Forbes called the game a mix of “Titanfall, Dishonored, and Superhot.” PC Gamer says it's in between “Mirror's Edge and Dishonored.” For me, add Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance to the above, and bam you have Ghostrunner. I’ve played all of those above Well… Dishonored I still need to finish but that’s neither here nor there.
After an assassination mission has gone wrong(You need to watch the intro cutscene starting before you reach the main menu to display a prologue of events. Kinda like Vagrant Story. Please don’t miss it.) You(Jack) are somehow alive and must climb Dharma Tower to defeat the Keymaster. A ruthless being ordering the people to work so hard, she’s milking them until they bleed while the rich stay rich. As a ghost runner who acts as a peacekeeping force such despicable actions are irredeemable! Therefore, she must be terminated. Working alongside Interesting companions as you climb to the top. And honestly, it reminds me heavily of Titanfall 2's(T2) structure where you’re not alone in your fight. Greatly enhancing my experience and making my main goal not so daunting anymore.
Give me a sharp katana, good parkour, cyberpunk setting, and you have my attention. Ghostrunner(GR) embodies all these traits and I am extremely thrilled to report the sheer momentum of slashing unaware enemies is satisfying. Movement feels super smooth and the story kept me intrigued. Teasing me with Alan Turing's ideas.
Environments are plentiful here. Industrialized factories are knit tightly together with turbines and a hodgepodge that works of uneven steel apartment buildings littering areas to traverse as you hop around rooftops and swing about like Tarzan. Felt like I was back playing Cyberpunk 2077. The setting fits. Jumping from wall to wall as I collided past each billboard was not boring at all. Levels range from less than 5-10min to finish early on and can bloom to 30 minutes later on for those who check their surroundings carefully. These areas are carefully designed to induce almost an illusion to make you think they’re larger than intended despite following a linear path. Collectibles, tucked away in places you wouldn’t expect, reward those who search every nook and cranny and offer a nice blurb of lore exposition.
Combat is the bread and butter here. You can’t shoot with a gun sadly, but who needs a gun when you have a katana that can delete your foes in a single blow? Parry this you filthy casual. If you are a master at parrying from a popular Souls franchise or katana-wielding games like Raiden from Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, you’ll thrive here. Unfortunately, I suck at parrying. And yet to my delight in GR, they're not super strict on windows to retaliate. Play a Tetris-like upgrade system and equip chip blocks. Some blocks increase your chances of reflecting an attack. Add another dash or blink, etc. Or activate more options in assist mode, I’ll touch on this later. Under the circumstances, a bumbling dude like me can turn the tide of battle. Incredibly satisfying when a gunner tries to shoot me, only to see Jack slapping the projectile back! Hah! Moreover, despite being weak as hell in the beginning. He turns into an effective killing machine as you progress deeper to unlock new abilities. Bullet time exists here. Providing a nice twist to dodging, and I love how one of Star War’s most iconic powers is utilized to flick enemies away like a filthy bug in your vision. Yuck.
It should be noted, throughout the game if you get hit once you will die. I think dying in one hit, as a rule, is a tricky feature for developers. Lean hard and players will think it's too punishing. Go too easy and breeze through like a cakewalk. Ghost of Tsushima and Superhot tread the fine line for better or worse. Thankfully, GR is smack dab on the edge of the better side. With Assist Mode, someone like me who sucks at intense action-packed titles can somehow become an expert. Consisting of three features: One extra life(This makes it so you can survive one blow), a shorter cooldown to use abilities more, and slower gameplay speeds for more leeway in reacting. The mode single-handedly and substantially changed my experience as I sped through slicing and dicing. I was frowning heavily, during the early parts since I felt the difficulty was a bit too tough and challenging. Once I turned on some of those options my whole expression turned 180. I’m grinning like a loon and nodding my head to the beat of the music(composed by Daniel Deluxe, and man does his name roll off the tongue) where the rhythm and synth wave work in tandem to the combat. Creating a pleasant tempo to listen to. I did feel some tracks were repetitive. Although, after re-listening to the OST it works in its favor. Offering systematic beats Hm hm hm hm.
Level design for the most part is solid to a degree, I find myself reminiscing Mirror's Edge and T2. Both employ excellent sequences using parkour and unique elements. By taking advantage of environment placement and visual hints. GR is much the same. There is a frenetic pace from which you slice, parry, dodge, and adjust your balance to the course of platforming segments. Not too large and not too small either. Designed well to keep you focused, without throwing a hard curveball in your direction. One of the levels I enjoyed repeatedly are the cyber void chunks. Small bite-sized puzzle sections in the cyber world, complete these and you are rewarded a new ability. Each puzzle isn’t copy pasted from the previous iteration. You always have something new to look forward to: from jumping pieces, to mind twists, and in some cases, you have to solve something inspired by Tetris. They offer a fantastic change of pace from the usual combat of fighting and I couldn’t wait to encounter more.
The checkpoint system is very fair and re-spawning instant. I also love how wall running is slighter better here than in previous parkour titles. Over there, I can wall-run until I petered out in the end. Here, I can continue forever. Which is appreciated. In the past, I usually miscalculate. Falling to the dark abyss and greeting death like an old friend, since the main character can only wall-run a set amount. GR removes that entirely. Go the distance without fear of falling. Lastly, when you die, the dialogue resets instead of continuing as if you already know what the characters will talk about. A nice refresher for those who re-spawn repeatedly and want to hear the rest of the conversation.
Moving on. I have to talk about my mixed feelings. Not a positive or a negative. But for the sake of transparency, I'm noting them down. More often than not, I am blocked by forced enemy encounters in some sections. These encounters require me to beat a variety of enemies before I can progress. I don’t like this method, because it enforces a design to halt pacing and force players to eliminate everyone within a room or decently open-sized areas. Fighting through trial and error until you get it right. And while this is a fine idea in theory, the execution leaves much to be desired. You constantly retry to win against these enemies, forcing yourself to die when I think the developers could’ve taken different avenues instead of defeating everyone. Why not stealth? Eliminate some, then move on. Find a key while eliminating some baddies, then continue to your next objective. Why can’t I travel and evade my way to victory? Aim for higher platforming and perhaps lose my skills to force a no-power handicap. Or even to the point where there is a large open area and all you have to do is find any path to get there. Embracing diverse amounts of unique sections and in effect creates more player freedom than constrained enemy encounters. Would run in parallel with the constant momentum the game tries to inject. Additionally, I think extending the campaign to flesh out the worldbuilding, villain, and characters would work. More bosses too, since there are a few here. Nonetheless, how One More Level & Slipgate Ironworks (the developers of GR) conducted them was fairly balanced and unique in my books. As a result, I don’t see a reason why more were not included. They offer creative ways to think outside the box and provide a satisfying feeling when beating them.
With all that said, I don’t think my mixed feelings bring the whole game down a ton. I didn’t experience any bugs, crashes, or glitches. If anything, the intriguing story, slick combat, tight balance of difficulty with solid-level design, and gorgeous cyberpunk aesthetic left me hungry for more. A very generous checkpoint system and fitting synth wave OST takes care to almost override nearly all blemishes I had. And while the campaign is short, I clocked in at a little over five hours. There is a bleeding edge of content in store for newcomers or veterans looking for action-platforming. And Ghostrunner fits the bill. And hey! If you do buy it, You can be excited with me when the sequel launches later this year!
7.5/10
6-22-23 - Edited for clarification on one hit death. And removed some useless words. 99% of review still intact.
After an assassination mission has gone wrong(You need to watch the intro cutscene starting before you reach the main menu to display a prologue of events. Kinda like Vagrant Story. Please don’t miss it.) You(Jack) are somehow alive and must climb Dharma Tower to defeat the Keymaster. A ruthless being ordering the people to work so hard, she’s milking them until they bleed while the rich stay rich. As a ghost runner who acts as a peacekeeping force such despicable actions are irredeemable! Therefore, she must be terminated. Working alongside Interesting companions as you climb to the top. And honestly, it reminds me heavily of Titanfall 2's(T2) structure where you’re not alone in your fight. Greatly enhancing my experience and making my main goal not so daunting anymore.
Give me a sharp katana, good parkour, cyberpunk setting, and you have my attention. Ghostrunner(GR) embodies all these traits and I am extremely thrilled to report the sheer momentum of slashing unaware enemies is satisfying. Movement feels super smooth and the story kept me intrigued. Teasing me with Alan Turing's ideas.
Environments are plentiful here. Industrialized factories are knit tightly together with turbines and a hodgepodge that works of uneven steel apartment buildings littering areas to traverse as you hop around rooftops and swing about like Tarzan. Felt like I was back playing Cyberpunk 2077. The setting fits. Jumping from wall to wall as I collided past each billboard was not boring at all. Levels range from less than 5-10min to finish early on and can bloom to 30 minutes later on for those who check their surroundings carefully. These areas are carefully designed to induce almost an illusion to make you think they’re larger than intended despite following a linear path. Collectibles, tucked away in places you wouldn’t expect, reward those who search every nook and cranny and offer a nice blurb of lore exposition.
Combat is the bread and butter here. You can’t shoot with a gun sadly, but who needs a gun when you have a katana that can delete your foes in a single blow? Parry this you filthy casual. If you are a master at parrying from a popular Souls franchise or katana-wielding games like Raiden from Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, you’ll thrive here. Unfortunately, I suck at parrying. And yet to my delight in GR, they're not super strict on windows to retaliate. Play a Tetris-like upgrade system and equip chip blocks. Some blocks increase your chances of reflecting an attack. Add another dash or blink, etc. Or activate more options in assist mode, I’ll touch on this later. Under the circumstances, a bumbling dude like me can turn the tide of battle. Incredibly satisfying when a gunner tries to shoot me, only to see Jack slapping the projectile back! Hah! Moreover, despite being weak as hell in the beginning. He turns into an effective killing machine as you progress deeper to unlock new abilities. Bullet time exists here. Providing a nice twist to dodging, and I love how one of Star War’s most iconic powers is utilized to flick enemies away like a filthy bug in your vision. Yuck.
It should be noted, throughout the game if you get hit once you will die. I think dying in one hit, as a rule, is a tricky feature for developers. Lean hard and players will think it's too punishing. Go too easy and breeze through like a cakewalk. Ghost of Tsushima and Superhot tread the fine line for better or worse. Thankfully, GR is smack dab on the edge of the better side. With Assist Mode, someone like me who sucks at intense action-packed titles can somehow become an expert. Consisting of three features: One extra life(This makes it so you can survive one blow), a shorter cooldown to use abilities more, and slower gameplay speeds for more leeway in reacting. The mode single-handedly and substantially changed my experience as I sped through slicing and dicing. I was frowning heavily, during the early parts since I felt the difficulty was a bit too tough and challenging. Once I turned on some of those options my whole expression turned 180. I’m grinning like a loon and nodding my head to the beat of the music(composed by Daniel Deluxe, and man does his name roll off the tongue) where the rhythm and synth wave work in tandem to the combat. Creating a pleasant tempo to listen to. I did feel some tracks were repetitive. Although, after re-listening to the OST it works in its favor. Offering systematic beats Hm hm hm hm.
Level design for the most part is solid to a degree, I find myself reminiscing Mirror's Edge and T2. Both employ excellent sequences using parkour and unique elements. By taking advantage of environment placement and visual hints. GR is much the same. There is a frenetic pace from which you slice, parry, dodge, and adjust your balance to the course of platforming segments. Not too large and not too small either. Designed well to keep you focused, without throwing a hard curveball in your direction. One of the levels I enjoyed repeatedly are the cyber void chunks. Small bite-sized puzzle sections in the cyber world, complete these and you are rewarded a new ability. Each puzzle isn’t copy pasted from the previous iteration. You always have something new to look forward to: from jumping pieces, to mind twists, and in some cases, you have to solve something inspired by Tetris. They offer a fantastic change of pace from the usual combat of fighting and I couldn’t wait to encounter more.
The checkpoint system is very fair and re-spawning instant. I also love how wall running is slighter better here than in previous parkour titles. Over there, I can wall-run until I petered out in the end. Here, I can continue forever. Which is appreciated. In the past, I usually miscalculate. Falling to the dark abyss and greeting death like an old friend, since the main character can only wall-run a set amount. GR removes that entirely. Go the distance without fear of falling. Lastly, when you die, the dialogue resets instead of continuing as if you already know what the characters will talk about. A nice refresher for those who re-spawn repeatedly and want to hear the rest of the conversation.
Moving on. I have to talk about my mixed feelings. Not a positive or a negative. But for the sake of transparency, I'm noting them down. More often than not, I am blocked by forced enemy encounters in some sections. These encounters require me to beat a variety of enemies before I can progress. I don’t like this method, because it enforces a design to halt pacing and force players to eliminate everyone within a room or decently open-sized areas. Fighting through trial and error until you get it right. And while this is a fine idea in theory, the execution leaves much to be desired. You constantly retry to win against these enemies, forcing yourself to die when I think the developers could’ve taken different avenues instead of defeating everyone. Why not stealth? Eliminate some, then move on. Find a key while eliminating some baddies, then continue to your next objective. Why can’t I travel and evade my way to victory? Aim for higher platforming and perhaps lose my skills to force a no-power handicap. Or even to the point where there is a large open area and all you have to do is find any path to get there. Embracing diverse amounts of unique sections and in effect creates more player freedom than constrained enemy encounters. Would run in parallel with the constant momentum the game tries to inject. Additionally, I think extending the campaign to flesh out the worldbuilding, villain, and characters would work. More bosses too, since there are a few here. Nonetheless, how One More Level & Slipgate Ironworks (the developers of GR) conducted them was fairly balanced and unique in my books. As a result, I don’t see a reason why more were not included. They offer creative ways to think outside the box and provide a satisfying feeling when beating them.
With all that said, I don’t think my mixed feelings bring the whole game down a ton. I didn’t experience any bugs, crashes, or glitches. If anything, the intriguing story, slick combat, tight balance of difficulty with solid-level design, and gorgeous cyberpunk aesthetic left me hungry for more. A very generous checkpoint system and fitting synth wave OST takes care to almost override nearly all blemishes I had. And while the campaign is short, I clocked in at a little over five hours. There is a bleeding edge of content in store for newcomers or veterans looking for action-platforming. And Ghostrunner fits the bill. And hey! If you do buy it, You can be excited with me when the sequel launches later this year!
7.5/10
6-22-23 - Edited for clarification on one hit death. And removed some useless words. 99% of review still intact.
9 Comments
@RedBackLoggd Unfortunately not. GR does the same. So you can't really go in any direction. You follow a linear path through and through. However, some areas in the game allow you to take multiple avenues to tackle enemies from left/right side and even from above or below. So there is a decent amount of verticality here. Personally I didn't mind it in ME and Metro(if were talking about Metro 2033 series). In regards to the a fake open ended nature. Although I wish it was more open. Granted in ME Catalyst they do take a more open-ended approach to missions. But the problem in that entry was another rinse and repeat design I didn't like among a host of other issues too long to state here. But suffice it to say, I like the OG Mirror's Edge than the reboot one lol.
Latter. It's a main component of the game. One hit and you die. But with assist mode you technically have two lives. So the game's difficulty is greatly lessened than dying in one blow. This is mitigated further with the instant respawn mechanic and fair checkpoint system. So you barely lose progress when dying. Good catch on it. I think I didn't state it clearly. So I'll edit it a bit to make sure the one hit death is clear to readers.
Latter. It's a main component of the game. One hit and you die. But with assist mode you technically have two lives. So the game's difficulty is greatly lessened than dying in one blow. This is mitigated further with the instant respawn mechanic and fair checkpoint system. So you barely lose progress when dying. Good catch on it. I think I didn't state it clearly. So I'll edit it a bit to make sure the one hit death is clear to readers.
To clarify, I don't have an issue with a linear pathway- most video games do that and it leads to great design choices. What I mean is the illusion of choice wherein an area is made open, only for that openness to not matter as the developers only want you to take one path forward.
I didn't even know there was a reboot haha.
Ah copy. I don't know how frustrating that would be in an action game. I'll take your word for it that it's tolerable, especially with assist mode on, but the only games I've played that worked with that system were platformers.
I didn't even know there was a reboot haha.
Ah copy. I don't know how frustrating that would be in an action game. I'll take your word for it that it's tolerable, especially with assist mode on, but the only games I've played that worked with that system were platformers.
@RedBackLoggd Ah I see what you mean. I think the design works here. linearity wise. Just wish the dev's didn't make me fight enemies in a room or larger area.
Yeah, surprised the heck out of me since I was expecting a sequel than a reboot for ME.
Yeah, surprised the heck out of me since I was expecting a sequel than a reboot for ME.
Yeah, I see what you're saying. Solid review overall.
I noticed you put edit log notes haha. What inspired you to outline those?
I noticed you put edit log notes haha. What inspired you to outline those?
@RedBackLoggd Honestly just to be transparent. I don't like changing/editing a review after I published it. Because I already go through more than 4 to 5+ revisions already lol. When I finish a review I'm like "this is done." In a way so that I don't need to make any major changes/overhaul so readers will remember that and helps by not forcing them to re-read it again due to any mistakes I should've seen in my earlier drafts. This way they know what I changed and serves as a reminder of what I did. However, I'm not perfect, and as you can see I had to edit it for further clarification. Which I should thank you for commenting about the one hit death. I want to avoid confusion for viewers. Whether it's in a small part of this review or in other notable areas.
Personally, idm reading notes in other reviews because usually they offer kinda like a P.S. or personal note from the op more often than not in a candid manner that I find brings more uniqueness to their reviews. Kinda like yours. So I like that.
Personally, idm reading notes in other reviews because usually they offer kinda like a P.S. or personal note from the op more often than not in a candid manner that I find brings more uniqueness to their reviews. Kinda like yours. So I like that.
I respect that, and I imagine it must make you happier as a person since you're not constantly second-guessing yourself. Unfortunately, I'm in the opposite boat. Idk if it's perfectionism or self-doubt, but I often re-read my older reviews and make many changes, whether it's simple word choice swap or syntax restructuring. I don't consider it misleading since I'm not changing my original opinion or anything, just trying to phrase it better so the words flow nicer.
Yeah, the notes section, in my case, is for thoughts/observations about the game I wasn't able to naturally fit inside my standard review. They are nice to just list without having to worry about stream of consciousness haha.
I actually had a second question for you man since it's afflicting me now- writer's block, how do you get over it?
Yeah, the notes section, in my case, is for thoughts/observations about the game I wasn't able to naturally fit inside my standard review. They are nice to just list without having to worry about stream of consciousness haha.
I actually had a second question for you man since it's afflicting me now- writer's block, how do you get over it?
@RedBackLoggd. Yeah i'm satisfied when I don't need to second guess myself.
Ah i think that's fine to do. Writing is a constant process. So making those changes I feel is admirable in an effort to keep your skills sharp but also keeping in mind any additional details you may have missed during the initial drafts. I've gone back and forth over the years whether or not I should've added more/less in my reviews. Though I tend not to. As one of reviewers I follow called it as a "review is a historical piece." There's more he said but how I took that is a review is a piece of history and shouldn't be changed constantly since at that moment it no longer is a review at the time of publishing but something different. Granted there's many different nuances how other people take that, but I don't see it as neither good or bad. More as take it as you will. Imo. I don't mind reviews being changed because sometimes authors may have something new to say or need to edit to eliminate inaccurate info.
Oof i'm like the worst case to ask for writer's block lmao. I take days/weeks to overcome it.actually i'm not sure if i overcome it because sometimes I worry what I wrote down sounds like garbage Some days I think of it like a chore tbh. I get drained as hell and in an effort to stop that I just take a nap while ruminating on possible sentence and word choice. Sometimes I watch anime/films/go outside and take walks to relax. In order to let my creativity rest for a second until a eureka moment will arrive so i can immediate write it down so I don't forget. Even playing a new indie game may help.
TL:DR of this is to take a break and do something else i think to try and overcome writers block.
Ah i think that's fine to do. Writing is a constant process. So making those changes I feel is admirable in an effort to keep your skills sharp but also keeping in mind any additional details you may have missed during the initial drafts. I've gone back and forth over the years whether or not I should've added more/less in my reviews. Though I tend not to. As one of reviewers I follow called it as a "review is a historical piece." There's more he said but how I took that is a review is a piece of history and shouldn't be changed constantly since at that moment it no longer is a review at the time of publishing but something different. Granted there's many different nuances how other people take that, but I don't see it as neither good or bad. More as take it as you will. Imo. I don't mind reviews being changed because sometimes authors may have something new to say or need to edit to eliminate inaccurate info.
Oof i'm like the worst case to ask for writer's block lmao. I take days/weeks to overcome it.
TL:DR of this is to take a break and do something else i think to try and overcome writers block.
Yeah, well put mate. It's definitely a subjective thing with good and bad aspects. If it leads to a radically different opinion, then I agree the OG should stay, but if you're effectively the same, then maybe it's okay.
Lmao, yeah, taking a break makes sense. I guess my issue is it's hard to take breaks because I'm on a timer- like, I only have so much time/week to game, and I don't like to start a new game if I have not finished my review of the preceding one as I'm afraid of forgetting stuff/getting biased. Doing other activities sounds like a great idea though- instead of trying to brute force it.
Lmao, yeah, taking a break makes sense. I guess my issue is it's hard to take breaks because I'm on a timer- like, I only have so much time/week to game, and I don't like to start a new game if I have not finished my review of the preceding one as I'm afraid of forgetting stuff/getting biased. Doing other activities sounds like a great idea though- instead of trying to brute force it.
RedBackLoggd
11 months ago
The comparison to Mirror's Edge does make me a little apprehensive as one of my problems with that game's level design (as well as Metro for that matter) was the fake open-ended nature: I hated how it seemed like you could go about your own way, only for it to become obvious that the game wanted you to pursue a singular path. Does GR avoid that?
I was confused- is the onehit death an optional game mode or an actual part of the game?