Ghostrunner 2020
Log Status
Completed
Playing
Backlog
Wishlist
Rating
Time Played
--
Days in Journal
2 days
Last played
September 25, 2021
First played
September 22, 2021
Platforms Played
Full video review: https://youtu.be/Mk01Cy_Nq3U
Mirror’s Edge, but cyberpunk and a protagonist that is far more edgy. That’s pretty much Ghostrunner in a nutshell.
Combat:
You’re not given a gun, but rather a blade and it is that blade that will carry you through the experience. Whether it be used to deflect bullets, decapitate an enemy, parry another blade user – the game does a good job making your sole weapon feel more than just that. Add onto this the numerous combat abilities – like being able to dash through multiple enemies or even launch a wind strike. The combat has a nice sense of variety to it even if the game does not utilize all of its mechanics to their fullest.
For example, one of the last abilities you unlock allows you to mind control an enemy into killing another enemy, but its use in actual levels was so limited that I hardly ended up using it. On one hand, it could be argued that the game allows more creative freedom by not locking you into using these abilities and letting you freely experiment, but on the other, it makes it feel like a bit of a waste. Still, the base combat is what matters here and Ghostrunner does a solid job on that front.
Movement, Game Modes, Length:
Dashing, sliding, wall-running, grappling, mid-air evading – it is a VERY fast and VERY fun. Once you get the hang of it, you will be flying all over the place, killing enemies in rhythm with your movement in the most fluid fashion. I don’t know how exactly to describe it – but it just feels good to control. It’s intuitive, responsive, and the perfect complement to the fast-paced nature of the combat.
There are so many different ways to tackle each level that you can easily spend a lot of time optimizing that perfect run. And that’s just in campaign mode, there’s also kill run, wave mode, and hardcore mode to mess around in outside of the main story – a story that should take you around 5-7 hours to clear.
Story Segments:
I don’t know why, but the studio thought it would be a good idea to interrupt this fast-paced and fun gameplay with these slow and boring story segments. Not just cutscene stuff though, but these entire gameplay segments where you’re in this digital realm and have to solve puzzles to advance – all while story dialogue is playing in the background. It is so out of place in comparison to everything else going on in the game that it really takes you out of the experience.
Difficulty, Trial & Error:
The checkpoints are plentiful enough that it never felt like I was hitting a wall, but the gameplay loop relies HEAVILY on trial and error. Like, 90% of the time you will have to die over and over to get a grasp of how to solve a certain area. A lot of the time, you won’t know what killed you until you respawn and notice that a enemy is sneakily placed to the side of another, diverting attention away from it until you die to it at least once. I am not the biggest fan of this gameplay approach, but the instant respawn and numerous checkpoints at least made it a bit more tolerable here.
Graphics & Music:
As for graphics, the game looks great. It’s got that neon, cyberpunk world design and it looks really good in motion, in particular with its use of lighting. What blows all of that away though is the soundtrack. This is some grade A cyberpunk EDM gold – the perfect complement to the setting and fast-paced nature of the gameplay. It’s the kind of soundtrack where, immediately after beating the game, I went and loaded it up into my usual playlists.
Performance:
Ghostrunner actually exceeded my expectations here. It looks better than a lot of the games coming out nowadays and somehow runs better than them too. I played at 1440p on high settings and hovered around 80-110 fps for most of the experience, never dipping below 60. This is on my aging 1070 Ti too, so A+ on the optimization here. Granted, I did run into one crash – so maybe A- instead.
Overall:
Ghostrunner is incredibly fast, violent, and fun – taking the parkour elements of games like Mirror’s Edge and slapping them into a vibrant cyberpunk setting with actually decent first-person combat. It’s the kind of game where it just feels good to play – even if the story and trial-and-error design may bring it down a bit.
Mirror’s Edge, but cyberpunk and a protagonist that is far more edgy. That’s pretty much Ghostrunner in a nutshell.
Combat:
You’re not given a gun, but rather a blade and it is that blade that will carry you through the experience. Whether it be used to deflect bullets, decapitate an enemy, parry another blade user – the game does a good job making your sole weapon feel more than just that. Add onto this the numerous combat abilities – like being able to dash through multiple enemies or even launch a wind strike. The combat has a nice sense of variety to it even if the game does not utilize all of its mechanics to their fullest.
For example, one of the last abilities you unlock allows you to mind control an enemy into killing another enemy, but its use in actual levels was so limited that I hardly ended up using it. On one hand, it could be argued that the game allows more creative freedom by not locking you into using these abilities and letting you freely experiment, but on the other, it makes it feel like a bit of a waste. Still, the base combat is what matters here and Ghostrunner does a solid job on that front.
Movement, Game Modes, Length:
Dashing, sliding, wall-running, grappling, mid-air evading – it is a VERY fast and VERY fun. Once you get the hang of it, you will be flying all over the place, killing enemies in rhythm with your movement in the most fluid fashion. I don’t know how exactly to describe it – but it just feels good to control. It’s intuitive, responsive, and the perfect complement to the fast-paced nature of the combat.
There are so many different ways to tackle each level that you can easily spend a lot of time optimizing that perfect run. And that’s just in campaign mode, there’s also kill run, wave mode, and hardcore mode to mess around in outside of the main story – a story that should take you around 5-7 hours to clear.
Story Segments:
I don’t know why, but the studio thought it would be a good idea to interrupt this fast-paced and fun gameplay with these slow and boring story segments. Not just cutscene stuff though, but these entire gameplay segments where you’re in this digital realm and have to solve puzzles to advance – all while story dialogue is playing in the background. It is so out of place in comparison to everything else going on in the game that it really takes you out of the experience.
Difficulty, Trial & Error:
The checkpoints are plentiful enough that it never felt like I was hitting a wall, but the gameplay loop relies HEAVILY on trial and error. Like, 90% of the time you will have to die over and over to get a grasp of how to solve a certain area. A lot of the time, you won’t know what killed you until you respawn and notice that a enemy is sneakily placed to the side of another, diverting attention away from it until you die to it at least once. I am not the biggest fan of this gameplay approach, but the instant respawn and numerous checkpoints at least made it a bit more tolerable here.
Graphics & Music:
As for graphics, the game looks great. It’s got that neon, cyberpunk world design and it looks really good in motion, in particular with its use of lighting. What blows all of that away though is the soundtrack. This is some grade A cyberpunk EDM gold – the perfect complement to the setting and fast-paced nature of the gameplay. It’s the kind of soundtrack where, immediately after beating the game, I went and loaded it up into my usual playlists.
Performance:
Ghostrunner actually exceeded my expectations here. It looks better than a lot of the games coming out nowadays and somehow runs better than them too. I played at 1440p on high settings and hovered around 80-110 fps for most of the experience, never dipping below 60. This is on my aging 1070 Ti too, so A+ on the optimization here. Granted, I did run into one crash – so maybe A- instead.
Overall:
Ghostrunner is incredibly fast, violent, and fun – taking the parkour elements of games like Mirror’s Edge and slapping them into a vibrant cyberpunk setting with actually decent first-person combat. It’s the kind of game where it just feels good to play – even if the story and trial-and-error design may bring it down a bit.