, apparently!

[talocaca]

5?

I love how ridiculous some websites are. You go to check their reviews and see that they gave Sponge Bob a 6.

Click bait at its finest. Did you guys even know that vgchartz was even reviewing titles now? None of us would've clicked if they had given the game and 8+ score.

[coolbeans]

-"You go to check their reviews and see that they gave Sponge Bob a 6."

Claiming the review is ridiculous then comparing its score to a $30 remaster is peak N4G commenting.

[Knushwood Butt]

Do you work for VGchartz?

https://n4g.com/news/235732...

[coolbeans]

@Knushwood

I do freelance writing for VGChartz & a couple other sites. Christopher & co. does know about it, and I have to follow a few special rules b/c of it.

[To keep this focused on the review, I'd like to leave it at that.]

[Knushwood Butt]

@ coolbeans

That clears things up.

[Machina]

We've been reviewing games for over 12 years, it's hardly a new thing, and we've always had one of the tougher scoring systems (on OpenCritic for example we have one of the lowest average scores). If you read the text of the review you'll see it matches a 5 under the scoring system we use.

[Christopher]

***I love how ridiculous some websites are. You go to check their reviews and see that they gave Sponge Bob a 6.***

Different authors.

***Click bait at its finest.***

I think it's just an off review, IMHO. Whatever reason the reviewer disliked it, it just doesn't add up to what I experience or even to what is offered in the game. That doesn't mean all their reviews are bad or that others on VGChartz are bad or the like.

I have issues with how some people review games, but that's aimed at individuals and not just a site in general. We should do well to remember that.

And, let's be honest, VGChartz isn't getting their traffic from reviews. They tend to post reviews long after the initial run and only get recognized when the one-off review of a high profile game falls outside the norm. And that's not that often.

[Spicyram]

Holy shit there is no fing way this game is a 5/10

[sagapo]

Gamescores are personal. Just because the reviewer gives GOT a 5/10, doens’t mean you have to, right?

[Bathyj]

Haha. No.

It's funny how this game gets blamed for every open world trope that exists. I'll tell you this, Valhalla looks terrible in comparison to this game in every way. I bet tropes and open world fatigue never come up when it gets reviewed.

[fonger08]

Why? I’m enjoying GoT a lot but the direct comparisons to Assassins Creed are fairly obvious. Valhalla looks fun in its own right. GoT is a good game, but it doesn’t exactly expand upon the open world genre

[UnSelf]

I’ve seen Valhalla and I’ve seen GoT. If GoT is bad Valhalla is disgusting. That melee combat is puke Inducing

[Bathyj]

And why does it have to? That's my point. It doesn't have to reinvent the wheel, it just needs to be high quality and fun which you said yourself it is.

I'm saying Assassin's Creed won't get this kind of criticisms for not advancing the genre. That's a whole series based on simply rehashing what it's done before and frankly the combat, graphics, facial animations are just not if the same level as this.

And isn't that made by a team of like 700 people or something? You look at the cut scenes in ACV and it's like it's from a different generation.

[FunAndGun]

Well when gamers give praise to turning an arrow into wind like it's the most innovative thing in GoT...what else is there but all the open world tropes?

[fonger08]

There's nothing "inventive" about GoT. But again it doesn't need to be. I get that people can get open world fatigue, the designs are, for most the same. Personally I like them, I like the ability to explore, conquer, and upgrade stuff. Honestly a good story in open world games is something I rarely notice as when there becomes so much to do, the core narrative can get lost.

I just don't why people want this game to be considered a best of gen or GOTY so badly. It's a good game, but it does have it's technical issues, and your typical Assassin's Creed/Farcry open world troupes, but personally I have yet to grow tired of that formula.

[ziggurcat]

"I get that people can get open world fatigue, the designs are, for most the same."

The problem with that reasoning is that there are other open world games (even ones in the last few years) that don't get criticized in a "been there, done that" manner in terms of open world gameplay. Until all open world games get slammed with the same "fatigue" argument, I don't think it can be used as a valid criticism because it's being used to critique a game for being the type of game it was designed to be. No one criticizes a fighting game just because it's a fighting game, for example. No one criticizes a FPS for being a FPS.

[monochromer]

Don't give this shitty site or idiot journalist your clicks. Game quality is largely subjective, but this game is objectively not a 5.

[spwittbold]

I agree with your comment, but it also is not "objectively" a 10 either. 9 at best, 7 at worst.

[monochromer]

Right. Agreed

[fonger08]

I still for the life of me don’t understand why VGChartz makes it on this site if only to reference PS sales to adhere to some of the rampant fanboyism here that even the head of this site had to call out. But I digress.

GoT is in my IMO so far not a 5. Does it have its own issues, yes. Does it expand upon the open world genre, no, but do we need it to, to be fun? I love open world games, Sony’s formula for them this gen has been great this gen, HZD being easily my favorite among them. And GoT, following their consistent open world formula has been fun to play, I’d like another historical take from Sucker Punch again maybe next gen.

[_dangerclose_]

Apparently when a fanboy masquerading as a "game journalist" wants to crap on a game but has nothing viable or worthy of criticism they just throw out the old "it lacks depth or substance" tag as the easy go to. In fact if anything is lacking in depth and substance its this review.

[mkis007]

I don't get why people review genres they dont like.

[_LarZen_]

Anything below 7/10 is a joke and not worth reading.

[FlavorLav01]

Wow, someone really doesn’t care for PlayStation to give this a 5. While not a flawless game, I couldn’t disagree further with overall assessment of quality of content here.

[Giblet_Head]

I'm enjoying it, and I'm a pretty hard sell. My only gripe is sometimes pressing dodge doesn't register. Not sure if it's a bug or something, but it's a rare inconvenience.

[DrDeath]

Never hasnt dodged for me. Maybe controller is dying?

[ziggurcat]

It's the perfect parry for me that doesn't register most times. And I even have the charm to better your chances.

[JEECE]

Look at me guys!

[FunAndGun]

...and you looked...

[DrDeath]

No we didnt click lol

[Chexs1990]

I'm enjoying the game.
Coming from an AC: Odyssey completion run, I can definitely feel the open world fatigue, but the game is beautiful and the combat is fun as hell.

I'd prolly give it an 8, good game but not necessarily a must play.

For the AI I just set the difficulty to Hard, that improves the reactionary play a bit.

The combat itself is like a Nioh/Sekiro combo, with a degree of casual thrown in.

[vw1303]

Common a 5. A 7 I can understand. A five is a disaster of game. This is trolling and clear BS

[LoveSpuds]

I am sorry, there is absolutely no way this game is a 5/10, that is utter bollocks.

I appreciate people have differing tastes, but that shouldn't prevent you from being objective in your review. There are so many fantastic qualities to the game that even if, for example, you didn't like the story telling, it wouldn't result in this low a score.

The thing I have noticed is that almost every reviewer states the game is 30 hours or so long, they must me rushing through to hit that timescale because I have about 45 hours and am just finishing Act 2.

[DrDeath]

Ya its easily a 50 hour game

[OB1Biker]

LOL that's got to be a joke right?

[Mr Marvel]

On what planet is this masterpiece a 5/10!?
100% horsesh*t!
They’re obviously just trolling for clicks.

[NewEnds0186]

Giving this game a five would be saying it is average and that is something I do not agree with.

Ghost is not perfect and is at an 8 so far for me and I'm in act 3 in the last area.

I think ghost is better then Tlou. The graphics are the only thing that tlou beats ghost in IMO.

I have to disagree with this review.

[sampsonon]

No way this game is a 5/10
And this won't stop the Halo memes.
You must be really upset :) Bet you give that game at least a 8/10

[DrShoe]

Paul Broussard writes at the level of a grade 4er.

[chiefJohn117]

Game getting a lot of mixed reviews I gotta play it myself cause I don't see what would be bad about it. The review does explain it more. Gameplay lacks depth. I wasn't expecting an advance combat and stealth system. I expected AC level gameplay nothing more. I think the lower scores had higher expectations of the game. It's no masterpiece but it doesn't have to be all we wanted it to be is what we wanted from AC a japanese setting and we got it.

[TKCMuzzer]

It’s better than Assasins Creed, has more depth than Assasins Creed, is way less buggy than Assasins Creed, is far more polished than Assasins Creed, has better graphics than Assasins Creed.
5/10 is not acceptable, the game does open world a lot better than most and should not be marked down because ‘other games have done this’ .
Every game should be judged by its own merit. I don’t mind my games doing what other games do as long as they do it well. For some reason Sony AAA games have to reinvent the wheel whilst other publishers seem to get a free ride on churning out the same crap (looking at you EA, Activision, Ubisoft and that Italian plumber).
Ghosts has been in development for years and it shows due to the quality, why should it suffer in comparison to poorly released titles that have oversaturated the open world genre whilst its been in production?
If this game had been released 4 years ago it would be 9’s across the board, why should time rob it of those extra points?
the issue is I’m a gamer and only buy games i want, i have only bought open world games i want to play, so I’m not bored of the genre. A game reviewer who may get code sent them will have played every open world going so their outlook is different.
Again, this shows why game reviewers are not representative of gamers.

[Final_Aeon]

I understand not everyone is gonna give it a 9 or a 10, but going under 7, let alone a 5, is at the very least weird. Even if it's not your genre, a vg journalist should be able to objectively review something, right? Or am I overestimating journo integrity?

[waverider]

This isnt a review. Is just trash. Everybody got trash. Approving this is just sad. Anybody that played the game knows its one of the best of the gen. Just the animation are so so much better then another game that cost 500 millions.....

[GoodGuy09]

Oof. No...just no. One of the best open worlds Ive played in a long time. Sure not on par or better than other franchises in some departments but come on, play this game as its own thing. Its does have that typical open world and stealth repetitiveness but its one of the better Ive played. The game at least deserves more than a 5 lol.

[DrDeath]

The ai is bad when your stealthing around or you run away and hide. Sure.

But majority of peoples time will be sword fighting and the ai is fine in that regard. It can be tough. Also samurai fights are very hard and frustrating (fun as well).

Ai is fine and anyone who claims this game is less than an 8 is not reputable imo. I rate is a very solid 9.

Im enjoying just as much or more than last of us 2 gameplay

[Binarycode]

Regardless if whether or not it's your type of game. It's not a 5/10.

A 5 would mean the game does not function as advertised, has massive graphical issues, has massive framerate problems and a story that makes no sense.

It has none of those problems. So there's no way it can be a 5.

[Redlife2g]

Normally when I read a review I respect the reviewers opinion and judge the game on my own... But this guy... He's so wrong.. 5?? 😂😭

[TheEroica]

It's 2020 and the butthurt caused by someone's opinion is still alive and well in the video game world. Pathetic.

The game is average if you enjoy PLAYING video games

[Thomaticus]

I don care if they score it 0 out of 10. I’m enjoying the game.

[ziggurcat]

"On top of this, the game has a nasty habit of throwing boss fights in locations with no easy opportunities for healing, so if you happen to use up most of your health restores getting through a segment and then a boss gets sprung on you, you can be in for a real rough time taking on a fight with 20% or so of your health and no opportunity to restore it before retrying without aborting the mission altogether."

Oh good, another "I'm bad at games, so this game is bad" review. There's a charm that restores your health while you're not in combat, and bosses don't get "sprung" on you so you can wait a few minutes to have your health fill all the way up before going any further (you can also pause, and restart the checkpoint - it starts you back with full health). Also, there are charms that give you gains in resolve/health by killing/parrying, etc... so you can easily maintain those things if you're using the available tactics properly during combat instead of button mashing or equipping charms that don't do anything to affect health/resolve.

The one thing I would agree with are some of the complaints about the camera, but mostly because if something gets in front of it, it completely blocks your view, and I absolutely hate that. No lock on was annoying at first, but you get used to it, and you can turtle/circle around a bit if enemies get out of view, then rotate the camera to have everyone in front of you.

I also wish that there was some sort of loadout option to quickly switch between gear/outfits.

[Christopher]

I don't get this complaint either since boss fights, aka duels, restart from the duel and not the area tied to it, if you die. And you restart those with full health.

If he means camp leaders... That's just him playing the game poorly. After the first camp clear, you know what to expect.

[Specter229]

Lmao and this is why I dont rely on reviews.

[TheCaptainKuchiki]

Vgchartz does reviews now??

[GrizToof]

Not everyone is gonna like the same games you like. Im still trying to master Ghost of Tsushima's combat, i love the stories and the scenery keeps me glued to the television. Also I really like customizing the look of my character which is rare for me in a single player game. So far I'd give it an 8 out of 10 for sure. One thing negative you could say is that for all the content in the game they could have added things like games you can play in the towns, fishing, etc. A lot of the stuff you do seems to be just about combat and there is no other optional ways to enjoy the game.

[PrinterMan]

5 out of 10? Sattire.

[roadkillers]

Cry about it. What does the review of the game have to do with your purchase investment. Play the game, enjoy it, and get over it. Someone doesn’t like a game, who cares?

We need more gaming news because this is rediculous. Back in the day, there were less reviews and less people complaining about them. Now we have everyone and a car reviewing games. As far as we know, the person reviewing like FPS..

[Germaximus]

Anything less than 7 is an automatic "moron."

[Christopher]

I have no clue what this author's opinion is on thoughtfully crafted and fleshed out elements of gameplay, but based on this metric they've definitely been way too harsh when most games that utilize stealth alongside other gameplay elements have way less and other combat focused games have way less.

It's more fleshed out in both respects than other games that combine them. It's even more fleshed out in combat than many games that focus on just that as those games tend to utilize weapons as the focus rather than stances, staggering, and stand offs, let alone the plethora of ghost skills.

[PLAYWATCH76]

LOL 5/10? I mean come on! What's Assassin's Creed's score 4/10 by this guy's standard? Many people are playing GOT right now and they know how good it is. Opinions might vary some but hardly anyone is giving this game 5/10.

[QuePasa87]

gtfoh

[jakseth]

He is totally entitled to his opinion but I feel sad for him not been able to enjoy this game. GOT is perfectible but still a 10/10 easily for me because of the incredible quality of pleasure it gives me. hands down the best game I have played the last couple of years.

[Passerotto]

Naaa, play the game, first.

[SurvivorGirl]

Yeah this doesn't surprise me I kinda felt this game was going to be kinda MEH from the trailers and videos I'd seen.