Entertainment

Games: Ghost of Tsushima's sprawling heroics 'n' horseplay like Red Dead Redemption with a sword

Ghost of Tsushima
Ghost of Tsushima Ghost of Tsushima

Ghost of Tsushima (PS4)

By: Sony

I HOPE Sony start their next generation with the same gusto they're leaving this one. Hot on the infected heels of Last of Us 2 comes more mega-budgeted PlayStation 4 fodder in the shapely form of Ghost of Tsushima – the last major Sony game for the console.

A ripping yarn of old-school samurai, the Far Eastern beatdown's flesh-skewering, limb-lopping hack n' slashery doffs its helmet to director Akira Kurosawa as you draw your katana and face the Mongol horde.

In a historically accurate depiction of the 1274 invasion of Japan, the Japanese island of Tsushima is on the brink of destruction. Samurai noble Jin Sakai must sacrifice everything to protect what's left of his home by forging a new path, our stoic hero slaughtering more Mongolians in a day here than most normal people manage in a lifetime.#

Developed by Sucker Punch – veterans of the Infamous series – Ghost of Tsushima travels a similarly open-world path, but instead of superpower-jacked teens, its violent romp delves into the honour and savagery of samurai ideology. From Seven Samurai to Yojimbo, Ghost wears its celluloid influences on those baggy sleeves like badges of honour.

Chock-full of on-foot and filly-mounted Mongol-bashing, you'll traverse a sprawling map ripe with quests, worming your blade into the throats and gizzards of rock-hard enemies, with gameplay involving a mix of skulking in shadows and slitting throats in a by-the-book open world tricked out in Samurai togs.

Moves are quick, precise, and deadly, with a deadly dance of blocks, parries and attacks enhanced by careful stance choices, while there are weapons and armour to upgrade.

Technically stunning, everything from the wind effects to its authentic audio are in service of a supremely cinematic experience. There's even an option to play the entire game through a grainy black and white filter in honour of the doyen of disembowelment, Kurosawa.

All that fabulous production design, however, is draped over a fairly rote open-world map littered with optional quests and hidden places to ferret out. Its sprawling heroics 'n' horseplay play out like Red Dead Redemption with a sword, Horizon without robot dinosaurs or Breath of the Wild without the whimsy.

In fact, its grave musings on honour are all a bit too po-faced, and at times could do with a lighter touch. In this part of the world we understand the pain of an invading empire subjugating our island, but we weren't so bloody dour about it.

Handsomely mounted and technically peerless, Ghost of Tsushima won't rekindle anyone's love affair with quest-pocked open-world maps, though its historic ballet of grand-scale cruelty aims for – and achieves – an epic sweep.

One thing's for sure: the PS4 Isn't going down without a fight, and along with Last of Us 2, Ghost of Tsushima gives Sony's current hardware one helluva swansong.