Trying to find the time to play everything 2023 has to offer is becoming increasingly difficult. AAA hits likeBaldur’s Gate 3, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2,andSuper Mario Wonderall jostle for attention alongside delightful indies likeDave The Diver, Dredge,andCocoon. It gives me little pleasure to add to your groaning backlog, dear reader, butGhostrunner 2is another must-play title this year.
Take a look at it in action below!
Ghostrunner 2is, more or less, more of the same - though many of its attempts to stand apart from the first game only serve to drag down an otherwise excellent sequel.
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Ghostrunner 2has players return to the role of a cyberpunk ninja that you would never in a million years guess is called Jack, and takes place in a dystopian sci-fi metropolis with a rich history that, if I’m being honest, I really didn’t care about. To me the cyberpunk aesthetic is so much set dressing for the real star of the show: blisteringly brutal first-person parkour and combat. The story is there if you want it, of course, but you can pretty much speed through the narrative and have fun chasing high scores and best times.
Ghostrunner 2, like the first game, is all about moving as fast as you can and never slowing down. Or at least it is when it’s firing on all cylinders. You dash in mid air, leap across walls, grapple to far-off points, and slide down ramps to gain speed. You’ll use these fresh parkour skillz alongside a katana, which is used to… well, you know what swords do, I assume. Jack can slice and dice his way through enemies, with plenty of pleasingly gory decapitations along the way. Pair this with a pulsing soundtrack and gorgeous visuals, and you’ve got yourself a good time.
As nimble and deadly as Jack may be, one hit from a stray bullet or enemy will cause him to crumple like an old crisp packet. The upshot of this is that you’ll find yourself replaying certain segments over and over again until you get it exactly right. I don’t imagine for a second this is the kind of gameplay that will appeal to everyone, but when you finally hit your stride and chain together that perfect sequence of jumps, dodges, and attacks? There’s no feeling quite like it. Checkpoints are also very generously placed, meaning you’re unlikely to get too fed up with any one segment.
505 Games
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Not everything newGhostrunner 2tries to throw into the mix is a success. While I’m a big fan of being able to approach encounters in a variety of ways, some of the game’s levels are almost too big. I spent one early level wandering back and forth through the same open area looking for switches to hit, when I’d much rather have been grinding along rails and slicing up bad guys. It also manages to make the game’s entire ‘die and retry’ ethos more irritating than it needs to be, the size of some sections artificially padding out encounters and slowing the action down.
At its very bestGhostrunner 2taps into that classic old-school gaming mentality of pushing as hard as possible to get the best times in a level, and of telling yourself you’ll have just one more go at a tricky level before looking up at the clock and realising it’s 2am. While some of the game’s larger arenas work against its inherently precise mechanics, this is largely everything you could’ve wanted from the sequel. And seriously, those bike levels gohard.
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Pros:Stunning visuals, thumping soundtrack, slick parkour action
Cons:Constant deaths and old-school arcade gameplay not for everyone, larger levels slow things down needlessly
For fans of:Mirror’s Edge, Cyberpunk 2077, Ghostrunner
8/10: Excellent
Topics:PlayStation 5,Indie Games
