Ghostwire: Tokyo has been something of a mystery since Bethesda unveiled the game in 2019, but a new gameplay deep-dive has finally shed light on how the game actually works, including its open world and combat mechanics.
Tango Gameworks, developers of The Evil Within, revealed the game is an open world set in a haunted Tokyo following “the Vanishing”, a paranormal occurance where 99% of the population vanished.
The city has become overrun with spirits from Japanese mythology and the player must use a combined arsenal of supernatural powers and traditional weaponry to save it.
Open World
Ghostwire: Tokyo‘s open world, despite its fairly unique setting, appears to take on more traditional elements of the genre
A standard menu map allows the navigation of a Tokyo packed with main missions, side quests, and points of interest that involve defeating enemies within a certain location to clear surrounding fog.
These areas are marked by corrupted torii gates that players must cleanse in order to clear the fog, and there are several – big and small – scattered throughout Tokyo.
Ghostwire: Tokyo – 6 New Screenshots
Another open world activity is the inclusion of strange spaces throughout the map that lean back into Tango Gameworks’ horror past. The player must walk through corridors “where time and space cannot be trusted” which look to be something like a toned-down version of P.T. “The only way to complete your mission is to power through,” the deep-dive narrator explains.
Traversal around the city is also “an essential part” of Ghostwire: Tokyo and the player has access to what is essentially a grapple-hook, known here as the Tengu Ability. The player can latch onto flying Tengu monsters to leap onto and across rooftops, and appears to have a glide ability as well.
There’s also a “Spectral Vision” pulse , essentially a detective mode, that reveals enemies and points of interest in the vicinity.
Combat
At the centre of Ghostwire: Tokyo’s combat is a skill called “Ethereal Weaving” that’s used to fight the monsters that appeared after the Vanishing.
It fuses spiritual energy with fire, air, or water to launch close or long-range attacks at the variety of enemies that require different playstyles to defeat.
Incoming attacks can also be parried and the player’s supernatural powers can be charged up to enter “Wire-In” mode and unleash more powerful attacks.
Ghostwire Tokyo PlayStation 5 Screenshots
The player will also unlock more “traditional” weapons such as a bow and arrow (the gameplay showed regular and explosive arrows) and talismans that explode with lightning.
Ghostwire: Tokyo also features stealth gameplay and has dedicated stealth sections where the player’s supernatural abilities are stripped away, forcing a reliance on “wits and traditional weapons”.
Typical RPG mechanics are also present, with earned skill points used to unlock different “abilities” and “Ethereal Weaving” power-ups.
Story
Ghostwire: Tokyo opens as main character Akito wakes up after the Vanishing. 99% of the population is gone, the city is flooded with supernatural creatures, and there’s a demon called K.K. in your head. What a morning.
Akito must master his new abilities to fight ghouls and figure out what happened to Tokyo, not to mention save it. From there, it’s anyone’s guess where we’ll go next.
The game will finally arrive on March 25, and will likely be the last PlayStation console-exclusive Bethesda game. We know that Tango Gameworks is already hard at work on the next game after Ghostwire too.
