Masterpiece. In every sense of the word. Waited 4 years for it to release on PC, did not watch any plot spoiler videos or too much gameplay, and it was worth every second of the wait.

Play this instead of pre-ordering Assassin's Creed Shadows. You'll feel better when you do.

Combat/Arsenal
Whether it be in a one-on-one duel or one-against-many, the flow of battle in Tsushima is flawless; easy to learn, difficult to master. Each encounter compels you to better yourself as a warrior, to master your movesets, to rely on your stances, and to inch ever closer to mastering the art of not making any wasted movement. The weapons and tools provided are vast and the options to take down your opponents are endless. Every encounter leaves you itching for the next fight, to improve time and again to reduce our enemies to ashes.

Exploration/Visuals
The world is designed to help you progress through the game organically, naturally. The wind system (Tsushima's GPS system) is such a godsend, in a world where action/adventure games are so inclined to spoonfeed you with a cluttered UI to guide you to your next destination. It helps to not ruin immersion and tells you in a subtle manner where you should go next to find what you're looking for. As far as the environment goes, Tsushima is quite inarguably one of the most exhilarating worlds to ever exist in video game history. Every area or sunlight gave me a push to press D-pad right + R3 to go into photo mode and pick a filter to take an awesome screenshot, and this happened more often than I would have expected (FAR too many times, and still counting).

Photo Mode
As mentioned above, photo mode makes me a director of photography every 5 minutes, and this isn't even an exaggeration. Photo Mode is probably the main culprit as to why I'm taking longer than usual to 100% the game, and I'm all for it. 800 screenshots on Steam for Tsushima alone, and that's when I barely entered Act 2. The only game I was grateful to have such a simple, yet well-designed Photo Mode to use on the fly. Mad props.

Plot/Quests
In a society where good writing is on a ever-creeping decay, Ghost of Tsushima brings us to the golden days of excellent storytelling. I actually CARE about each character and feel sad when even a NPC that showed up for only 10 minutes dies at the hands of the Mongols. Dozens of tales and quests that have an identity of its own eventually culminate into a single legendary tale of Jin Sakai, a lone warrior fighting to protect his people from the terror of the invading Mongols. An already great plot concept that's been repeated time and time again, and perfectly executed.

Music
The soundtrack of this game is a bit unorthodox, in the sense that there isn't a track that makes you want to look it up. It's more about bringing the music together with the game as a whole to create an ambiance that is so memorable that it makes you daydream of Tsushima even when you're not playing it. I think what's most notable about the music is that it melds itself so perfectly with the sound effects and the world, even the fusion of the sounds of a windchime and the wind itself is a force to move the soul in unimaginable ways.

SONY and required account linking
This one is the controversy we've all been keeping up with. Wake up Sony, you're not doing anyone any favors with your bad practices. Not related to the game itself, but the gaming industry and its consumers need to wake up to this madness fueled by greed and misplaced priorities. Obligatory inclusion in the review, but it doesn't change my praise for the product itself.

Interface
My only gripe with the game is the lack of a non-immersion-breaking UI/menu. The ability to swap outfit loadouts without going into the full menu or one-button windcalling might be some features that could improve the player experience overall. The only game that comes to mind that really focused on not breaking player immersion with menus is Metro Exodus, and I feel that Ghost of Tsushima could have done slightly better in that regard. But this isn't a complaint, just a minor observation. The game as a whole is indeed a masterpiece and no one can argue that fact, in my humble opinion.

Final Verdict: S+
If someone asked me if I thought there was a perfect game, I would name Ghost of Tsushima as the primary contender for the spot (because we all know there is no such thing as a perfect game in this godforsaken world). As a matter of fact, I would argue it's one of - if not - the best video game, movie, TV show, piece of media out there as of 2024. It's an emotional roller coaster that every man, woman, and child should experience at least once in a lifetime. That's for certain.

Feels like the most complete early-access game I've played in the past year or two. Still getting my bearings in the world of Soulmask, but so far it feels like a solid survival crafting game that has improved upon almost every aspect of its predecessors, including Conan Exiles and ARK Survival Evolved. It's hard to tell how much of the game is complete from the developer standpoint, but I see myself playing this gem in the long-term as long as the updates are as solid as its launch.

In 2024, survival crafting games are a dime a dozen, but Soulmask at a glance is a title that reaches far and beyond to stand out as a needle in a haystack, and it feels like it hit the mark and then some.

Current Verdict: A+
Other than the bland character models at creation, I'm impressed with the depth and ambition Soulmask is trying to achieve, especially since it literally came out of nowhere without the levels of marketing we're used to.

Oh, and whoever came up with the god-tier storage system with the auto filters (whether it was this game or another game in the past that started it), you deserve a raise.