Quick Ghost of Tsushima Legends Review
Short reviews from Joe for the average Joe gamer.
Ghost of Tsushima Legends is the free online update to the best ninja-ie game in years. A no brainer for anyone who loved the base game, but Legends is worth picking up the base game and playing it in its own right. If you loved co-op modes in games that really require synchronization (like Splinter Cell), this game is for you.
In Legends, you have the options of Story (two players co-oping through 10 story arcs), Survival (four player co-op, defending three regions as waves of enemies keep coming at you) and Quickplay (story or survival, with a gear bonus at the end).
Different to the base game, you have a choice of your class. You can be a Samurai, Hunter, Ronin or Assassin, each of whom have different advantages and disadvantages and their own skill tree. The gameplay is so very satisfying. Once mastered, you will be using all the tools in your arsenal (and patting your good boy Spirit Dog).
Story is easily my favourite. Each time I start off, I bow (emote) to my co-op partner and their response is a good indication of how the rest of the game will go. The vast majority of the time I’ve played my partner and I have played as a team, assassinating together, chaining combos on big enemies, playing our flutes spinning in circles, thanking each other for revives and taking down linked enemies together (these enemies require co-op timing as if their partner isn’t killed quickly enough they will revive).
The aesthetic is super cool too. There is a kind of horror-esque look to the whole thing, with lots of blood, darkness, floating bodies, no-faced enemies and creepy masks. Costumes, masks and effects are awesome too. Once I saw that I can run around in my Fundoshi (see below) I obtained from finding all the hot springs in the base game I have not changed my outfit once. It makes my character seem even more deadly… like who would run around in this creepy world, battling people with a sword, with no armour? Someone to fear, that’s who!
If you are reading this article as you, like me, have limited gaming time, then I am sorry to say this game may not be for you. Ghost of Tsushima Legends is my weekend evening game. To get anywhere with it and to be the best ninja buddy for your online partner(s), you will need to play through until you finish the stage you are on. On the easy difficultly, Story missions (broken up into three parts) take around 20 or so minutes to beat (depending on your approach, stealthy or run and slice). Ramping up the difficulty can double that time or more. Don’t even get me started on how long Survival takes! With no way to pause and a new online best friend to support, it’s not the sort of thing you will want to walk away from because the kids need a sandwich, stat!
Quick Video Game Reviews (QVGR)
The idea of QVGR is to give gamers out there who don’t have time to read review epics and those of you who usually skip down to the review score on websites a quick article to read that gives a bit more info than scanning subheadings and deciding on a game just based on a score.
What do you think of the game? Pop in your thoughts in the comment box below. In the spirit of QVGR, try and keep your comments brief. The reason people are here is that they have busy lives!
If you like this, you might also like our Versus Player podcast. Like these articles, we usually try to keep our weekly episodes short. We chat about what games we are playing, gaming news, movies, pop culture, life and everything in-between. Give us a listen here or on a whole bunch of podcast services, including iTunes.
Happy gaming!