Ebenezer and the Invisible World Review: Scrooge Needs a Ghostbuster
One thing humanity is always on the hunt for is a novel idea. Sure, we also enjoy swimming around in a pool of nostalgia and recycled concepts, but there’s something to be said for being the first to try something new. As someone who’s not only been reviewing games for a decade but has been playing video games my entire life, it takes a lot to surprise me. But that’s precisely what Ebenezer and the Invisible World managed to do. It took the well-known tale of A Christmas Carol and continues the story in a Metroidvania adventure. Stranger yet, the hero is the now redeemed and reformed Ebenezer Scrooge. He’s traded in his bah humbugs for caring for his fellow citizens, which is helpful since everything is at risk. A wealthy industrialist named Caspar Malthus has been shown a vision of the future by three ghosts, much like Scrooge before him. But then a fourth, malevolent spirit suggests he take future knowledge to twist the present to his advantage. And though Scrooge will have to stop him, his ultimate goal is to find out how to save Caspar from these supernatural machinations.
Ghostly Malevolence
The key concept in the game is Scrooge’s ability to see and interact with departed spirits. He’s first visited by a ghost named Eric, who knew Caspar when he was a young man and saw in him the potential to become an agent of hope. He’s one of many spectral allies tethered to the earth by their regrets, contrasted with the sinister Unrepentant Spirits that serve as the majority of the game’s enemies. There’s also the Malthus Guard, a security force armed with futuristic weaponry meant to beat down the populace and help usher in an era of unprecedented productivity and wealth, at least for those comfortable at the top of society. Caspar and his minions could care less for the bedraggled masses crushed underneath their boots.
As you explore the vast world map in Ebenezer and the Invisible World, you’ll come across many restless spirits begging for a helping hand. By helping them make things right with a variety of side quests, you’ll gain the spirit’s assistance. Blue-colored ghosts serve as new traversal abilities, letting you dash through walls, grapple vertical heights, glide, and much more. Red-colored ghosts instead serve as new attacks for Ebenezer. Eric will leap upwards at an angle, slashing anything in his path with a sword; there’s a strongman who wields a mean ball and chain and even a fashionable woman who summons ethereal birds to protect Ebenezer. Then there are ghosts you can equip as familiars, the first of which is a young spirit named Courage that attacks nearby foes with a bow and arrow. There are a ton of ghosts in the game, and helping most of them out is totally optional. That said, there’s no downside to doing so, since you’ll get a new ability or attack as a result. The tricky thing is often finding what the ghost needs to fulfill their quest. And let me tell you, there’s a lot of exploration to do in the game and not nearly enough direction for these quests.
Ebenezer Needs a Fitbit
Besides the ghost ally mechanic, Scrooge is pretty spry in his own right. He’s capable of a backward dash, can jump and climb ledges, and even does his own dirty work. He attacks foes with his trusty cane and can swap around the cane parts for different benefits. My favorite was a lion head that allowed my cane to fire projectiles, though at the extreme downside of making it nearly impossible to accumulate spirit. Usually, a simple physical attack with your cane on a foe will recover a small portion of Scrooge’s spirit, but the lion head made it problematic since my projectile didn’t accumulate any spirit. And though Scrooge can do decent damage with his trusty weapon, your ghosts’ attacks deal a lot more damage. This makes the game a careful balancing act of using your ghost abilities when you most need them, and not running out of spirit meter in crucial battles. I should note the blue ghosts don’t cost any spirit since they’re your platforming abilities.
One of my bigger surprises in Ebenezer and the Invisible World is how grindy of a game it is. You’re relatively free to explore, but you’ll usually want to do so in order to progress the main plot or farm materials. You can trade them in to upgrade Scrooge’s base health and spirit meter, which is vital. You’ll also come across a ghostly shopkeeper named Jaspar, who sells various goods. That includes a ton of Christmas Carol-themed food like mashed potatoes, roast turkey, and more disgusting options. He also has some really amazing equipment, though that will cost coin, as well as specific materials. Luckily, once you’ve fought a foe enough times, you’ll be able to check out the bestiary to see where to farm specific materials. That provides the side benefit of marveling over the amazing artwork on display in each of the game’s ghostly foes.
Depart, Unrepentant Spirit!
In any Metroidvania, the boss battles are a highlight for me, and I’m happy to say that trend continues here. Though the first boss battle against a human foe underwhelmed me somewhat, each one afterward got progressively more creative and challenging. Most of those bosses were Unrepentant Spirits, such as one in an insane asylum with arms totally bound. To fight you, he leaps around like a deranged frog, dislodging rocks from the ceiling and generally doing his best to crash into you. One of the most impressive battles is against what I’ll call a ghost golem, composed of rubble and angry spirits. Each boss will test your skills and require you to have fast reflexes to respond to their numerous attacks.
Visually, Ebenezer and the Invisible World is really breathtaking. It features hand-drawn artwork that brings everything to life, from the crowded city streets to the many ghosts inhabiting the world. Some of my favorite moments were when the background artwork just slapped me awake, such as when I was wandering through the streets of London only to spy a gigantic, bound ghost glaring angrily at me. The same attention to detail is present in the many areas you’ll explore, from the London Observatory to Bedlam Asylum and even a dank and twisted Necropolis. Musically, the game fares equally well. The music not only does an excellent job of setting the tone, but it also sounds as if A Christmas Carol were an action movie, which is pretty accurate for the adventure.
You’d probably suspect by now that I’d have only happy things to say about Ebenezer and the Invisible World. And while I very much enjoyed the game overall, there were several issues that kept me from enjoying it more. And for the sake of other Metroidvania fans, I’m going to try and be as thorough as possible. Let me note that I had the option to review the game on Switch but was informed that the most stable version of the game was the Steam one. I learned very quickly that stable is a relative term. For one thing, the game had a bunch of unfortunate little glitches. One is how it was hard to quit to the desktop from the pause screen. At first, I did so by paging to the far right and then scrolling all the way down. But over time, the cursor on that page disappeared when trying to select to quit, meaning I had to force quit with the keyboard and mouse every time I stopped playing. I’ve also had enemies totally disappear on me, and not intentionally. In the Necropolis, there’s a spider foe that dangles from a long chain. Several times, I encountered the chain with no spider attached. I’ve even had my ghost familiar Courage suddenly disappear despite me not having clicked to deactivate it. Hell, I’ve even had my ledge grab ability not function properly, as well as suffering extreme slowdown when facing the Necropolis boss.
Needs a Good Caning
Unfortunately, that’s not all. The game is massive to explore. And while that’s fine when it works, it’s a pain when you’re grinding your way around to find ghostly train stations and save points. Those save points are few and far between, and often, the train stations are surprisingly far away from where they’re located. Also annoying is that while you keep items you’ve collected and general progress when you die, you don’t keep map you’ve unlocked. So, if you haven’t saved after exploring a huge chunk of the game, you’re in the dark. As far as the writing present in the game, in general, it’s fine, though it’s wordier than I feel is strictly necessary. I’d love a way to skip dialogue after having seen it once before. There are also typos, such as one quest to light streetlamps that says “let up” instead of “lit up.” One time, Scrooge’s dialogue box was even completely blank. But for me, the worst thing about the verbose writing is it misses the point. Whenever you get a new attack ghost, it’s not immediately clear from the description how their attack works. More annoying, it doesn’t indicate secondary abilities, such as how the Strongman ghost’s ball and chain can break walls. I could actually keep going about glitches and awkward design, but I think my point has been sufficiently clarified.
Ghost of a Chance
Novelty is a steep challenge, and Ebenezer and the Invisible World succeeds admirably at showing us something new and exciting. The game features a cool concept married with challenging and invigorating gameplay. The problem is that it’s still shackled by glitches and occasionally poor game design. While the adventure is expansive and easily could take 10+ hours to get through, it’s a little hard to wholeheartedly recommend until many of the issues mentioned above have been addressed.
Final Verdict: 3.5/5
Available on: PC (reviewed), Switch, PS5, Xbox Series X|S; Publisher: Play on Worlds; Developer: Orbit Studio; Players: 1; Released: November 3rd, 2023; MSRP: $19.99
Editor’s note: The publisher provided a review copy to Hey Poor Player.
