One fiendish sequence that truly takes the cake requires you to grapple up a tower of moving lasers in succession, but also asks that you also time it with the arc of where you’re swinging from. I’ve had moments where I grapple over to a billboard I’m supposed to wall-run on, only to just fall right back into the bottomless pit below, or slow-dodge enemy fire only for my dash attack to miss. I can accept there were times I mistimed a dodge or couldn’t see a laser coming my way, but of the countless deaths faced during this campaign, so many came down to parkouring pratfalls where the speed of traversal means it’s all too easy to make a mistake even from the most straightforward platforming sections. Part of the difficulty is also mastering the controls, which feel just a bit too slippery to keep up with the action.
#Ghostrunner reviews trial#
When you have to negotiate 3D space in first-person at a fast pace while dealing with different enemy types, Ghostrunner’s one-hit death rule feels excessively demanding, often becoming a case of brutal trial and error. The best one-hit death games like retro arcade shooters or ultra-violent indie classic Hotline Miami also had a fixed 2D perspective allowing you to anticipate and avoid danger. Even its most nightmarish encounters still allows you to regain resources for a comeback. Sure, Doom Eternal is tough too, but you also don’t die in one hit. There’s nothing as sore as succeeding in a close encounter only to be picked off by unsuspecting enemy fire. However, these are rarely enjoyed as one-on-one encounters since you’re often required to juggle multiple threats. There’s even an exhilarating boss fight that feels like a first-person sci-fi Sekiro.
One of the better challenges lets you clash blades against other katana-wielding enemies, as you time your parries first to stun before delivering the kill. These continue ratcheting up, such as robots who blast projectiles with a massive hit area, while the less said about the miserable bastards that explode at close proximity, the better.īut Ghostrunner isn’t always frustrating. Add big shield-bearing brutes who also have a forcefield on top of that, it starts to seem like overkill. The one-hit death rule is hardly fair when it doesn’t strictly apply to enemies who are protected by force fields, which can only be disabled when you locate and destroy the emitters, usually placed higher and further out of reach. However, Ghostrunner’s difficulty more often than not crosses the line between tough and ridiculous. Of course, hardcore players will tell you to “git gud”, and having persevered through hellishly difficult games like Dark Souls, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice and Hades, I would be inclined to agree. While the early missions work as tutorials easing you into the mechanics, it’s also not long before the game starts to run ahead of itself, the challenges becoming more demanding as you struggle to keep up. You can even activate a Matrix-style bullet-time dash that lets you strafe-dodge before dashing closer within slicing distance.Įach arena is almost a puzzle as you learn your enemies’ positions, figure out the best route to reach them and then take them down, the last kill slowing down the action as if a sign for you to catch your breath. Instead of running straight into someone’s blaster fire, you can deflect fire back with your katana or approach from another angle such as wall-running (and outrunning) enemy attacks. Your ninja skills become more meaningful and freeform when engaging with enemies.
Unfortunately, the breakneck pace means you’re not often given the chance to savour the grimy industrial cyberpunk visuals that’s accompanied by the pulsing electronica soundtrack from retrowave producer Daniel Deluxe, which wouldn’t feel out of place pounding a dark, sweaty warehouse rave. Missions are structured like multiple arena-sized combat encounters interspersed with parkour platforming, which can be just as thrilling as you wall-run and kick off multiple panels, laser-lasso up to new heights then crouch-slide down a slope at high speed before dropping into the next set piece.
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