Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden: Restless spirits stir in the Massachusetts wilderness
By Francisco Dominguez, Contributor
In Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden, restless spirits stir in the remote Massachusetts wilderness. The emerging colony of New Eden and its supernatural 1600s setting feels a world away from the bustling cities featured in Don’t Nod Entertainment’s previous action-RPGs. 2013’s Remember Me took place in a futuristic Neo-Paris and 2018’s Vampyr was set in London in the early 1900s, but Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden couldn’t feel more different.
Set amidst windswept forests and thatch-roofed dwellings, the game tells the story of two Banishers—highly trained ghost-hunters sworn to bring “death to the dead” by saber, rifle, and mystical signet rings. Cuban Antea Duarte and Scottish mercenary Red mac Raith are tasked with exorcizing specters who stubbornly cling to this world beyond death.
Their partnership goes beyond the professional. The two are deeply in love—but in a perilous profession, emotional bonds only heighten the risk. When Antea falls in battle against the undead and returns as an apparition, the duty-bound couple is presented with an impossible choice: Banish the one you love to the afterlife as your creed demands, or investigate the forbidden alternative of resurrection.
Entering the wilds
Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden’s Game Director Philippe Moreau explained the benefits of abandoning the city for the pair’s tragic love story. “We are in the wilderness. There are very few people living there. We were free to imagine different kinds of creatures and really build a strong lore,” said Moreau.
The game’s scattered early colonial settlements build an ominous, claustrophobic atmosphere—one offering scant respite from the haunting undead, or from the social frustrations of life in these small and oppressively close-knit communities.
Moreau outlined Don’t Nod’s intent: “Players have this feeling of interacting with survivors—a bunch of people surviving the harsh conditions and the ghosts that are everywhere in this area.” Creating a sense of helpless isolation in the locations Red and Antea visit was ideal for the game’s eerie story. “We knew it was better to work in a remote place in the wilderness where people started to build the first settlements, rather than a big city like Boston.”
Many ghost stories are about a disbeliever whose skepticism dies a slow and fearful death after sighting one too many flickering figures lurking in the dark. For the deeply religious Puritans of 17th century New Eden, disbelief isn’t an option—the devilry of ghosts, demons and witches is utterly undeniable.
Their belief system allowed Moreau and team to skip the doubt of the modern atheist and get to the heart of the ghost story. “We found that it was very interesting to oppose these two worlds: the supernatural world and the fact that puritans living there are also very superstitious,” he said. “They believe ghosts exist. This allowed us to create very believable ghost stories.”
Failing to find paradise
The team delved into the psychology of The Great Migration of Puritans. This wave of Protestants came to North America in the early 1600s to escape persecution, going on to dominate the colonial settlements of New England. Ironically, they left because their intolerant attitudes had not been tolerated back home, leading the sect to found Boston and make a new home across Massachusetts.
“These people came from Europe for a reason,” said Moreau. “They left families, jobs, friends, everything to start a new life. We used to say they believe they’ll find paradise but they bring hell in their luggage.”
Every migrant had their own individual reasons for coming to North America, their own story. With plenty of past sins to hide—and redemption to seek—Moreau feels that Don’t Nod has strong and sordid stories to tell. “That’s how we created a connection with the ghost theme, because Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden is about unfinished business.”
400 years later, Puritan remains the byword for austere tastes and painstaking moral discipline. That restrained, self-denying mindset creates difficulties for developers today who use the conformist Puritan society as a setting. “This was a challenge because the Puritans are very strict in the way that they approach life,” Moreau explained.
Don’t Nod grappled with Puritan culture, striving to create distinct characters within their moral and social framework, following strict codes of dress, with plain fabrics and modest, conservative designs that held little regard for self-expression.
Red and Antea, however, are set apart from the limits of Puritanism. The pair are guided instead by the code of the Banishers, and the backgrounds that gave them a more tolerant outlook inevitably collide with the beliefs of New Eden’s Puritans.
Don’t Nod’s expertise shines in the pained anguish of lovers forced to make an impossible choice, and the heat and drama resulting from irreconcilable moral codes. Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden presents players with challenging situations and unbearable consequences—just like those faced by Vampyr protagonist Jonathan Reid, a former surgeon faced with the seductive urge to murder and drink deep on human blood.
In Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden, these choices and consequences manifest across haunting cases. These extended detective missions let players chart their own path as Red and Antea locate and deal with a community’s resident poltergeist. After investigating the scene for clues and interrogating villagers to unearth reluctantly revealed truths—reminiscent of Geralt’s monster tracking in The Witcher series—the Banishers pry open the settlement’s deepest and darkest secrets to come face to face with the departed spirit.
At this point, there’s a choice to make: Ascension, a kinder route favored by Red, or Banishment, which obliterates the ghost from this world. On occasion, you’ll encounter a third, even more drastic choice—sacrificing the living instead. Antea’s resurrection, if players choose that path, requires the essence of the living.
Choose wisely. These choices define the fate of Red and Antea, as well as the future of the scattered hamlets you’ll encounter, which will never be the same.
Undying love
Antea and Red’s tragic love story expands on themes found in Vampyr.
The vampiric romance between physician-turned-tortured-bloodsucker Jonathan Reid and Lady Ashbury was a small part of the larger game. A restrained and delicate romance set within the social conventions of early 1900s London, the courtship between Reid and Ashbury was discreet to the point that many players only gradually understood the slowly budding romantic tension. Yet their slow, simmering relationship drew a surprisingly passionate response from players.
Don’t Nod felt drawn to explore the topic further. “Love is something universal—a very strong theme, along with death and grief,” said Moreau.
But conveying the tenderness and nuance of human emotion required Don’t Nod rework their technology, processes, and tools to produce characters who could convincingly deliver the story and touch players’ hearts. Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden combines motion-captured performances with the impressive voicework of television actors Russ Bain and Amaka Okafor, distilling the anguish and fear of losing a loved one under terrible circumstances.
Lovers’ quarrel
Most couples only fight among themselves, but not Antea and Red. Lovers’ quarrels must wait when the massed ranks of the dead threaten. With a combat system inspired by God of War’s dynamic tag-team action between Kratos and Atreus, Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden replaces the gruff interplay between father and son with a more immediate and intimate bond between equal partners.
When asked about the tension between romance and combat, Moreau said, “Making a love story is something very, very intimate. Very personal. But when it comes to combat, the key word was synergy. We had this idea that Red was more physical, with very physical attacks and physical dodges and the ability to banish the ghost. Antea uses supernatural abilities that help Red to survive.”
A major difference from Kratos and Atreus’ misadventures in Midgard is that players can seamlessly switch between Red and Antea at any time. Red’s training and equipment is all designed specifically to dispatch specters, whether by saber or flintlock rifle (using gunpowder formulated to deal with the undead).
Unfortunately his equipment doesn’t work so well against less ethereal foes. When spirits arm themselves with shields—human or animal corpses—then Antea is far better equipped for the task at hand. The only limitation is that swooping in to pummel enemies with furious ethereal fists saps Antea’s ghostly energy, so she must retreat into a supporting role while recharging her Spiritual Gauge.
“This creates a very interesting loop in the combat, something very dynamic,” said Moreau. “Antea has a very strong impact on combat, whether it be her supernatural spells or just fighting enemies with her fists.”
In 2018, Moreau finished development on Vampyr—but ended up with a strong sense of unfinished business. Don’t Nod’s action-RPG was a success, but its ambitions had outstripped its budget, and some reviewers criticized the game’s combat.
Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden benefitted from a more experienced team, bringing in more combat designers, and—of course—increased funding thanks to Vampyr’s sales. Moreau feels that his team has mastered the interlocking complexities of action-RPG design, and he’s finally able to put his unfinished business to rest.
Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden is available February 13 on the Epic Games Store.