.
The presentation is awesome. The combat is top notch. The environment is beautiful.

However, holy crap, the story and characters are flat. There needed to be more from Jin. After the opening hours, we really don't see much of his internal conflict. This is especially highlighted if you don't B-line the main story. I can name on my hand, the number of times Jin expressed anything other than calm stoicism. The game would have greatly benefited from side missions that actually pushed Jin out of his detached reverie.

In many ways this game is made worse by the open world elements, not improved. We aren't doing a side quest because the developers believe it's important for us to experience something, we're doing a side quest because the open world format demands a certain level of content. And the reason this side quest exists is because the format demanded it, not because it was a story worth telling.

There's something so uninspired about filling your game with activities for the sake of the activity alone. Yes Ghost of Tsushima does more than most to dress up the open world checklisting, but as developers, you really have to ask yourself why it is you've decided to go open world, when you yourself seem to recognise how boring and stale this genre has become. Because, if you DIDN'T recognize that fact, why all the song and dance trying to make me ignore the fact that, even though a little bird is showing me the way, I am STILL on a mindless collect-athon.

If you are down for killer gameplay, killer visuals, and a passable story, then give Ghost of Tsushima a go.
However if you, like me, prefer tighter experiences that will shrink scope to achieve a high level of quality over experiences that spread themselves thin for the sake of it. Then give this a miss and go play something else.

I deeply believe that Ghost of Tsushima is hurt by its narrative weakness and flat delivery. And, if abandoning the open world format would have meant I've have had a story that matched the art design and gameplay, I would make that tradeoff every time. Because then Ghost of Tsushima would be remembered as a timeless product. Not as the competent product it is now.