Look at me, tardy to the party for Ghost of Tsushima. Everyone knows this already, but yeah, this game rocks.
There are a few mechanical things that were eternally my bugbear, but the world was GORGEOUS, and the story was utterly brilliant.
Controls weren't always responsive in the way I'd like, and it led to some annoying deaths, but the auto-save system is very generous, so it was bearable. Combat really doesn't come alive until Act 2 in my mind, and I think that's a bit of a bummer, but once you get there, it can feel great.
The story is something to behold. I really don't want to say much beyond the fact that I really felt for just about every character involved in Jin's journey. My big complaint, and this is actually kind of a hefty one for me, is that
(SPOILERS) when you use your Ghost abilities or kill enemies via stealth, it implies that you are doing something wrong in breaking your code of Bushido, so I expected a sense of consequence for playing like the Ghost, but alas, it doesn't seem to have a big impact on the overarching narrative, which kinda bums me out. That would have done wonders for replayability (END SPOILERS)
But despite my one complaint, I think the game has a wonderful narrative, and a lot of its replayability comes from player incentive of wanting to approach things in a different way. What KIND of Ghost are you going to be.
Exploration is a lot of fun. Ubisoft-esque, bit it felt a lot more organic than most post-2012 Ubisoft titles. Tsushima from start to finish was a truly beautiful land to explore and liberate form the Mongol invaders.
Oh, and also the DLC is 10/10, absolutely excellent. Short and sweet, and Iki Island is just a blast to explore, and is arguably more visually striking than Tsushima proper, which is saying a whole hell of a lot.
Anyway, all that to say, I get why people love this game. Give it a shot.
