Meanwhile, the change to 4k at a lower fps took some getting used to but equally had no issues beyond those mentioned. Once I’d gotten used to what felt like more sluggish movement, I adjusted after an hour or two, I played with Quality for the remaining 80 hours of game time. The fidelity was astounding, the characters looked lifelike and the world was vibrant, even in the distance.

Photomode was a standout feature and I’m glad to see more games adding it, though it was oddly limited in the options, it’s still an improvement to backing the camera into a wall and forcing it to hide your character for that awkward shot. A variety of built-in filters come with a few different watermarks to show off the game or go without for a clean aesthetic at whatever focal length you choose.

The music was particularly well done. Subtle when it needed to be, never outstaying its welcome nor overstating its presence. I found it to always be what it needed to be when it was needed. Though I can’t call to any single standout piece like Mass Effect 2’s Suicide Mission piece or the opening Halo theme, it was used effectively and added to the weight of what was going on, be it combat, a moral choice or just pottering around New England taking in the sites.

The world in which we find ourselves is a scattering of small hamlets amid the first forrays onto the New Continent. As such, times are hard, and it shows. Log cabins are the norm and only established settlements have anything close to standard housing, which we’re treated to in the opening prologue. People are defeated, worn down by a curse upon New Eden, and you, Red and Antea, our eponymous heroes, are sent in to assess and solve the issue like so many hauntings before.

After the unforeseen consequences of the prologue which, if you haven’t played the game I won’t be spoiling for you here, you’re whisked away to parts unknown to begin your adventure proper. Go exploring, fight those who remain, meet new people, solve hauntings and other, more earthly deeds while leveling up and finding better loot that is tailored to your playstyle. Throughout your adventure you’ll learn more about each other, you’ll feel their bond and how it waxes and wanes. It’s powerful writing and very well done, the story is heartfelt and heartwrenching in equal measure as you learn more about the case that brought you to New Eden, at times making me question if I was making the right decision at times. And it’s in this detail that the hauntings are where the game and the story truly shine.

Each haunting is hand-crafted, no two are alike and each involves finding clues as to why a person is being haunted. Most start simple but often become a web of intrigue and emotion, some are local, some are far-flung, but each takes you on an adventure that will make you question yourself and check your moral compass. Often a haunt will flip once a context clue is revealed and the pieces fall into place, and it is your sole decision on how to act that can change the world around you for the better, or the worse.

Banishing or ascending a ghost frees the haunted, but did the ghost deserve one or the other? Were they a good person before they died? Are they a threat now? The same can be said about the living, who are rarely squeaky clean with enough skeletons in their closets to make their own city. Did they kill the haunter? What did they do to them while alive to cause a haunting? What are they hiding? These questions linger, and based on your oath to Antea, you could easily find yourself breaking it if you think either entity deserves its just desserts. It was difficult at times to stick to it, and I truly wanted to Blame some of the living, an event should you choose in which they are drained of their soul and killed outright, not even a ghost remains.

It’s these moral quandaries that made me sit up and pay attention because I didn’t want to Banish, which deletes them from existence, or Ascend, which releases them from this world unto Heaven, essentially a good or bad option, unfairly. I heard them out as best I could, both living and dead which is rare, and speaks to the quality and conundrum of each situation. They make you care, and it’s impressive that they make you question if you’re doing the right thing in a video game and focus on the choice at hand, instead of simply pressing a button to choose after a conversation, consequences be damned. You’re free to do that, of course, but it makes it hard to not care when the voice acting is this well done. It’s a shame the main story has no such this or that throughout, though depending on your decisions at key moments, the hauntings are what the game leans on based on your choice, leaving you to wrestle with your conscience afterward.

The back and forth between Red and Antea is a highlight and serves as the main focus of the story, their relationship and how it’s still going strong, or holding on by a thread. There were moments where I was, much like the hauntings, questioning if I was making the right decision, though there was nothing I could do, I’d already reinforced that outcome with my actions in previous hauntings. It made me want to explore another option in another playthrough and see what changes between them. It got me invested, and it deserved to do so. It’s rare to see this level of care and attention put into main characters. They banter while exploring areas for the first time and they feel alive, like real people thanks to the dynamic of the voice actors who deliver some truly compelling lines at times, it reminds you what video games can be capable of.

The map itself seems linear at first, but it opens up as you explore, creating shortcuts with items or abilities you collect along the way that never make it feel too big. It was satisfying to unlock one in an area that I’d spent a long time in, either through traversal from A to B or exploring, knowing I never had to go that far again unless I chose to. Campfires present an opportunity to rest, fast travel to other campfires you’ve found, apply ability points to unlock new ones or reassign old ones to suit your playstyle, and check the map to see where you wish to go next. The game does a great job of showing you what is where, with each locked chest, blocked passageway, or a host of other collectibles on your journey, all neatly labeled on a very well-crafted hand-drawn map for you to go back to later, select and have a waypoint to it, distinct from any quests you might also be following.

Quests themselves are split into two groups, the hauntings mentioned above, and normal side missions for the living, which can range from fetch quests to some truly sad moments, they’re rarely boring and serve a purpose to the grander story: forced from their town and trying to survive in the wilds of a new continent, not everyone is ready or equipped to survive, and it makes you feel like you’re actively helping in dire times. There are 4 areas of the world, and each feels distinct if somewhat cliché, they never felt out of place, especially when many areas that felt linear are interlinked for later in the game so you have total freedom to march circles around the map by the end should you wish to. It’s a creative use of the space, as well as the myriad of tunnels, buildings, cliffs and caves the game has, some that go to the bowels of the earth, others that scrape the sky, there’s always more to find, always more to collect as you progress.

In each of these areas you’ll find Spectres, ghosts who have long since lost why they were haunting and now linger aimlessly in one location, attacking anything that comes nearby. Their designs fit right into the world and lore well, and not something you’d want to hear whispering on a dark night in the middle of nowhere. The enemies are inventive if only new takes on the classic tropes: melee, ranged, heavy, quick and wild wolves. As the game goes on they get progressively harder and level with you for the most part, with a neat twist that they can possess nearby corpses for an undead bone shield, thus making them much more difficult to contend with, more so in large groups at once. It adds some challenge to what is otherwise somewhat basic combat. There are also locations that will test your skills, throwing modifiers into wave-like combat scenarios, or a boss you have to take down. Some of these are one and done, some are endless and provide a good way to level your atributes permenantly if you succeed, only getting harder after each success to truly test your mettle.

Sadly, this is where the game falls short a little. Red can melee with a heavy and light attack, both can be charged for more damage while his musket is great at any range, and can be modified depending on equipment found or bought. He also possesses the ability to Banish spectres, which when not on a Haunting, is a special move that does massive damage, or outright kills an enemy. Antea has other abilities and you can switch between the two on the fly, making for fast and fluid combat scenarios and is more capable at handling certain spectres than Red is, with the gameplay expecting you to switch to better takedown a more stubborn enemy with the wrong character.

Or that was the idea. I found myself early on swinging wildly next to enemies instead of the game focusing on the nearest enemy, even when locked on, and switching between Antea and Red seems like a fun idea in theory, but during combat, I never gave it much thought as Red was more than capable of handling the situation and for it, Antea would complain constantly about not being utilised. Dodging was also painfully delayed while you were already attacking, and the game never really felt like I had to be as cautious as I was being, parrying every attack and then going in for the kill. But then, that’s how I specialized him with the loot I’d found, that’s my playstyle I dare say you could tailor your playstyle to flick between them like a graceful destructive display of prowess, or focus entirely on Antea and unleash her arsenal of abilities. It all depends on how you want to play, which is a strength instead of forcing you down one route everyone will go down. It’s refreshing, and you can mix it up on the fly by changing abilities and gear, with many of the former having distinct benefits towards one playstyle while detracting from something else, yet giving you enough to mix and match so you’re never left feeling weaker than you should.

Bar the dodgy lock on and the slow dodge, the enemies never really change. The 5 you see at the start as they’re slowly introduced, are the 5 at the end, albeit with meatsuit upgrades which is a nice feature, as each corpse does different things depending on what is possessing it. Alphas are stronger and more resilient, though they offer little else but scaled-up versions of what you’ve fought before. The story bosses are the best part by far, with creative mechanics that lend well to each boss and location, and thankfully those aren’t the same as every other boss. It’s the one weak point in an otherwise stellar game, but as it was likely how I chose to play that made it feel like that I’ll give it a break, because what is there can be a potent mix and at times kept me on my toes. While I’m wasn’t huge fan of the combat in my playthrough, I still found it engaging, and giving players the freedom to approach combat as a souls-lite, slasher, single-shot shooter or a mix of all three is a good thing.