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Faithful to what made the first game great while introducing new features | Review - Ghostrunner 2

942 View2023-10-27

Ghostrunner 2

8.8

Post-apocalypticFast-pacedSci-fiDifficultActionStrategyNinjaFirst-Person

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✨Overview

Ghostrunner 2 is a game that features lightning-fast, one-hit-kill combat and parkour gameplay. Developed by One More Level and published by 505 Games, this game aims to capture the essence of the first while expanding on its foundation, offering a compelling experience for fans and newcomers alike.

🟩Pros
+3D cyberpunk ninja simulator
+Best-in-class first person parkour and combat
+Improved mechanics from the first game
+Variety in level design
+Bonus roguelike mode
+Forgiving and instantaneous loading checkpoint system

🟥Cons
-Minor performance issues
-Pacing is debatably worse than the first game

⭐️Score: 8/10

📖Story

Ghostrunner 2 kicks off not long after the events of its predecessor, and this time, the story is more involved in the experience. Players are once again back on the post-apocalyptic cyberpunk dystopia known as Dharma City. The game also now features a hub world in-between missions where players can talk to NPCs new and returning, and learn more about their backstories and motivations, adding character and world-building to the narrative.

The sequel's approach to storytelling is a significant improvement over its predecessor, giving players a reason to connect with the game beyond its lightning-fast combat, although there is no way to skip these hub missions to go to the next level, so players looking to experience the same fast-paced nature of the first game with its unrelenting barrage of missions might be disappointed.

🎨Graphics and Art Style

Ghostrunner 2 thrives in delivering an art style that embraces the cyberpunk aesthetic with flair. The world is a mesmerizing blend of neon lights, stark contrasts, and oppressive cityscapes that scream dystopia. The design of Dharma City and its beyond areas are all visually distinct, with each locale feeling like a work of art. The level variety, from the towering spires to the sprawling open environments, showcases the game's visual range. The art style complements the narrative's darker tones and the frenetic gameplay.

🎮Gameplay

I was a bit worried that the sequel will try and change things up, including the one-hit-kill mechanic. Fortunately, the sequel remains true to its gameplay formula. You, along with your adversaries, are incredibly fragile, most are dead in just one hit: one shot or one slash is all it takes. It creates a relentless sense of tension and urgency. If you slip up, you pay the price. Thankfully, game's quick respawn system, almost instantaneous loading, and forgiving checkpoints that save scums by itself at every corner ensures that frustration doesn't overtake your enjoyment. It's a mechanic that may sound punishing, but it's the essence of the Ghostrunner experience, providing a near-constant adrenaline rush.

⚔️Parkour and Combat

The game is essentially a 3D cyberpunk ninja simulator, and it excels in making you feel like a cybernetically enhanced badass. The parkour segments involve wallrunning, railgrinding, grapple hooking, and pole swinging, and they introduce an impressive variety of challenges and mix them up with each other along with your abilities. The level design is carefully crafted to demand precise movements, creating an exhilarating flow as you traverse the environment. In some instances, you'll need to use special abilities like the Shuriken to disable or activate elements while parkour-ing, adding a layer of complexity and puzzle-solving to the parkour sections.

Combat in Ghostrunner 2 is just as intense and satisfying. It's like a high-stakes puzzle where you must determine the best approach to deal with various enemies, factoring in their behavior, the environment, and your skillset. The addition of block mechanic and its stamina system brings a new dimension to combat, allowing you to block attacks and dash multiple times, adding a new layer to movement in the game. There are special abilities like Shurikens to deal electrical damage or Shadow Skills to become invisible. Moreover, Ghostrunner 2 introduces the concept of ultimates, enhancing the combat with powerful abilities that can be a game-changer. The boss fights are now with less parkouring, and has more traditional style of boss fights where you need to dodge enemy attacks and deplete their HP.

Perhaps the biggest addition in the game is new motorcycle segments, which introduce a dynamic and exhilarating change of pace. These segments are a significant departure from the intense one-hit-kill combat and parkour elements that dominate the rest of the gameplay. They involve high-speed chases, environmental challenges, and serve as an exploration tool in the latter semi-open world part of the story. Personally, I would have preferred the original pacing of the game with its parkour-based gameplay and one-hit-kill combat. But this is something that is now a part of the Ghostrunner experience.

Overall, both the parkour, combat, and motorcycle segments are challenges and puzzles that are needed to be solved. You’re almost always expected to take multiple tries to successfully pass through. Every death and retry is an opportunity to refine your tactics and find creative solutions.

🎲Ghostrunner 2 is also a rogue-lite… kinda

The game also includes a secret roguerunner.exe mode (unlocked by playing the Main Story) where it takes on the form of a roguelike game with high replayability thanks to its dynamic and randomized factors. In this mode, players are presented with four distinct stages, each consisting of a series of challenging nodes, some involving parkour and others combat. The challenges start off relatively manageable and gradually increase in difficulty as you progress through the stage.

Successful completion of a challenge node rewards players with modifiers and extra lives. Modifiers enhance the player's abilities and come in various rarities, while extra lives are essential to continue your run, as once your lives are depleted, the run ends.

Each stage concludes with a daunting challenge room that combines parkour and combat elements. Overcoming this challenge room marks the completion of the stage and allows players to progress to the next unlocked stage, provided they've made sufficient progress in the main story.

🏠The Hub

One notable addition in Ghostrunner 2 is the hub, where you interact with fellow rebels before embarking on missions. This change places a more significant emphasis on character interactions and world-building. You can also upgrade your character here and unlock new abilities or perks.

⏫Progression

Ghostrunner 2 reimagines its progression system, simplifying the skill progression by unlocking upgrade chips naturally as you play through the campaign. You have the flexibility to choose which chips to purchase, but to equip them, you must find purple memory chips hidden within each level. This incentivizes exploration and secrets, which actually has real tangible impact to the gameplay now, offering meaningful enhancements to your abilities.

The upgrade chips significantly impact your approach to the game. Investing in Shurikens can give you a ranged edge, while improving your sword skills can reward perfect parries. You can invest in defensive capabilities, offensive bonuses, or better parkour and movement. The progression system allows players to strengthen their preferred playstles, or perhaps experiment with new ones, discovering the most effective combinations.

Ghostrunner 2 is a very short game by today’s metrics. Even with its one-hit-kill difficulty, the game will only around take around ten or so hours to complete. Luckily, At $40, it is $30 lower than AAA offerings and is probably worth the money f you really like the first game. It isn’t a strict requirement to play the first game, as there is a video recap of the first game anyway, but I highly recommend playing it first.

📊Technical Performance

The game ran relatively well on my i7-8700k and RTX 3080. I was CPU bottlenecked at around 80FPS at any settings (low or high) so I just capped the game to 60 and it was fine all throughout the game at high settings and DLSS. There were stutters that took my timing off with the parkouring a little bit, especially before the framerate cap, but it all became less noticeable as I played more of the game and had fun.

⚖️Conclusion

Ghostrunner 2 is that is faithful to what made the first game great while introducing new features and gameplay mechanics — most are welcome, some are debatable. The parkour segments are still one of the best first person parkour systems ever made, and the addition of motorcycle and The Hub segments adds a nice change of pace and allows players to take a breather in this fast paced world. If the first game was great in your books, then this sequel is definitely a must-play, building on what made the original great and perhaps one of the best Cyberpunk experiences in the market today.

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Ghostrunner 2

8.8

Post-apocalypticFast-pacedSci-fiDifficultActionStrategyNinjaFirst-Person

Get