Ebenezer and the Invisible World from Play On Worlds and Orbit Studio is a 2.5D adventure revolving around Ebenezer Scrooge and is set after the events of his classic story. Check out our Ebenezer and the Invisible World review!

Join Ebenezer Scrooge and a team of spectral allies as they battle to save London from the clutches of the wealthy industrialist, Caspar Malthus, and his militant Private Guard. With each Ghost lending their unique abilities, explore the dark corners of London and uncover the sinister influence of the Dark Spirit and an army of Unrepentant Ghosts. Will you have the courage to confront Caspar and stop his malevolent plans before it is too late?

Ebenezer and the Invisible World from Play On Worlds and Orbit Studio follows Ebenezer Scrooge, the character from Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol. As a quick recap of A Christmas Carol, Ebenezer Scrooge is a grumpy old man who has a dislike for the holiday season. After being met by the ghosts of Past, Present, and Future one evening, his view changes, and he embraces the Christmas holiday.

This new game is set in a world where Ebenezer has already met the ghosts and is on his way to helping other people to like the holiday season. As the game begins, we are introduced to Caspar, a cruel man. He has seen the ghosts of Past, Present, and Future, but then a dark spirit came to see him and tempted him into staying like he was. Since he was beyond redemption, Ebenezer took on the job to save Caspar’s future before it’s too late.

I liked how the gameplay for this Metroidvania experience was handled. As you walk through each area, you can attack with the Square button, and pressing the Square button multiple times will chain attacks. I liked that the animations were short, so if you need to cancel an attack, just press a different button, and you won’t be stuck with the attack you’re trying to do. Ebenezer has an HP bar and a blue spirit bar, which is used to summon ghosts that can help him attack enemies. Since he can see the Invisible World, you’ll see both London’s citizens and ghosts from the afterlife – and most of them will be after you!

I also liked the level design, which makes for a surprisingly huge map to explore. All rooms are connected to one another, and there’s often more than one exit in each room – which is luckily well indicated on the game’s map. Speaking of the map, I would have liked a mini-map on the game’s HUD so that it would have made it so I didn’t have to open the full map every time I needed it.

On the difficulty side, the game in itself wasn’t too hard on the normal setting, but I had an issue with the save points locations. They are very far from one another, so it could take you up to one hour to reach the next one. If you lose all your health while making your way to another save point, you’ll be back at the previous save points with everything in your inventory reverted to how you were when you last saved. The only thing that doesn’t reset is the map progression. When you’re beginning to run low on health and have no idea when you’ll get to the next save point, you might be tempted to backtrack to the previous one, but that means you might end up dying along the way anyway since you will end up fighting all enemies on the way back.

As for the presentation of this game, it is top-notch. The hand-drawn art style is impressive and detailed. Each new location made me stop and look at all the details around me. The animations are also near-perfect, and I already mentioned how they actually helped with the gameplay when chaining attacks, for example. Meeting new enemies and taking a moment to watch their animations was something I ended up doing… even if it did put me in danger more than once!

I also have to mention the accessibility of this title, which I thought was lacking. Even on my 55-inch TV, the font size is tiny, and it’s not possible to increase its size. When talking with NPC -screenshot below – it’s also too small, and consulting the inventory goes into ridiculously small territory. When you’re talking with an NPC, the text also auto-scrolls instead of allowing you to read at your own pace, which could be annoying to some players.

For this release, you can expect a full trophy list with a Platinum trophy to work on. The list includes 12 Bronze trophies, 9 Silver trophies, and 6 Gold trophies. Several of them will unlock as you progress through the story, along with completing side-quests. The last ones will unlock as you complete your collectibles collection of hidden weapons and various upgrades. Will you be adding this Platinum trophy to your collection?

Ebenezer and the Invisible World is a fun and amazing-looking Metroidvania that will take you helping Ebenezer on his quest. You’ll discover various locations and enemies from another world. The gameplay is crisp, and I liked exploring this game. Although there are a few accessibility issues that can hopefully be corrected in a future patch, I recommend this game. Ebenezer and the Invisible World is out on PlayStation 5 with a $19.99 price tag. There’s also a PlayStation 4 version of the game available for the same price as a separate purchase.

Disclaimer
This Ebenezer and the Invisible World review is based on a PlayStation copy provided by Play On Worlds.