10 Best Video Games Of 2024 You're NOT Playing
8. Banishers: Ghosts Of New Eden
A game that suffered massively thanks to a release date putting it up against Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, Helldivers 2, the Persona 3 remake and everyone who fell for Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, what's actually here is a stellar supernatural detective-style game, that's somewhere between The Witcher 3's lore, Telltale's dialogue options, and over-shoulder Soulsian combat.
The result is one of the most memorable presentations and art directions of the year, seeing ghost-hunting couple Red Mac Raith and Andrea Duarte arrive in 1600s New England, only for the latter to be killed, yet the two are forever tethered, thanks to their skills with the beyond.
What follows is what Life is Strange developers DON'T NOD are known for: Immaculate scriptwriting, gut-wrenching moral dilemmas, and characters you'd go to the ends of the Earth for, just to see what happens next.
Ghosts of New Eden is let down slightly by a combat model that only reminds you of what more dedicated melee brawlers do better, and its tone can veer into being a bit harder to believe contextually, given how grounded the first few hours are, but this is a developer breaking out their comfort zone. Where Life is Strange put them on the map, 2018's Vampyr showed DON'T NOD don't just want to be another Telltale, and it's gems like Banishers and 2023's climbing sim Jusant, that should be treasured.