Home Gaming Combat in Ghost of Tsushima is dirty, bloody and cinematic

Combat in Ghost of Tsushima is dirty, bloody and cinematic

3 min read
19

Ghost of Tsushima Screen 1

I’ve got a theory regarding the E3 2018 press conferences. It basically boils down to Microsoft driving a dump truck of cash up to various third-party developers, grabbing the exclusive rights to show off their games at their E3 event and then chuckling when Sony realised that they’d have sparse content to show off a few hours later when it was their turn in the spotlight.

That might explain Sony’s weird E3 2018 kick-off event, which began with a sermon in church for The Last of Us Part II and required game journos to actually walk afterwards to a larger venue for the rest of the show. I mean, the inhumanity of it all. Anyway, Sony’s show was still fascinating to say  the least. Deeper dives into big games, ranging from Spider-Man to Days Gone.

One other game that fans were chomping at the bit for? The first gameplay reveal of Sucker Punch’s Ghost of Tsushima. Everyone was expecting a tight samurai game, but Sucker Punch delivered even more with a demo that smacked of influences from legendary director Akira Kurosawa and looked simply sublime in action.

Action is the keyword here, as Ghost of Tsushima was packing plenty of it. Near the three minute mark of that trailer, the carnage began with a lightning-quick throat-slice and into some dirty swordplay. “We had three things in mind when we put together this sequence: mud, blood and steel. We put a lot of tech into the visual effects for the mud and blood, and what you can do with the katana,” Sucker Punch cinematics and animation Director Billy Harper explained on the PS Blog.

Ghost of Tsushima Screen 2

Look at him roll around in the mud as he’s fighting – you can see the dynamic mud in action. These aren’t just textures that are turned on – it’s actually dynamic mud that sticks to you. We’ve done this demo several times and each person in the pit always comes out looking different depending how it’s been played. They all look like they’ve been through a struggle and a fight. You will feel like a warrior – the mud is all over everybody.

Where Ghost of Tsushima switched gears in the demo, was in a chance to allow players to operate outside of the samurai norms that everyone has come to expect. It’s one thing to stand your ground in duels, but that’s an approach that won’t always work against the Mongol soldiers who aren’t afraid to get their hands dirty. A tactic that players will also have to adopt if they want to survive the invasion of Japan.

“Assassinations are one of the tactics you can use. There’s a fear factor here. If you do successfully assassinate someone then it stuns the other enemies around you and gives you an opportunity to perform follow-up attacks,” Harper explained.

Ghost of Tsushima Screen 5

We will have a HUD but decided not to have it in the demo in order to offer a more cinematic experience. But one thing we did learn internally was that people reacted very positively to not having it there so we are going to look for ways to make it minimal. The perfect example of this is the chain attack that happened when Jin drops down into the temple. One of our UI artists came up with a way to communicate to the player visually how they have opportunities to perform actions without utilising UI.

It’s cool, but c’mon: That is so very Arkham Knight in its execution and imitation of the fear takedowns from that Bat-game. Still, I’m loving what I’m seeing from Ghost Of Tsushima so far, which looks like Sucker Punch at their finest.

Last Updated: June 21, 2018

19 Comments

  1. “I’ve got a theory regarding the E3 2018 press conferences. It basically boils down to Microsoft driving a dump truck of cash up to variou…..”? NO, it basically boils down to developers approaching Microsoft & asking if they can show off their games on their stage! The narative is changing, the pushback is real!

    Reply

    • Original Heretic

      June 21, 2018 at 09:09

    • Nikola

      June 21, 2018 at 09:56

      Microsoft had a better showing for sure you can not deny that, BUT still no new exclusives (not counting usual 15th Forza, Halo and Gears) and they have fallen behind it quite badly in that regard I do hope it changes for the Xbox fans and from a competition perspective so Sony does not get lazy. Say what you want about Sony but if I had a choice and can only pick one Console it would be PS4 just because of the exclusives they have that I would NOT want to miss. In a perfect world I would have both but I ain’t Bill Gates or Allessandro Barbosa with a trust fund.

      Reply

      • Pieter Kruger

        June 21, 2018 at 10:12

        MS just announcing 5 new studios alone won the show! I for one am very happy for new Forza Halo & Gears games(hopefully we’ll hear something re a new Fable soon!) I, like yourself, am no Bill Gates, that’s why I simply cannot afford to buy all the games I like but luckily all those MS exclusives will come to GamePass day one, leaving some cash for all the 3rd party must haves like Red Dead 2, Battlefield 5, Fifa 19, Metro Exodus, Anthem, Fallout 76, DMC 5, etc. etc. Hard choices, but that’s also why I prefer Xbox and more precisely XB1X, the value and pro consumer approach. Those story driven Sony exclusuves I’ll sadly have to watch on Mixer/Twitch.

        Reply

        • Nikola

          June 21, 2018 at 10:56

          100% I only buy games on special now, haven’t bought a new game in a LONG time, PSN has this really good monthly sales so eventually pick them up! So many to play but it’s just too expensive to buy new! Unless its something I will play with mates like Anthem!!

          Reply

        • palasta .

          June 21, 2018 at 15:53

          2 of those 5 “new” studios were already developing for MS exclusively. The only non-MS studio with a good track record is Ninja Theory. Quality, not quantity.

          It’s delusional to say this “won the show”, when it was long overdue (for a decade or so) and still far from the level where Sony (or Nintendo) studios are now.

          Reply

    • The D

      June 21, 2018 at 10:21

      Something else that’ll probably make you happy: Just about every third-party game that was playable at E3, was running on the Xbox One X as the default console.

      Reply

      • Gr8_Balls_o_Fire

        June 21, 2018 at 10:23

        If you abbreviate Xbox One X, you get XBOX. How meta

        Reply

      • Gr8_Balls_o_Fire

        June 21, 2018 at 10:23

        If you abbreviate Xbox One X, you get XBOX. How meta

        Reply

      • Pieter Kruger

        June 21, 2018 at 10:36

        As it should be! Developers want to show off their games in the best possible way naturally! To be fair to developers all 3rd party console games should also be reviewed on XB1X on a 4K TV….after all, would you deliberately not review a PC game on your 4K capable rig just because the majority of PC owners doesn’t have something similar?

        Reply

    • HvR

      June 21, 2018 at 10:24

      Both conferences were seriously lacking.

      As another CH commenters stated
      MS treated it as Youtube trailer playlist and Sony as some kind of weird talent show

      Reply

      • Gr8_Balls_o_Fire

        June 21, 2018 at 10:25

        Am I the only one who wasn’t interested in E3? Didn’t watch a single event. I let Darryn do all the work and write articles and post the videos.

        Reply

      • Pieter Kruger

        June 21, 2018 at 10:50

        SMH

        Reply

  2. Gr8_Balls_o_Fire

    June 21, 2018 at 10:20

    There’s absolutely nothing wrong with Arkham Knight. That thing is gold.

    Reply

    • The D

      June 21, 2018 at 10:22

      YER DARN RIGHT IT IS!

      Reply

      • Gr8_Balls_o_Fire

        June 21, 2018 at 10:24

        You mean GODDAMN right

        Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Check Also

Manchester United Sues Football Manager Over Use of their Name and Fan Mods

Manchester United, that massive global football brand whose fans are as equally annoying a…