I first heard about this game when the sequel was announced at the 2023 State of Play. To be honest I was surprised it flew under my radar at all. Maybe subconsciously my first impression before playing was that it seemed like yet another platformer game trying to reinvent the wheel. What caught my attention though was the combat, and motivated me to buy it during the steam summer sale. The first thing you learn is that Ghostrunner is a high octane bullet timing platformer where the focus is on how you secure the kill, letting you get creative with it. Everyone besides bosses are one-hit kills, including yourself. And with a well balanced checkpoint system this doesn’t cause too much frustration except on rare occasions. Of course I wouldn’t have balked had they made the player 2 hits, especially for the more cluttered areas. But no, I think it works for what they’re going for here. It makes it all the more satisfying once you get the hang of the movement and bullet timings and start slicing through enemies like butter.
Ghostrunner is very tight-knit, much like the tower you traverse throughout the game. Your main tools are your wall-running and your grappling hook to get to higher elevations, with more things like zip lines introduced later. By the way, this is a bit of a deep cut but does the grappling hook remind anyone of the electro-whip that the assassin class had in Lawbreakers, the failed Overwatch clone? Just me? Alright. In addition to that you have four main abilities on top of your basic slice such as an energy wave that shoots out horizontally or a wind pulse that kills enemies in close proximity. With around 17 or so levels the game is very good at keeping things feeling fresh with some levels very short and some a tad longer. You’re never stagnant, whether you’re unlocking a new ability, being introduced to a new parkour element, or enemies are gaining a new ability. There's always something for you to improve on and adapt to.
Being someone who likes to get a taste of everything I’m happy to say each skill has its place here and I really enjoyed being able to freely swap out abilities at any point for what the situation called for without being penalized. I would say it got repetitive if not for the stellar design that knew when to give you platforming and when to give you enemies. Any time you face a gauntlet of enemies you’ll be back to zipping around like a mad monkey right after. It’s really hard to say which one I preferred, they both have their moments of oh-so-sweet sweet endorphin releases. Besides normal platforming there’s also Cybervoid sections which consist of puzzles in a highly stylized digital world. They annoyed me at first but then started to grow on me after a while. They’re all very derivative of puzzles you’ve likely seen many times before, but still. They get the old noggin working and really shouldn’t be doing anything else.
There’s no traditional swordplay here. Your main move is just a simple slash, but that doesn’t stop you from feeling like a badass as you rely on auxiliary flourishes and listen to an absolutely phenomenal soundtrack that I’m listening to right now as I review the game. If you get nothing from this review then at the very least go listen to the soundtrack as soon as you can. Daniel Deluxe really brought life to the already gorgeous visuals, be it in trippy Cybervoid or striking-neon Dharma Tower. I understand the game won’t appeal to those that expected more technical swordwork, but I’d really encourage those on the fence to give it a try when possible.
Ghostrunner is very tight-knit, much like the tower you traverse throughout the game. Your main tools are your wall-running and your grappling hook to get to higher elevations, with more things like zip lines introduced later. By the way, this is a bit of a deep cut but does the grappling hook remind anyone of the electro-whip that the assassin class had in Lawbreakers, the failed Overwatch clone? Just me? Alright. In addition to that you have four main abilities on top of your basic slice such as an energy wave that shoots out horizontally or a wind pulse that kills enemies in close proximity. With around 17 or so levels the game is very good at keeping things feeling fresh with some levels very short and some a tad longer. You’re never stagnant, whether you’re unlocking a new ability, being introduced to a new parkour element, or enemies are gaining a new ability. There's always something for you to improve on and adapt to.
Being someone who likes to get a taste of everything I’m happy to say each skill has its place here and I really enjoyed being able to freely swap out abilities at any point for what the situation called for without being penalized. I would say it got repetitive if not for the stellar design that knew when to give you platforming and when to give you enemies. Any time you face a gauntlet of enemies you’ll be back to zipping around like a mad monkey right after. It’s really hard to say which one I preferred, they both have their moments of oh-so-sweet sweet endorphin releases. Besides normal platforming there’s also Cybervoid sections which consist of puzzles in a highly stylized digital world. They annoyed me at first but then started to grow on me after a while. They’re all very derivative of puzzles you’ve likely seen many times before, but still. They get the old noggin working and really shouldn’t be doing anything else.
There’s no traditional swordplay here. Your main move is just a simple slash, but that doesn’t stop you from feeling like a badass as you rely on auxiliary flourishes and listen to an absolutely phenomenal soundtrack that I’m listening to right now as I review the game. If you get nothing from this review then at the very least go listen to the soundtrack as soon as you can. Daniel Deluxe really brought life to the already gorgeous visuals, be it in trippy Cybervoid or striking-neon Dharma Tower. I understand the game won’t appeal to those that expected more technical swordwork, but I’d really encourage those on the fence to give it a try when possible.