Trying to find the time to play everything 2023 has to offer is becoming increasingly difficult. AAA hits like Baldur’s Gate 3, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, and Super Mario Wonder all jostle for attention alongside delightful indies like Dave The Diver, Dredge, and Cocoon. It gives me little pleasure to add to your groaning backlog, dear reader, but Ghostrunner 2 is another must-play title this year.
Developed by One More Level, Ghostrunner 2 is a slick follow-up to 2020’s breakout action-platformer. Eye-wateringly stylish and impossibly fast, the first Ghostrunner was a breath of fresh air that married elements of Celeste, Mirror’s Edge, and even Cyberpunk 2077 to create something singularly focused on arcade-style action.
Take a look at it in action below!
Ghostrunner 2 is, 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 2 has 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.
Unfortunately, while combat works well enough in the context of linear levels with a little more room to experiment, the boss battles continue to be a bit of a pain - an issue I had with the first game. Being stuck in one specific arena with one specific enemy in a game where one hit sends you back to the start of the fight isn’t really my idea of a great time, and exposes some of the first-person combat’s clunk by slowing things down - sometimes to a grinding halt.
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The good news is there’s a much greater emphasis on variety in Ghostrunner 2, with levels offering up plenty more surprises, enemy variants, and scenarios. The motorbike sections are by far my favourite, and will see you absolutely barrelling along futuristic highways and narrow tunnels in some of the most thrilling setpieces you’ll experience this year. The wingsuit also offers a fresh perspective on the game’s traversal, quite literally allowing players to soar to new heights and reach new challenges. Meanwhile, a generous - but not overwhelming skill tree - has been added to allow you to tweak your build based on your playstyle and specific strengths and weaknesses.
Not everything new Ghostrunner 2 tries 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 best Ghostrunner 2 taps 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 go hard.
Pros: Stunning visuals, thumping soundtrack, slick parkour action
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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
Ghostrunner 2 releases 26 October for PlayStation 5 (version tested), PC, and Xbox Series X/S. Review code provided by the publisher. Read a guide to our review scores here.
Featured Image Credit: 505 GamesTopics: PlayStation 5, Indie Games