The essence of the Ghostwire Tokyo experience can be easily summarised in one word: Satisfying. Players who have watched any of the gameplay trailers will already have some idea of the Doctor Strange-esque style of combat they’ll be getting themselves into, but the DualSense controller and PlayStation 5 once again prove the platform’s power with particle effects, pretty places and peerless play.

You play as Akito, a young Japanese man who is very down on his luck when the game begins: he is involved in a road traffic accident and dies instantly. Possessed by a mysterious spirit who introduces themselves as KK, the duo must traverse a haunting interpretation of downtown Tokyo that has been consumed by a nefarious fog, making all its residents vanish. In their place, nightmarish apparitions wander the streets and back alleys, appearing human from a distance but quickly shaking this illusion should you venture too close.

Headless schoolgirls, eyeless businessmen and many other ghastly ghosts will attack you given the whiff of an opportunity, but with KK’s help you are fortunately far from defenceless. Lending Akito his powers, KK allows you to fire multiple types of projectiles to fend off would-be assailants. Elemental powers, traps and a bow are just the beginning of the combat options available early in the game, and when bolstered by a summonable shield and the ability to absorb weakened enemies, it becomes clear that Akito might be one of the most dangerous dead men in the city.

A playable area is established with the aforementioned fog forming an impenetrable wall you must navigate around, whilst forcing the fog to retreat by liberating districts as you explore. This is achieved by defeating all the enemies surrounding Torii gates scattered throughout the map, before purging the gate itself of dark power, causing the fog to retreat several blocks in all directions.

Japanese folklore plays a key role in the world of Ghostwire Tokyo, and one of the most memorable occasions I had of this was in an early side mission where I had to distract a kappa with a cucumber in order to sneak up and absorb it. I was also transfixed during one of the moments I ventured close to an intersection half walled off by fog, and witnessed a parade of ghostly shadow creatures from child size monsters to giant cat demons march in unison down one of the streets.

A design choice which I became hopelessly enamoured with the first time I noticed it was how each water droplet in rain is actually a character of the Japanese alphabet. You have to pause the game or enter photo mode to get the best look at this, though occasionally you will catch the odd symbol falling through your peripheral vision. It’s so simple yet to me was such an original and interesting idea that it has become one of the first things I bring up when discussing the game.

Ghostwire Tokyo has proved to be adept in its pacing, world design and combat variation. It almost feels like it could sense when the first tendrils of boredom were creeping into my mind as it would often throw me a new power, enemy type or interesting character to interact with. This meant that any downtime the game had was always short-lived, almost to the point it felt as if it was being apologised for.

There are some moments which do warrant an apology, as the game bold-facedly repeats mistakes other games of the same ilk have been making for years. By randomly taking KK and his powers away from Akito, it thrusts him into a stealth-focussed section for a time. I wouldn’t have minded this so much if it was only brief, but it went on for way too long. It did inject a welcome level of tension into a game I had been dominating until that point, but after I passed the fifteen-minute mark the concept swiftly grew stale.

I also struggled at the start with some of the directed analogue stick controls for one of the artificial play time extensions, learning eventually that the game didn’t seem interested in the precise directions I would input. Frantic stick rattling often seemed to do the trick. My DualSense is just a month old so that is definitely not the source of the problem.

As I mentioned at the beginning, the component of gameplay which Ghostwire Tokyo absolutely nails is the constant feeling of satisfaction. Brief spells where little seems to be happening are shattered by banter between Akito and KK, and the way almost every step through Tokyo feels like you are working towards an imminent reward kept me playing for hours to the point I wondered where the time had gone. The city is packed with things to find and collect, and the rapid fast travel accessible from the map screen negates the risk of long treks across well-travelled routes.

There are a couple of sections which enforce an arbitrary time limit for you to complete certain objectives: a gameplay mechanic I have always hated. Ghostwire Tokyo has prepared for players like me who carry this mindset by including the means to disable the timer, available without exhaustive searching through the options menu. As you might expect, I robustly approve of its inclusion and have never looked back since activating it immediately.

As with most games releasing on current gen nowadays, players can choose whether they want the graphics to be prioritised for their experience or if they’d rather have a higher frame rate. I exclusively used the fidelity graphics setting but can confirm that if you prefer a higher frame rate, performance mode is included in the game at launch. I do believe that first person games benefit strongly from more frames per second, but the neon glow of Tokyo and the detail on city streets is worth the trade-off for a 30fps cap.

Hot on the heels of Horizon Forbidden West and Elden Ring, Ghostwire Tokyo is yet another serious contender for my game of 2022, and as we’re barely a quarter of the way through the year it is evident that 2022 is going to prove a difficult one to write Game of the Year lists for, come December.

Following the bulk of instances with this experience where I encountered something I didn’t like, the game seemed to bolt upright and pacify me with a new weapon or beautiful location to explore. The mild horror atmosphere kept me on my toes constantly, as I never knew when I might turn a corner and be jumped by a gang of headless kids who have decided they want me dead. I would like more care to have been taken with the distant graphical design as some backgrounds didn’t quite ‘pop’ as much as I know games are capable of doing now, but that and my other gripes I have aside, I can confidently score Ghostwire Tokyo

9 / 10

Guest edited by Catherine.

Game code provided by publisher.