A brief review of Ghostwire: Tokyo

I recently finished playing Ghostwire: Tokyo. My personal rating is that it’s quite good and counts as a solid game, but at the same time, it’s also just “not bad” rather than being truly outstanding. Here are some aspects that left particularly deep impressions on me:

1. [Excellent] The visuals are incredibly impressive (many people have commented on this, and I completely agree).

2. [Excellent] Nearly all object textures are high-resolution, and the text on all street flyers and wall notices can be clearly read, not just done haphazardly. This level of detail is really hard to achieve! Many triple-A games that seem to be superior to it may not necessarily achieve this. Simply put, the texture work is super meticulous and thoughtful.

3. [Lacking] The urban scenes feel repetitive and can get a bit tiring to look at after a while (there is a rebuttal in the text below).

4. [Lacking] There is motorcycle riding in the opening video, and there is also a segment of riding through the scene near the end of the plot. The surroundings fly by quickly, but… the hair and clothes are motionless, which looks quite unnatural.

Regarding the third point mentioned above, I want to defend the game development team a bit. First, the feeling of high repetition is largely due to the inherent similarities in urban architecture and landscape. The situations in the game where it seems like object models are being reused out of laziness are actually quite rare! Many objects are very unique and are not seen again outside of certain specific scenes. The game’s art team truly deserves praise for their dedication and attention to detail, which are clearly evident.

Second, as someone who doesn’t have a strong emotional attachment to Tokyo, the in-game Tokyo can indeed feel “highly repetitive” to me. However, I absolutely believe that for “Tokyo travel enthusiasts” or even “Tokyo locals,” the experience would be completely different! The game development team has put in an immense amount of effort to recreate many famous Tokyo landmarks (you can refer to the video “Ghostwire Tokyo VS Reality | Real World Locations Comparison").

Similarly, Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 recreated the entire Washington, D.C., while Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered almost entirely recreated New York City. While playing these three games, I couldn’t help but imagine how much more “immersive” the experience would be for locals from Tokyo, Washington, and New York, and I felt a bit envious.

Regarding the fourth point, I’m not just saying it casually. In the motorcycle riding animation, the hair and clothes have no flowing movement at all, which really breaks my immersion! Especially when this scene appears in the game opening animation… When I first saw it, I really felt that “this animation was handled too carelessly” and it made me very hesitant about whether to play the game seriously (and even regret buying it at that moment). However, I still patiently finished playing through the game. Looking back after finishing it, I have to say that the game is really quite good, especially the artwork which is of a very high standard, and I’m glad that I had the patience to play through it so I didn’t miss out on this unique and high-quality work. It’s just… this motorcycle riding animation (there is another similar segment near the end of the game) is absolutely terrible and immersion-breaking.

Below I’ve attached the “game opening animation” for everyone to take a look. The motorcycle riding scene starts at around 0:33. You can see that the clothes have no flowing effect at all. Doesn’t it feel like the animation quality of a low-budget news program?