Ghost of Tsushima: Legends has arrived courtesy of Ghost of Tsushima's free 1.12 update, and it's shockingly good. We had reasonably high expectations for this co-op excursion, but Sucker Punch's efforts have still blown us away. This isn't some throwaway multiplayer mode — the kind that we used to see bolted onto everything back in the PS3 days — Legends has enough quality and enough content to be a standalone release. In fact, Sony could have easily slapped a price tag on this and we wouldn't have questioned it — that's how good it is.
Legends offers two distinct modes, both entirely separate from the main single player campaign. Accessed through either the main menu, pause menu, or by speaking to an ominous old storyteller in Jin's adventure, getting into the action is easy. It's tearing yourself away that's the hard part.
Legends' addictive mission-based structure keeps you hooked with cosmetic rewards and loot. Unlike the main game, your chosen character — of four potential classes — has a power level, which grows as you discover and equip more effective gear. If you've dabbled with Destiny or any other loot-'em-up, you'll know how this works. A higher power level allows you to take on greater challenges, and greater challenges give you better rewards.
There are three tiers of difficulty in Legends: Bronze, Silver, and Gold, but by the time you reach Gold, you may as well be playing a different game to the one that you've been grinding through for the last ten hours. As the difficulty ramps up, coordinated teamwork becomes more and more of a necessity, with each player taking full advantage of their character's strengths.
Again, there are two modes to test your mettle. The first is Stories, which allows for two players to team up across a range of story-driven, objective-based missions. The scope and complexity of these missions expands as you progress, and there are even some puzzle-like elements to keep you on your toes. While you can pair up with strangers for Stories, it's clear that these missions have been designed with teamwork in mind. Assassinating two targets at the same time feels amazing, and standing back-to-back with a friend as zombie Mongols charge you from all sides can be thrilling.
The bottom line is that we never expected Ghost of Tsushima co-op to work this well. Almost everything from the single player campaign is here. All characters have full sword combos, projectile weapons, and the ability to block, parry, sprint, sneak, and climb. The only real difference is that you're free to combine with your fellow players, supporting each other with special, class-based moves and kicking demonic arse as a cohesive unit.
While Stories is great fun with the right partner, it's Legends' second mode that beckons you back over and over again. Survival sees up to four players defend strategic points on a map against hordes of undead Mongols and, at times, dangerous boss-like demons known as oni. It takes knowledge of enemy types and patient play to find success in Survival, as one downed ally can quickly snowball into two or three as your team is overwhelmed by sheer numbers.
Survival forces you to juggle Ghost of Tsushima's slick combat with tactical decision making. If one of the locations that you're supposed to be defending falls, then everyone loses a chunk of their maximum health, making the whole battle that much harder. Splitting up in order to defend multiple points at once is the name of the game, but if you get taken out all the way on the other side of the map, no one's coming to save you. The stakes are high, but it's an often gripping mode that rewards quick thinking as well as skill.
We're honestly enamoured with Legends. Sucker Punch has gone above and beyond what was required here, delivering a shockingly in-depth and, more importantly, incredibly fun co-op experience. Did Ghost of Tsushima need a full-on multiplayer expansion? Not at all, but now that it's here, an already exquisite PlayStation exclusive just became even more essential.
Comments 35
Still not bought this game yet.
Too many games to play and the PS5 is almost here.
I might get this after Christmas.
I feel like I would probably give this a try if I didn't hate multiplayer and I hadn't already deleted the game.
I'm almost done with the Stories mode, and I'm astounded by how much variety and story are in these missions for a free multiplayer add-on. I would argue that they're better than the majority of story and strike missions found in many looter shooters.
I will have to get this soon.........so much backlog The original watchdogs has aged I now know the difference between HDR and normal.
I wish more games would do their multiplayer modes like this. As separate (post-launch) releases.
This has a lot of benefits. A games campaign isn't impacted by the development of the multiplayer mode and there are not insane multiplayer trophies that make achieving a platinum impossible for those that don't play online at all. It also allows the teams to focus on the multiplayer mode separately, giving it more time and attention. I think its win-win.
Would love to try but don't have PS Plus subscription. Ah well.
It's an insane addition really. As a free update, I was expecting some cool co-op missions and not much else. But there's so much more to this, and the artistic changes are fantastic.
It's really, really, really well done. Can't recommend it enough.
its sooo good. I dont often play online, but i played with a few friends on survival mode last night. I expected to play maybe one round. 3 hours later we were still going. Its VERY well done.
I get the impression bombs are going to get nerfed by sucker punch sooner rather than later mind. High level players can run in and decimate the enemy before i even have a chance to strike.
My brother and I have been playing this a lot. I'm really anticipating the raid with the amount of content and the quality of it to boot.
Played a bit over the weekend, really enjoyed it, played a few stories with a random actually pretty enjoyable. Did a few survival modes think I've managed two so far, haven't played since I plated it so was a bit out of sync, but will continue to play for sure, just a shame my m8 hasn't bought it yet, would be good to do the stories with a m8. For free this is a great add on and I love when you go to legends on menu it changes to red such a nice look.
I've been trying to play this since Friday. I got as far as the first tutorial before I was interrupted.
Tonight I'm turning my phone off and locking my door. Very excited to try this.
@GoodGame This has been hands down my game of the year, and honestly I think my favorite game this generation. It is that good.
This is going to be a priority game for me when my PS5 arrives. Can't wait.
Yeah its great fun and its amazing its all free, i just hope Sony don't decide to add MTX to it because sadly it could be easily done.
@b1ackjack It can be played solo if you want it that way.
Sounds like it's a lot more than I expected. That's pretty cool.
Although...zombies...why zombies...why does every single game Sony publishes need to have some form of zombie in it for the last 5 years or so? And in a game that doesn't have zombies, they now add zombies post-launch. It's the weirdest phenomenon. I thought it had worn out by now.
Only played one match but it was pretty boring. Just wave after wave of enemies. Nothing else. Does it do more than this???
Really wish i could play as a bada** female samurai though 😢
@johncalmc if you ever redownload it, you can play everything solo that's available now. It'll be more difficult with some modes, but it's still fun
It's way, way better than I expected. Probably has more post game content than Anthem.
I'm not a mp guy, but this is loads of fun! Feels so badass when your squad just drops out of the sky and take out waves of enemies.
I’m impressed with Sony and Sucker Punch for doing this. It’s exactly what I have been hoping for — extended play options post release that doesn’t require purchasing as DLC. It’s very consumer friendly. Granted, I had considered selling the game or giving it to a friend after I platinum’d it, but now there’s no way I’m letting my copy go. So in that sense, SP just saved themselves a potential second hand sale of the game, so I guess it benefits them too. It’s a win-win.
Played a bit, but quickly felt it'll be more fun if I had friends.
It's so good I can't believe it's free. And they didn't even advertise it prior to the game's launch. No microtransactions either. It's great, I love it
Anyone else getting disconnected after 10 or so rounds of Survival?? Haven’t managed to complete a full run because it will error out “lan cable disconnected” then immediately connect back (but match ruined) no xp, items, or anything for the levels completed before
I really don't like multiplayer at all (I don't like talking to strangers and the toxicity is sometimes over the top), but I've been playing Stories solo and I can say that I love it. The only problem is since this was designed to be co-op, I get my butt kicked most of the time, lol!!
I might try some match matching with random strangers sometime... I don't do chat though so I hope chatting is not really required to play some missions.
@2cents Switch to WiFi or, if you can't do that, give your PS a static IP. The static IP won't stop it happening but reduced the frequency it happened for me. I gave up in the end and switched to WiFi. It's a PlayStation issue, not an issue with the game. There are suggestions it's caused by overheating. Not sure whether that's true but, for me, it certainly happened in some games a hell of a lot more than others.
@Zanao Then I will definitely get it
@GoodGame I really want to play this game but i'm only 40% through Red Dead 2 and have Horizon Zero Dawn on my shelf. Won't get to this until spring probably
Yeah. Same here. Still going through a few games, plus I was lucky enough to be getting a day one PS5, so will get this in a sale.
Did they add new trophies too?
Nice to see some fantastic support post launch that doesn't cost anything.
@Dan_ozzzy189 Yes. Trophies for solo NG+ and Legends multiplayer.
@-Sigma- that's really cool, I'm a bit surprised that wasn't mentioned in the article though.
It's a shame that Rockstar doesn't get praise like this for all of their years of free multiplayer updates.
GOTY so far for me. On par with TLOU2 if not better in some areas.
@ApostateMage Absolutely right!
Nonetheless: this seems amazing!
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