Overview
Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden is a story-driven action-RPG from DON'T NOD, the studio behind Life is Strange, set in the haunted wilds of New Eden in 1695. You play as Antea Duarte and Red mac Raith, a pair of Banishers, ghost-hunters bound by oath to protect the living from restless spirits. A mission gone wrong leaves Antea fatally wounded and transformed into the very kind of spirit she spent her life fighting, and the game builds everything around the tension that creates.
The setup sounds like a genre premise, but DON'T NOD uses it to tell something genuinely affecting. Red and Antea's relationship is the backbone of the entire experience, and the game never lets you forget the cost of every choice you make on their behalf. The haunted 17th-century North American setting, full of isolated communities and ancient secrets, gives the story room to breathe.
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Gameplay and mechanics
Combat switches between two distinct play styles depending on which character you control. Red fights in the physical world with weapons, gunpowder, and brute force. Antea operates as a ghost, using spiritual powers to stagger enemies and tear through supernatural threats that Red's arsenal struggles against. The two styles complement each other and the game rewards players who learn when to swap.
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Key mechanics include:
- Dual-character combat switching
- Morally weighted haunting investigations
- Branching story decisions with lasting consequences
- Skill progression for both Red and Antea
- Supernatural enemy types requiring different tactics
Haunting cases work like contained investigations. You gather evidence, speak to witnesses, and piece together what happened before deciding how to resolve it. Those resolutions carry weight because the game tracks your choices and reflects them back at you.
What decisions actually mean here
DON'T NOD built their reputation on choice-driven narratives, and Banishers delivers some of the most consequential decision-making in the studio's catalog. The central tension is constant: honoring your Banisher oath means sending spirits on, but Antea is now a spirit. Every haunting case forces you to weigh the needs of the living against the possibility that helping a ghost might bring Antea closer to a cure.
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These aren't binary good/evil choices. Most cases present situations where the morally correct answer isn't obvious, and the game doesn't rush you toward a verdict. The fate of New Eden's communities shifts depending on how you handle each case, which gives the world a texture that feels earned rather than decorative.
World and setting
New Eden in 1695 is a specific, carefully constructed place. The frontier communities are isolated, superstitious, and genuinely frightened, which makes the supernatural threats feel grounded rather than fantastical. DON'T NOD leans into the period detail without turning it into a history lesson, using the setting to frame a world where ghosts are a practical problem, not a metaphor.
The environments range from dense forests and frozen coastlines to cramped colonial settlements, each with its own haunting cases and lore. The game rewards players who pay attention to environmental storytelling and optional dialogue, layering background onto the main narrative without making it mandatory.
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Impact and legacy
Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden arrived in February 2024 and earned a 4.28 rating from over 14,000 PlayStation Store reviews, a number that reflects genuine player satisfaction rather than hype. The game occupies a specific space in the action-RPG genre: narrative-first, mechanically solid, and emotionally ambitious. For players who want a ghost-hunting RPG where the story actually lands, it makes a strong case for itself on PC, PlayStation, and Xbox.