Ghostrunner Review: Chasing Ghosts

The first time I saw the Ghostrunner trailer, I really didn’t know what to expect, but I did know one thing – I needed to play it as soon as humanly possible. In most cases, I detest first-person platforming, but this statement comes with a big asterisk next to it – I loved, and I mean loved Mirrors Edge, and that’s true of anything that channels that same thrilling parkour movement, and Ghostrunner delivers on almost every single level.

As you step into the boots of the titular Ghostrunner, one thing becomes evident early into the game – momentum is everything. Every swing of your sword, every jump, every dodge and dash adds to your speed, and if you stop to take a breath, you’re probably dead. Figuratively speaking, if you stop, you’re dead. Not because of some deadly gas or wall of lava that is constantly following you, but because you and the super-soldiers you face off against all keel over dead after a single hit. With this being said, you’re probably thinking you’ll die a lot, and I can tell you without a shadow of a doubt, you’re right.

Regardless of how quickly you pick up on the ins and outs of this game, you’re going to make some mistakes, occasionally due to an AI blip, or maybe due to landing just a little too low on a wall run segment, but more likely in the midst of the fast and furious combat, dying almost as quickly as you came sprinting in. The good news is there is a very forgiving checkpoint system in place, often saving in the middle of a decent-sized course of challenges that bounce between parkour and combat seamlessly, and if you get your cybernetic ass handed to you, you’ll be back in the game so quick it would make Hotline Miami take note. There is a downside to this, which is more of a quality of life miss than a true flaw, but you cannot save your game mid-mission, which in my case I learned the hard way after logging out for the night deep into one of the early missions.

Whether it’s combat or traversing the world, this game delivers a satisfying experience that is gut-wrenching every time you fail, and leaves you celebrating as you let out a sigh of relief once you pass some of the more challenging areas (and there are a lot of them) on the 88th attempt. As you slowly equip more abilities and upgrades, the Ghostrunner will be able to add additional tools to his belt allowing you to slow down time, reflect bullets at the swing of your sword, and the list grows more and more as you proceed. The latter is my personal favorite, and after a playthrough and a half, I can say I went from feeling like the tepid Mr. Anderson to full-on Neo, bouncing bullets back at the soldiers one by one in rapid succession without skipping a beat by the midway point of my first run through the eight to ten-hour narrative.

There are some brief moments of calm here and there, where the game takes the time to inject unneeded puzzles that seem devoid of any logic or hints, simply asking you to try and try again until you get sick of it and look up a walkthrough like I did. Each puzzle feels vastly different than the last, but again, seems more reliant on luck and persistence than any brainpower. The bright spot here is that completion usually brings another mini-game into the mix that I am more attuned to – Tetris like placement of your preferred perks or upgrades into an ever-growing grid.

Overall, the game runs almost flawlessly and looks stylish in the process, with only minor screen tearing or occasional AI hiccups being a thing (the latter actually helped me pass a rather tough battle where the last gentleman decided he wanted to shoot where I was flying mid-jump coming off of a wall run, instead of where I was, and on my final attempt he opted to stand motionless, staring off into the void allowing me to stab him in the back as I landed). While the narrative is paint by numbers and sticks to familiar tropes, I found it to be engaging enough to see it through to its climax.

If you took the parkour from Mirrors Edge, ripped Raiden from the Metal Gear franchise, as well as the world from your favorite dystopian cyberpunk thriller then threw them into a blender, the end result would be Ghostrunner. It doesn’t have the most original of narratives, but the level of polish, the challenge it presents, and the satisfying gameplay make up for it tenfold. When you add the fact this offers a free next-gen upgrade, you’d be a fool to miss this one.

9 out of 10

Pros

  • Stunning Presentation of a Cyberpunk Dystopia
  • Satisfying Combat and Parkour Elements
  • Uber Challenging

Cons

  • Disappointing Puzzles That Feel Out of Place
  • Lack of Mid-Mission Saves
  • Uber Challenging

Ghostrunner was developed by One More Level, 3D Realms, and Slipgate Ironworks. It was published by 505 Games and All In! Games. It is available on NS, PC, PS4, X1, and will be available on XSX and PS5 at a later date. The game was provided to us for review on X1. If you’d like to see more of Ghostrunner, check out the official site.

 

Here at GBG we use a rating method that you are more than likely familiar with – a scale of 1 to 10. For clarification, we intend on using the entire scale: 1-4 is something you should probably avoid paying for; 5-7 is something that is worth playing, but probably not at full price; 8-10 is a great title that you can feel confident about buying. If you have any questions or comments about how we rate a game, please let us know.

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