Ghostboy [Review]
Ghostboy is a tower defense game about mental health.
Ghostboy. Credit: Two Blackbirds
In Ghostboy, you help a family process trauma as represented by challenging tower defense levels. Its heartfelt narrative and storybook style artwork make it a different kind of tower defense experience that may not be for everyone, but is certainly interesting. As well as being an engaging game, Ghostboy aims to give players tools to help them deal with their own grief and loss.
Would you return from death to help your loved ones through grief? Make fate turning decisions, micromanage the family’s relationships and defeat the negative thoughts on tower defense levels. Watch out, your job will be harder the more severe their mental disorder is.
Ghostboy. Credit: Two Blackbirds
Ghostboy has a branching storyline with multiple endings based on your choices. You’ll have to play through more than once to see them all. The family in the game is dealing with the loss of a child due to an accident, and how they fare will be up to you.
There are 42 tower defense levels. You have 12 towers, 12 special abilities, and more options that you’ll use to survive. You build towers on floating platforms and place claymen down to operate and maintain them. As you kill creeps that approach, you gather up the currency that they drop with a Buddy you directly control, which you’ll use to build and upgrade towers. Your Buddy may also be able to directly attack creeps and affect their path to help you better manage them.
Ghostboy. Credit: Two Blackbirds
The game used the input of psychologists to ensure that the game dealt with the issues it depicts accurately. Ghostboy strives to provide education and understanding. 20 mental disorders are represented.
I’m not usually a big fan of tower defense games. Ghostboy proved to be different than most, because of its heartfelt story and emotional complexity that kept me interested. I admire developer Two Blackbirds’ drive to help educate players about mental health while giving them a fun gameplay experience.
Ghostboy is available now on PC (Steam).
Overall Score: 6/10
Played on: Steam Deck
