Ghost of Tsushima: Director’s Cut

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Everything is a computer these days. Really. Everything. Your toaster. Your fridge. Your crock pot. All computera on some level, and the unification of everything into computers helps make the concept of console-exclusive games seem even more antiquated than it already was. Who cares which identical plastic box you buy when they’re all just PCs on the inside?

With that in mind, it’s nice that formerly console-only games like Ghost of Tsushima: Director’s Cut are coming to PCs, if only so those lucky folks with beefy rigs can get the most out of them, even if they already played through the original game.on PlayStation. Now let’s start doing that with all games and we’ll be getting somewhere.

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Hundreds of years ago, the island of Tsushima in Japan came under attack by the invading forces of the Mongols. Noble samurai Jin Sakai was part of the group fighting to stop them, but their cunning foe annihilates them and the invasion proceeds apace. Barely surviving, Jin has to strike back and save the day, but doing so might result in taking measures that might not jive with the rigid honor code of the samurai. Is saving Tsushima worth the price Jin will have to pay?

To revisit Ghost of Tsushima’s presentation again: it’s fantastic! Oh a decent PC you can make Jin’s world look about as amazing as possible, and as is often the case with Sony’s PC ports, this version of Ghost of Tsushima runs like a dream. They even kept haptic support if you plug in a DualSense controller, including the oh-so-fancy DualSense Edge, but to get the most out of that you’ll need to use them wired which is a bit of a bummer. Still, it might be worth it: in particular, horseback riding and archery both feel great as you feel the hoofbeats through your controller and tangibly pull back against the bow’s string.

While the PC version of Ghost of Tsushima looks great and plays well, it’s not exactly bug-free. In particular, a nasty glitch when played at higher refresh rates causing Jin’s signature Standoff attacks, where he announces his presence to foes and then slays them as they come in for a fight, to simply not work remains unpatched. How this happened and why it remains a problem is baffling, but as of this writing it’s still there, so you might want to grab RivaTuner Statistics Server and cap the framerate to 60FPS to avoid this problem.

For all its dedication to pushing the limits visually, Ghost of Tsushima’s gameplay is pretty standard for its genre. It’s basically a Japanese take on the more recent open-world Assassin’s Creed games, Origins and Odyssey in particular. You’ll complete quests that largely revolve around riding your horse to a specific area and killing all the baddies present in whatever way you see fit. Sometimes you’ll have to rescue or talk to NPCs after doing so, sometimes you’ll have to do so stealthily and sometimes you’ll have to do so while not being detected under pain of restarting from a checkpoint, but this is mostly what you’ll be doing.

There’s the odd obstacle course and boss fight here and there to mix things up, but these are the exception rather than the rule. The most memorable missions tend to be the periodic one-on-one duels that serve as boss and miniboss fights, and these are pretty exciting.

From a non-murder perspective you’ve got a minor degree of character customization, allowing you to choose gear, upgrades and cosmetics to turn Jin into the samurai of your dreams. These are largely focused on particular playstyles, boiling down to melee combat, ranged combat and stealth. There’s also a simple skill tree and a selection of Ghost gadgets to equip that can help make your life a little easier. Note that while the plot does focus quite heavily on the dichotomy between Jin’s samurai honor and the necessity of underhanded tactics to survive, there’s no morality meter or anything stopping you from playing however you choose.

The mundane nature of most of the content isn’t necessarily a game-killer, but it does mean that if you come into Ghost of Tsushima expecting a revolutionary experience you’re probably going to be disappointed. Lest you forget you’re playing a video game, Ghost of Tsushima’s menu still explains the “Damage” stat by stating that it lets you “kill enemies faster.” It’s like a movie pausing to explain that, yes, that guy right there is the serial killer, the one with the knife, he’s going to kill people.

Kidding aside, innovation and smart design are bonuses rather than necessary elements for an enjoyable experience. Ghost of Tsushima might be composed almost entirely of fundamentals, but it does execute those fundamentals well. Combat is fast and fluid, with mistakes being punished a little more than one might expect, so you’re encouraged to improve. Meanwhile, digging around for crafting materials has been old hat since it became common around 2011 or so, but at least the environments are well-designed, interesting to explore and a pleasure to look at.

As with the PS5 release of Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut, there’s a couple of new chunks of content in this release compared to the original PS4 version of this samurai adventure. For instance, the Legends multiplayer content, originally a free update for the PS4 version and included with the PS5 Director’s Cut, is present and accounted for, though you’ll need one of those dreaded PlayStation Network accounts to play it. Horrors. This is a passable addition to the game, offering tons of additional combat if that’s what you’re into as well as the opportunity to be frustrated by inept random players just like on PS5.

The Director’s Cut adds its own additional goodness with a content expansion set on Iki Island. It’s about 20 hours long all by itself, which is fantastic, and the same high quality of the original game shines through here as well. The Iki Island content is a bit more Far Cry than the rest of the game, focused more on Jin himself as opposed to Tsushima as a whole, but it’s all good stuff – particularly if you weren’t bothered by the Standard Open-World Game nature of the original content. There’s an armor set with an ability that basically turns Ghost of Tsushima into Bushido Blade if you use it while playing on the hardest difficulty and this almost justifies the whole Iki Island expansion all on its lonesome.

As before, your enjoyment with Ghost of Tsushima: Director’s Cut will likely come down to how you feel about the modern open-world collectathon genre. If you played through Assassin’s Creed Origins and Odyssey, the various Far Cry games and the many other similar titles floating around out there, you may or may not want more. If you do, then Jin Sakai’s epic quest through feudal Japan will embrace you with open arms and a knife ready to give you a shankin’.

On the other hand, if you’re over the trend and crave something else, there’s not a Ghost of a chance this one’s going to change your mind. It sure is pretty, though, and with a decent PC it’s prettier than ever. Plug in that DualSense controller like you’re playing on a console and dive in.