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This first-person parkour game is the perfect follow-up to Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty

2K View2023-10-31

Ghostrunner 2

8.8

Post-apocalypticFast-pacedSci-fiDifficultActionStrategyNinjaFirst-Person

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SHOULD I PLAY GHOSTRUNNER 2?

If you love the cyberpunk aesthetic or are looking for something with a similar vibe to play after wrapping up Cyberpunk 2077’s new DLC, then yes, definitely give this one a shot. Ghostrunner 2 is the sequel to a first-person sci-fi ninja game that launched back in 2020. That first game was already an awesome, adrenaline-pumping journey through a messed up neon future, but this one amps everything up to eleven. It is a supremely challenging, brutal, and beautiful game that deserves your attention.

TIME PLAYED

I spent around five hours with Ghostrunner 2, which took me through six or seven challenging levels plus a boss battle or two. I also had time to purchase some upgrades and explore the game’s hub area, speaking with NPCs to gain insight into this strange new world.

WHAT’S AWESOME ABOUT GHOSTRUNNER 2?

• An absurdly detailed and stunning cyberpunk world. I can’t say that I was particularly pulled into the story of Ghostrunner 2—chalk that up to not having played the original to completion if you must—but I was blown away by the game’s world-building. This grim vision of the future is stuffed to the brim with bizarre robotic creations, superpowered tech ninjas, and evil authority figures. It’s the kind of game where I couldn’t help but get caught up staring at the eye-catching scenery, even though that kept getting me killed.

• Top-notch first-person parkour gameplay. Ghostrunner 2 is set entirely in first-person, but it’s not a shooter. Most of the main character’s killing power comes from his sword, so I had to get up close to enemies, which meant running on walls, grappling over huge pits, and catching a ride on tiny floating robots. The parkour in this game reminded me of Mirror’s Edge but taken to a much higher level of intensity.

• Deeply challenging, deeply satisfying. Speaking of intensity, Ghostrunner 2 never really lets up, and I mean that in the best way possible. The main character cannot tank hits from enemy guns or batons, which means one wrong move regularly left me dead. This may have frustrated me, but the game thankfully uses frequent checkpoints, and post-death reloads are nearly instant. Instead of being annoying, the game’s difficulty left me breathless and wanting more every time I finally cleared a room that had been driving me nuts.

• Fun pulpy characters. While the overall plot of Ghostrunner 2 didn’t do much for me, I did enjoy the slower moments in the game’s hub where I got to converse with some of the game’s cast. The writing is very over-the-top, but the characters were enjoyable to be around and regularly had me laughing. In fact, the only character who didn’t really win me over was the protagonist, a pretty by-the-books gruff ninja guy.

• Perfect synth soundtrack. Ghostrunner 2’s music feels like the moodiness of the Blade Runner soundtrack crossed with tempo of a nonstop action movie. It feels perfectly natural to this game and world.

WHAT SUCKS ABOUT GHOSTRUNNER 2?

• The plot is kind of goofy nonsense. Again, maybe I would be more invested if I had finished the first game, but even then I think Ghostrunner 2’s story would read as silly. The cool cyberpunk dystopia feels out of step with important plot points using terms like “Keymaster” and “the Council” and other stuff that sounds straight out of a Kingdom Hearts game. The overall writing isn’t actively terrible; it just failed to make me care about where things were going.

• Aggravating boss encounters. While I appreciated the difficulty level overall, I got fed up with the game’s first boss fight quickly. The main character dying easily and having to restart rooms is totally fine through most of the game, but for boss fights it meant restarting the battle from the beginning. Memorizing the boss’s attack patterns until I could survive without making a mistake didn’t feel rewarding in the same way as learning how to make it through a roomful of enemies and platforming challenges.

💬 Will you be hopping into the cyberdystopia to wage cyberwar while cyberwallrunning in Ghostrunner 2? Or would you rather play a cyberpunk game where you can slow down and take in the sights?