Ghostrunner (2020)
Ghostrunner is an arcadey slice ‘em up where you play a cyberpunk ninja who does parkour between bullet-dodges and decapitations
Ghostrunner is in many ways similar to the kind of precision dodges and careful timing required of games like Dark Souls. Instead of those games’ contemplative patience, Ghostrunner ratchets these fights up to hyper speed. Every fight is like a massive puzzle that can only be solved with a sword
Ghostrunner is a game about a cybernetic ninja, the Ghostrunner, who can run on walls, slow time, dodge bullets in midair, and kill enemies in one swing of his sword.
As a samurai-like peacekeeper, in a bleak, dystopian mega-city called Dharma Tower. In best Cyberpunk fashion the poorest people live at the bottom and the richest residents living high above everything else.
We wake up at the bottom with no memory, a mysterious AI tells us that we must climb the tower to take out the evil Keymaster, while we drop down on your first victim.
And so we are dropped off into an epic parkour adventure, with wall running, mantling, sliding, incredible jumps, and a off course: a grappling hook.
And after a good hour or so I got the hang of things, stringing all these moves together, building impressive sense of momentum and leaping from one wall with ease.
The game’s combat tends to take place in massive rooms. Each of these rooms feels like a puzzle. A massive puzzle that can only be solved by hyper fast wall running and a sharp sword.
“Ghostrunner is a first-person platformer that feels like Superhot and Hotline Miami had a cyberpunk baby!.”
I often got into loops of trial-and-error experiments, trying to find the perfect way to take out each enemy. Messing up adds little frustration on its own, as respawning after death takes almost no time at all, allowing you to instantly learn from your mistakes and try something new, or sharpen up the execution of your plan.
The only problem is that you die in one hit as well, so the challenge becomes figuring out how to get close enough to make your cut … before they make their shot.
Nailing that perfect run feels exhilarating. Somewhere right in the middle of the dashing and time-slowing, when you realize you’re onto something special, you feel exactly as cool as you think a techno-cyber ninja should.
If you haven’t had enough of some good-good cyberpunk games on the waiting list, you’re in luck. The game is created by the trio of teams at One More Level, 3D Realms and Slipgate Ironworks. And these guys know their craft.
Ghostrunner seems to be scratching the cyberpunk itch and exploring a stunning cyberpunk dystopian city at a breakneck pace never felt more satisfying.
Ghostrunner features stunningly immersive visuals. Not only that, the game features sick synthwave soundtracks by the acclaimed Daniel Deluxe to dash and slash to.
Platforms: PC, Steam, Playstation 4, Xbox One
Developers: One More Level, 3D Realms, Slipgate Ironworks
Publishers: 505 Games, All in! Games