Ghostrunner Review

In a dystopian cyberpunk future where rogue architects roam free, have become tired of conventional means of navigation and instead construct a tower traversable only by an elite cyborg ninja bent on revenge, Ghostrunner sets its scene. 

Following a brief introduction to the loosely written plot, you assume control of ‘Jack’, our aforementioned ninja. Controls are intuitive and fluid. Pressing jump operates as your full traversal tool, much reminiscent of Mirrors Edge. It allows you to wall run, vault and plunge from the sky into your enemies before sundering them in two. You also have a dash to close in for engagements which if used and held while aerial acts as a bullet time. This allows the player to ‘sidestep’ shots made at them mid-air before rending flesh from bone in a gorily satisfying swing of your blade. As the character ‘levels up’ more skills become unlocked and available to the player changing the makeup of how you engage each puzzle area. 

Does not compute

Let’s be clear here. This is a puzzle game. As you progress forward up the insurmountable tower ahead of you, each area acts as a tutorial for the new mechanic the game is throwing at you. Initially, you learn how to wall run and dodge before getting that satisfying spray of blood and viscera. Later you will encounter multiple enemies shooting at you while you spiderman across the platforms hunting down every last one. This continues to build as you find more enemy types, unlock more abilities and Tetris your approach to each individual puzzle arena. Fights are interspersed with platforming events to keep things interesting, and while there are a few frustrating moments, checkpoints are very reasonable, and you will be surprised when you die to see how much progress has been saved. And you will die. A lot. All it takes is a single bullet. The game reminds you of this constantly, with a timer and a death counter on the bottom right corner constantly ticking up, mocking your lax attitude to life. But while ‘Jack’ is vulnerable, he doesn’t feel weak. 

A typical example will see the player platforming into a large arena where they are now required to kill every enemy to unlock the next section. This always requires set up – unless you are lucky or extremely good at platforming you need the dark souls approach – learn the map, plot out a course of action and then execute it. This will take multiple attempts and can lead to some very frustrating moments, especially when you are down to one last enemy and either dash too far catapulting yourself off the edge of the map or dash on the ground into oncoming bullets, instead of in the air, only to restart from the beginning again.

V 2.0

Thankfully as with all modern video games, we have an upgrade system and developer ONE MORE LEVEL have an interesting one. Their love of Tetris comes to the fore more than once in this game, but the upgrade system is the main showcase. ‘Jack’ starts with a few Tetris style pieces for abilities and a limited number of spaces in his upgrade slots, which expands as you progress through the game. Want to reflect bullets back at people? That’s an L block. Want to see people more clearly? Find a space to fit a square shape. You can freely change these at the start of each arena, and if you are struggling to get through one, it may be time to change up your Tetris configuration to make bouncing shots back at people easier or maybe reduce the dash cooldown. You can tailor ‘Jack’ how you like for each environment, and this can lead to some great breakthrough moments. Once you find yourself flowing from place to place, descending from the heavens and severing body parts left and right the satisfaction is immense, similar to some other ‘hardcore’ experiences. 

That’s not to say the game isn’t without its own issues. While checkpoints are reasonable, you will want to make sure you complete a level before shutting the game down. Otherwise, you will find yourself right back at the start of the level, regardless of how far you progressed. I, unfortunately, learned this the hard way when I had to step away about 40 minutes into a map and came back only to find myself right back at the start. This seems a very odd choice, and hopefully, the developers change this to keep the character at the last saved checkpoint as I can imagine a lot of frustration coming from this. 

A hop, skip, and a thump

I will be the first to admit I am not good at platforming. Add into the mix a three-dimensional environment, a complete lack of general floors and many, many people shooting at you from multiple angles all of whom you are required to kill, and you would be excused for thinking that I gave up on even trying to complete the first few areas. While I do think that the checkpoints are fair, unless you are pretty solid at space traversal from an FPS perspective expect to spend a large amount of time redoing platform puzzles. The biggest issue in this area is foreknowledge.

You cant know that a laser section expects you to drop and duck through an area ahead of time, so you will be forced to die to it again and again until you work out the direction you are heading. As the game advances, these platform events get harder, the deaths more common and again, the frustration mounts. It will be down to the individual to determine if the reward of a map well executed is worth the overall difficulty. As a side note, the game almost feels like it was designed to cater to speedrunners. Hardcore execution, free timer and the gameplay all seem to point at an intended audience of people that will play this game over and over until they bleed every last second available out of it. 

The game is not forgiving, but if you are in the market for an environmental puzzler and enjoy splashing limbs every which way, then it may just be for you. It really makes you feel like Spider-Man if spiderman was a cybernetic murderninja set on saving the last vestiges of humanity from the ravage of poor architectural design. 

[Reviewed on PC]