I’ve never considered myself a good gamer; I tend to play games for the experience and, more often than not, pick easy or normal difficulty. I’m not ashamed of that, as when I game, it’s typically to relax and try and get away from the stresses of my everyday life. That’s why I’m happy to say that I got to the end of Ghostrunner 2 and loved it, and I recommend it to everyone, even though it can be brutally difficult.
Just a couple of months back, I was lucky to get an early look at the game courtesy of developer ONE MORE LEVEL and publisher 505 Games, which you can read here:
If you missed the first article, here’s what you need to know. You play as Jack (the same character from the first game and the titular Ghostrunner of the game’s name) and see everything from his eyes. He can run on walls, dash, jump, slide, and grapple. He has a special ability called “Sensory Boost” (bullet time essentially) that slows down time so he can dodge attacks and move quickly. But there’s a catch – using this boost or blocking is tied to stamina, so he can’t use this too much or keep blocking. Managing the stamina meter is challenging but feels fantastic when you get it right and complete an area.
Players can use a katana sword as their primary weapon, as well as several abilities that can be used to both fight enemies and solve puzzles. For example, the “Shuriken” ability allows Jack to throw multiple electrical throwing stars to stun enemies and hit distant switches. Where the difficulty ramps up is that Jack can be killed in one hit; however, this is the same for most enemies as well, outside of the boss battles you’ll face. One hit, and you’ll restart at an earlier checkpoint in the level. The checkpoint system is integral to the game staying enjoyable, and outside of a couple of further back saves, it kept me happy to try a section again.
I adore the level structure used in the game, with each enemy area feeling unique. Working out the best way to move between targets and traverse the world is so much fun from start to finish. This, paired with the excellent checkpoint system, enables a lot of player freedom to take things on how they want to and also means the game has good replayability. Watching Speedrunners online is quite the eye-opener compared to my play thru.
The game’s objective is for Jack to venture beyond the Dharma Tower and defeat the violent cyber ninja AI cult. The story is definitely secondary to gameplay in Ghostrunner 2, but this is more prominent than in the first game. Although you’ll take time between missions to speak with your small crew who help you, I wasn’t pulled in by these sections.
Ghostrunner 2 introduces vehicular combat, as players can ride a motorcycle while battling enemies and avoiding obstacles on some levels. The game’s levels are non-linear, allowing players to plan their own routes before confronting enemies. I enjoyed some parts of this, but the game would have been better suited to sticking to more linear levels when on the motorcycle. As the game opened and let me decide which way to go, this wasn’t as enjoyable as the escape and chase section that featured right as you gain access to the bike.
As you progress, you can purchase upgrades that enhance Jack’s abilities, like throwing three Shurikens rather than one and making the character faster and more powerful. By the time I had reached the end of the game, Jack was an even more badass robot ninja than he had started as.
To unlock new upgrades, you spend data, which is obtained by defeating enemies. If you chain together kills and increase your combo, you will earn more data. Then, you can use the acquired data in an Augmentation Unit. You have one of these at your home hub in between missions, but there are also some in the game world to be found. However, new upgrades also require memory on your motherboard. You can increase your available memory by finding memory shards during missions. These purple floating collectables are scattered throughout Ghostrunner 2, with some being easy to find and some being a little more hidden. As you collect more memory shards, your motherboard level increases, unlocking upgrade chips and ultimate abilities.
The game plays at a quick pace and can be completed relatively quickly…..but only if you are good. Reaching the end of the story took me around 15 hours, but I got stuck at one section for a long time late in the game. If you can avoid anything like that, you’ll be looking at more like 9 to 13 hours, depending on how many of the additional time trials and collectables you want to find and complete.
Unfortunately, the game can suffer from that old faithful friend of PC gamers everywhere, Shader stutter. I experienced this playing in either DX11 or DX12 mode. However, due to the frequent restarts due to deaths, they only seem to occur the first time you play the level. Stutters are disappointing to see, as outside of this, the game runs very well and looks great. There is a shader compilation on the title screen, but it’s not working right in its current form. Over on console, you’ll have the following options:
PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X; the Quality mode offers dynamic 4K resolution with a target frame rate of 30 FPS, the Performance mode provides dynamic 4K resolution with a target frame rate of 60 FPS, and the High Frame Rate mode delivers dynamic 1080p resolution with a target frame rate of 120 FPS.
The Xbox Series S gets the same modes, but 60FPS is 1080p dynamic resolution. Since all FPS limits are targets, having a VRR-capable TV will help to have the best experience.
Ghostrunner 2 is a wonderful game thanks to its fantastic level design and dialed-in mechanics. Although we are experiencing a hectic period of the year in terms of game releases, I highly recommend giving it a try. Be prepared, however, to “git gud” or in my case, be rubbish and keep trying till you get lucky.
-Couchy