Ghostwire Tokyo Review: Gameplay Impressions, Videos and Speedrunning Tips

Ghostwire: Tokyo managed to keep a spectral, secretive nature around its supernatural first-person adventure right up until its anticipated release.

From developer Tango Gameworks, known for sleeper horror hits like The Evil Within series, Ghostwire: Tokyo tackles a supernatural event in Tokyo, with the Ghostbusters slant to the story and first-person experience giving players probably the closest thing they will get to Marvel's Doctor Strange in video game format.

Thanks to one of the most beautifully rendered, immersive and downright spooky worlds we've seen in a game to date, plus an experience that keeps surprising throughout a lengthy tale, Ghostwire is one of the sleeper hits of the generation for Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5 and PC.

Graphics and Gameplay

Ghostwire takes players on a journey through an extremely detailed, ghastly version of Tokyo.

A red moon hangs over a city that continues to run as if its citizens were going about their normal lives. Stores are lit up, music plays and the city, at least from a distance, looks to be having a routine night.

But humans have left behind their bundles of clothing and items like bags all around the city. Animals, however, are scattered about, contributing to a sense of dread and wonder not often found in a game. The graphics overall are pretty, but it's the crafting of the environment and some superb sound design that pull together the whole experience.

We have often talked about locations as characters themselves in other games, and that's 100 percent true here. The environmental storytelling is downright stunning. Certain enemies have typical human behavior before going berserk when aggroed on the player. Spectral-style glitches to otherwise normal-looking environments pop up often and wow. The way interiors of buildings shift in stunning, unexpected ways feels like the best possible callback to Control from 2019. And besides the spooky stuff, it's just a plain amazing recreation of Tokyo.

And that's not all—and perhaps not the biggest selling point. This version of Tokyo has some shocking verticality to it. Players get access to a grappling hook and glider pretty quickly and are free to use those tools as one might expect.

Through the course of the narrative, the game ushers players through a variety of distinct, eyebrow-raising locales. Some sections of tunnels, for example, are perhaps more somber than the abandoned city above, while leisurely sites like restaurants and arcades bombard the senses with noises and flashy lights.

If the traversal sounds interesting, rest assured the actual look and feel of combat is even more so.

Protagonist Akito uses a paper doll to absorb spirits and wages battle by using hand mannerisms and gestures as attacks. It sounds wacky, but it's a fun take on first-person combat and not too dissimilar from a typical first-person shooter. A softer wind attack is clearly a pistol, and a gesture that produces a bigger punch resembles a shotgun, to name a few examples.

In a fun twist, Akito doesn't just pick up packs of ammunition, either. Instead, players have to find interesting sources of energy throughout the world, such as abandoned vehicles. Ripping the electric energy from those, in turn, lets him use electricity to zap out the hearts of paranormal baddies.

Akito also has his own version of detective vision we've seen in games before. This one, as expected, helps players uncover secrets out in the world and is helpful when it comes to plotting attacks on groups of enemies. It feels justified given the game's narrative too.

While fun and often visually stunning, combat does feel to be missing something. There's a fun parry system. With the right timing, players can send spells and other attacks right back at enemies. But keeping distance is often the best recipe, and things get a little strange if an enemy closes the gap, as it feels like a dodge button is missing. Enemy A.I. doesn't stick out as a bad thing, at least.

Also following this supernatural theme are pay phones functioning as a hub for progression. Find those to convert spirits into cash and standard experience points. There are a bevy of new abilities and boosts to unlock that seem to match the escalation of enemies and challenges nicely.

Ghostwire's combat and overall play style is niche but fun and throws enough mixups in the form of powers and abilities to keep things fresh.

The Spider's Thread is a brilliant addition to provide more content for Xbox gamers playing for the first time but especially for returning gamers who played at launch. Considering Ghostwire's gameplay and atmosphere are the stars of the show, any new content to showcase the abilities, explore more of the unique world and receive more context in the story is a welcomed addition. Spider's Thread is an excellent way for gamers to test their skills. It's a must-play mode for new gamers or those who already finished the campaign and want another reason to re-visit Ghostwire: Tokyo.

Story and More

Ghostwire's overarching narrative is a mystery for Akito and spectral companion KK to solve, with big bad Kannya the omnipresent force helping to move things along.

But as hinted, it's the environmental storytelling that overshadows everything else, similar to how the locale of Oldest House did in Control. That's not a bad thing; solving the mystery and trying to set things right is still a fun motivator that's sure to keep players engaged.

It helps that the two protagonists have a fun dynamic, with Akito sort of a deer in headlights while KK is a hardened tutor of sorts. The former is a good way for players to get immersed in the world, while the latter acts as a guiding hand.

Thankfully, Ghostwire doesn't go overboard on the dread and gloom, either. The two will trade jabs and make jokes to lighten the mood, assisted by some funny real-world moments, locations or events in the story or otherwise.

Ghostwire also uses side missions as a way to mix up the gameplay and experiment with new things should players seek them out. We won't dive in too much there for the sake of spoilers, but gameplay mixups and location changes lead to some fun and memorable surprises.

Notably, exploration and consistently engaging with the superbly crafted world is encouraged smartly too. A thick fog hangs over the undiscovered portions of the map, and it damages the player to wade through it. That encourages seeking out ways to clear the fog, which means more time is invested in exploring and stumbling upon little secrets and memorable moments.

Speaking of exploration, Ghostwire avoids the recent checklist-style feeling of open-world games. There are plenty of things to collect out in the world, but it's not necessary. Should players go that route, though, the reward is ample experience that will let them unlock skill trees faster.

Perhaps most importantly for new gamers, or those who want to play the campaign again, the additions from the Spider's Thread update create the definitive version of Ghostwire: Tokyo as the story is enhanced.

While Ghostwire has three optimization options on console, it's easy to see that performance mode should be favored on both the console and in PC settings. At least at launch, performance stability isn't good enough with the graphics cranked up to justify the sacrifice by choosing Quality Mode. However, the game looks superb even on performance mode and load times and other technical specs are zippy.

Speedrunning Tips

In open-world games, it's easy to suggest avoiding unnecessary battles, optimizing for offensive output and going as fast as possible after some trial runs to get the best speedrunning times.

That's not necessarily the case with Ghostwire.

Given that only a small portion of the map unveils at a time as a player pushes back the fog, it's not always easy to avoid combat. Luckily for runners, if forced into a confrontation, they can always pull out the bow and pick off enemies from a distance or get up close in stealth and steal their souls before a big fight.

Still, the typical advice of rolling with offensive stats and attacks is good advice too. So is skipping cutscenes and dialogue and taking a few runs of the game for routing purposes. Most side items can be easily skipped.

Interestingly, runners might find it beneficial to level a certain skill tree that lets them spawn grapple points of their own at a whim. That would make traversal around the city even faster and open up even more time-saving routing.

Given the unique setting and tools capable of creating a pretty big skill gap at a player's disposal, it's easy to see Ghostwire quickly cobbling together a healthy speedrunning community.

Conclusion

Control from 2019 got several nods here and for good reason: It was a sleeper smash hit that came out of nowhere with a stunning world and a lengthy, replayable experience.

Ghostwire: Tokyo feels like the next major entry in this category and is sure to get mentioned like this for years to come. It boasts an immersive, captivating open world that features as a character itself and a unique gameplay loop.

That gameplay or the surreal setting might not be for everyone, but it's a novel experience worth checking out. Ghostwire: Tokyo exceeds expectations in pretty much every way and has zero issue getting its hooks into a player through its promise of more secrets and memorable moments around every corner.