Ghostrunner 2
MSRP $40.00
“Ghostrunner 2’s intense action is a fun as ever, but the ambitious sequel overthinks a lean concept with messy new features.”
Pros
Intriguing story
Refined platforming
Slick fight
Smart roguelike mode
Cons
Motorcycle is messy
Bloated stage size
Performance dips
Ghostrunner. Celeste. Super Meat Boy. Neon White. All of those video games have one factor in frequent: They make gamers really feel like whole badasses.
All of those titles are about pushing by means of more and more troublesome challenges, racking up dozens of deaths, simply respawning, and getting proper again to it. You’re typically down, however by no means out. Ghostrunner 2 isn’t any completely different. Its titular character is a wildly highly effective ninja able to slicing up a whole room in seconds, however additionally they die in a single hit. The key to clearing levels flawlessly is endurance. Taking on rooms of enemies repeatedly to determine the puzzle of how you can take the optimum path to kill each enemy with out getting hit is as enthralling as ever. The frustration of dying when there’s just one enemy left would shortly turn out to be a sense of bliss once I’d get by means of flawlessly on the subsequent try. Simply put, Ghostrunner 2 comprises a number of the 12 months’s most exhilarating moments.
Unfortunately, the sport faces off towards a worthy foe: sequel bloat. The new installment goes larger, and that isn’t all the time for the very best. While particular person rooms are a blast to clear, longer ranges drag out the unique’s lightning-quick pleasure. Its largest addition, a brand new motorbike, solely takes the sequel additional away from what made its predecessor so thrilling. Although Ghostrunner 2 is a persistently rewarding and pleasant motion sport, its extra more likely to be remembered for its condensed roguelike facet mode than its messy marketing campaign.
Slick motion
The authentic Ghostrunner ends with its titular cybernetic warrior and a faction known as The Climbers having freed the dystopian tower and humanity’s final bastion, Dharma, from its strict rulers. Ghostrunner 2 demonstrates that every thing doesn’t instantly get higher as soon as somebody evil is deposed from a place of energy. The state of affairs in Dharma hasn’t improved a lot between the 2 video games because the remaining factions vie for management. And issues get even worse when older Ghostrunners that no one knew existed reemerge and threaten to wipe out what’s left of humanity.
505 Games
This is sufficient to pressure the Ghostrunner, who now goes by the identify Jack, to go again out into Dharma and even the realm exterior of the tower to cease this new menace. Although Ghostrunner 2 emphasizes gameplay over story, it delivers nuanced sci-fi takes on identification, self-worth, and the forces that put and hold individuals in positions of energy.
Most of Ghostrunner 2’s ranges are linear and string collectively platforming and fight challenges. By default, Jack is already a talented combatant who can simply slice any enemy up along with his sword and kill or disable them from afar with a shuriken. He’s additionally fairly nimble as he can sprint on the bottom or within the air, wall leap, rail grind, and slide round any a part of Dharma. Ghostrunner 2 is at its greatest when stringing all these skills collectively, like wall-running to dodge an enemy’s assault earlier than leaping again down and slashing them to items.
The eventualities get extra thrilling and sophisticated all through the journey …
What pumps up Ghostrunner 2‘s stakes is how frail Jack still is. While Jack can block — and this skill can be upgraded to send bullets back where they came from — he also dies in one hit. Because of this, Ghostrunner 2 becomes a ballet of aggressively and defensively dealing with intense situations. Respawning is near-instantaneous and typically didn’t set me too far again, which inspired me to maintain going again and refining my abilities till I acquired that excellent run by means of a room.
The eventualities get extra thrilling and sophisticated all through the journey as new enemies, skills, and methods of transferring trickle out. While the primary stage revolves round easy gang warfare within the decrease ranges of Dharma, by the top I used to be gliding with a wingsuit by means of the higher ranges of the constructing, adeptly dodging lethal photographs from any mechs or enemies that stood in my method. In these moments, Ghostrunner 2 felt like one of many 12 months’s greatest motion video games as I mastered its mechanics.
Less slick scope
For the primary half of the journey, I barely had a criticism as I zipped by means of satisfying motion sequences. As the journey wore on, although, Ghostrunner 2 proved that an excessive amount of of a very good factor can turn out to be exhausting. About midway by means of the sport, the evil Ghostrunners that Jack is combating escape Dharma. Jack finds a motorbike and pursues them, driving it down the facet of Dharma earlier than exploring the wasteland across the metropolis.
While the preliminary motorbike chase feels slick and in keeping with the cool issue that Ghostrunner 2 so clearly needs to keep up, these segments crumble quick. Motorcycle driving revolves round sloppy controls, and the restricted discipline of view whereas driving it could actually make it troublesome to discern what’s arising at excessive speeds. The sport’s physics all the time make it uncomfortable to modify from driving on the bottom to driving on the wall, and if I collided with an object, however didn’t die, the motorbike would typically get caught in odd ways in which simply made me want I used to be touring on foot.
505 Games
I had hoped to miss this flaw if it was an occasional novelty, however the sport’s longest mission made me use it greater than I ever needed to. This stage takes place exterior of Dharma and duties Jack with going to 3 smaller towers round Dharma as he tries to trace down the situation of the rogue Ghostrunners. Until this level, most Ghostrunner 2 ranges took at most a half-hour to beat; this one took over 90 minutes and had extra body fee efficiency points than some other phase of the sport.
That’s as a result of this stage has a pseudo-open-world setup, as gamers can drive to and scale the towers in any order. Driving from level to level wasn’t that enjoyable or partaking due to the aforementioned motorbike management issues, which solely worsened in an open-ended stage the place it’s straightforward to get off the overwhelmed path and uncover that what appeared to be a shortcut is only a place the bike or Jack aren’t in a position to go.
Its levels are too lengthy to entice me again.
Ghostrunner 2 is at its greatest throughout moments of tight, intense design. This momentum-killing phase loses that aura of tight design and soured my expertise as I turned extra hyper conscious of later ranges with comparable pacing points. It felt like exacerbated playtime between the intricately designed fight playgrounds. Part of the fantastic thing about a sport like Neon White or the unique Ghostrunner goes again and making an attempt to get the very best time potential in a stage. While I’d love to try this for particular sections of Ghostrunner 2 ranges, its levels are too lengthy to entice me again.
Going rogue
Thankfully, the crew behind Ghostrunner 2 virtually looks as if it was conscious of its marketing campaign woes. That’s as a result of a brand new facet mode instantly counteracts this downside. Dubbed Roguerunner.exe, this facet mode is a roguelike expertise the place fight and parkour challenges are strung collectively throughout one in every of 4 levels of problem. After finishing a stage, I might buy some upgrades. Some had been smaller skills, like growing my block and sprint meter, whereas others, just like the Superhot-inspired H.O.T., fully modified the sport by making time transfer solely when Jack does.
505 Games
While I doubt I’ll replay the story mode of Ghostrunner 2 anytime quickly to refine my completion occasions, I see myself booting up Roguerunner.exe sooner or later if I need a burst of its slick gameplay.
Although I benefit from the world of Ghostrunner and I’m thrilled to see it evolve, Ghostrunner 2 does encounter a sophomore droop. It makes the basic sequel mistake of getting too grand in scope for its personal good and including options that draw consideration away from what made its predecessor particular. Roguerunner.exe does strip the sport again to its fundamentals for a purer motion expertise, so if the sequence does proceed, I hope that provides a street map for the place the cyberpunk sequence can go subsequent.
Ghostrunner 2 was reviewed on Xbox Series X.
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