When it launched in 2020, Ghostrunner was rapidly acknowledged for its slick mix of satisfying first-person parkour platforming and tough-as-nails, one-hit-kill fight. Maybe most spectacular was simply how nicely it practiced restraint, by no means overstaying its welcome whereas additionally protecting the main target keenly on its participating traversal and motion. Ghostrunner II is a sequel that hasn’t totally misplaced the fascinating nature of its core gameplay loop, however in increasing the world that you just’re enjoying in and looking for new parts to introduce into the combination, it loses itself alongside the best way at occasions earlier than discovering its ft as soon as once more.
Ghostrunner II takes place a 12 months after the occasions of the primary sport, with cyborg murderer Jack now snug in his function as enforcer for the Climbers, one in all many gangs trapped within the cyberpunk tower of Dharma. Whereas the unique Ghostrunner had a narrative, it wasn’t a core focus, as a substitute merely offering some context to maintain you shifting ahead. Within the sequel, the narrative is way extra prevalent, which may make lots of its opening moments complicated if you have not brushed up on the occasions of the primary sport or the encapsulating lore of the world the sport takes place in.
You will have quite a few radio conversations with quite a lot of characters, lots of that are exposition-heavy explanations to get you in control as rapidly as doable. It makes the opening hours really feel overwhelming and disjointed, earlier than the story ultimately settles right into a predictable revenge plot that leaves little room for nuanced characterization. There are some entertaining exchanges between Jack–whose blunt however self-aware responses are surprisingly hilarious for a single-purpose killing machine–and a few of his handlers, however Ghostrunner 2 would not function a fleshed-out forged of characters or fascinating story beats that you will seemingly bear in mind by the point credit roll, and positively not lengthy afterwards.
![Ghostrunner 2](https://www.gamespot.com/a/uploads/original/123/1239113/4215954-ghostrunner-2-gamescom-3large.jpeg)
Gallery
Fortunately, you do not want a very compelling story motive to take pleasure in Ghostrunner’s primary draw. Identical to earlier than, you are capable of elegantly zip round ranges with pace and beauty, chaining collectively wall runs, speedy slides, whiplash-inducing grapples, and nimble jumps. Ghostrunner 2’s phases function some in depth platforming parts, all of which use new and current mechanics in frequently novel methods. What might need been a easy wall run just a few ranges prior is become one which requires a shuriken lodged right into a wall earlier than you may grapple to it, with the added problem of getting to additionally disable a lethal electrical discipline in your approach on the similar time. Ghostrunner 2 rewards pondering and reflexes in equal measure, however balances them nicely sufficient that you just’re typically making it via platforming gauntlets with out too many deaths. This retains the sense of accomplishment once you do attain the bottom safely once more with out forcing it via frustration, making every little bit of progress really feel rewarding.
All through your time working round Dharma Tower and past, you will encounter pockets of enemies in small arenas that impede your progress. These begin off easy, with melee fodder that rush in direction of you and riflemen with semi-automatic weapons that rapidly grow to be trivial to deflect together with your trusty katana. Even within the early hours, Ghostrunner 2’s fight is difficult. You continue to die after taking a single hit, however extra importantly, so do every of the enemies that you just’re up towards. That applies to the senseless drones and all the best way as much as bipedal, laser-launching robots. This ever-present sense of hazard transforms fight right into a intense dance, one the place your reactions to the altering skirmish are simply as necessary as your preliminary method. Whereas fight encounters aren’t designed to be tackled in a particular order, they’re definitely structured to discourage sure paths, forcing you to determine an environment friendly order or operations earlier than executing it with lethal accuracy, leaving nothing however the blood of your enemies staining your blade.
This technique of studying every new skirmish stays as exhilarating in Ghostrunner 2 because it was within the authentic sport. Dashing in mid-air to keep away from a projectile earlier than decapitating the foe it originated from, solely to then launch right into a slide to shut the hole to a different close by foe and deftly deflect a projectile again at him is only a small instance of the tightly strung-together actions you will not solely repeatedly pull off, however be required to grasp to progress previous Ghostrunner 2’s difficult (albeit honest) fight. Enemies are intelligently positioned to offer you a superbly pure path between them, making your execution really feel choreographed as you mix your understanding of timing and goal prioritization.
As you progress, you will achieve entry to new skills that increase your repertoire in each fight and platforming. Returning skills, just like the shuriken, provide you with a much-needed ranged possibility in fights, gorgeous enemies and creating a brand new grapple level that opens up extra methods to circulation between them. One other enables you to create a duplicate of your self when you are cloaked, which may generally work nicely with a 3rd capability that affords you a short-range kinetic push, excellent for enemies on precarious ledges. The shuriken will get probably the most use out of the three, particularly with regards to its integration in common platforming. Each stealth and the small power push are featured in some ingenious puzzles to resolve within the areas instantly after you purchase them, however past that, their usefulness will not be explored additional, which seems like a missed alternative.
Every of those skills, in addition to your primary assaults and motion choices, will be upgraded via a barely convoluted system of buying passive improve chips after which assigning them into locations on a circuit board. This board grows as you accumulate chips scattered all through every stage. You’ll come throughout some not too far off the overwhelmed path, and lots of of them require cautious examination of every space when you’re desirous to unlock all the board earlier than reaching the tip of the sport. It really works towards the precept of frequently shifting ahead, stunting the pacing considerably to a level that I typically discovered myself sacrificing the improve potential for a greater general time. Coupled with the truth that solely a handful of upgrades make significant variations to the best way you may play, and, conversely, how one can survive higher in a struggle, it is seemingly that you will end up settling in with a construct early on and probably forgetting to enhance it.
It is within the ways in which Ghostrunner 2 makes an attempt to increase on these core fundamentals, and finally transfer away from them, that it begins creating friction with the elements that work. It is most clearly evident round midway via the marketing campaign: You are outfitted with a motorcycle and rapidly set off on a high-octane chase to flee Dharma Tower, forsaking the setting that has served the collection fully up till this level. The chase itself is entertaining sufficient, with parts of fight and platforming nonetheless current as you slash energy conduits to open large blast doorways and leap off your bike to keep away from the laser barrier, earlier than deftly grappling again to it because it races forward.
As quickly as you blast your approach out and into the wasteland outdoors the tower, nevertheless, Ghostrunner 2 loses its footing. The degrees right here present an ambition to increase gameplay into extra open areas, leaping between traversal in your bike and small fight interludes once you arrive at yet one more locked gate blocking your path. Ghostrunner 2’s lengthiest stage is one which presents you with three targets to finish, letting you resolve which order to sort out them in. This alone is not novel, and the order would not appear to make any tangible distinction on the remaining targets, so all it enforces are prolonged intervals of driving between the three in a needlessly convoluted open space devoid of any fascinating challenges or skirmishes.
Ghostrunner 2 tries to make use of this alteration in surroundings to introduce new enemy sorts and supply much more backstory to the sport’s narrative, however contemplating that every new enemy is just a reskin or an current archetype and that many of the story is delivered via conversations as you drive round a barren, brown panorama, it is a uninteresting detour from Dharma Tower that takes up a very good third of the overall runtime. Its solely saving grace is an unbelievable boss encounter that rounds out your time away from the tower. It is a powerful amplification of scale that does not simply use extra space for the sake of it, however as a substitute presents a fight encounter that’s pleasant throughout every of its phases whereas making modern use of the brand new mechanics Ghostrunner 2 has to supply. The identical will be mentioned for each boss struggle all through the marketing campaign, barring a weak displaying with the sport’s preliminary one within the very first stage. Not like its restricted house to maneuver and rote enemy patterns, different bosses are advanced fights that push you to make use of your expertise and honed reflexes in new methods. They’re prolonged bouts with forgiving checkpointing that make the widespread repetition of phases as you be taught a foe extra instructional than wholly irritating, representing the best factors in Ghostrunner 2’s fight at every juncture.
Part of what makes your time spent away from the tower so irritating is the stark distinction between the intrigue of Dharma’s building and the mundane nature of the whole lot outdoors of it. As soon as you come, the flood of vivid neon lighting that bathes avenues with delicate touches of the various struggles which have occupied them is straight away extra fascinating than a set of sand, rocks, and deserted buildings with nothing to say about their historical past. Dharma Tower invokes loads of acquainted cyberpunk imagery that has dominated video games in current occasions, however Ghostrunner 2 nonetheless stands out because of welcome selection between districts, be it the ominous halls of a non secular cult that has know-how hiding behind its sacred partitions, or the uncovered framework of a system collapsing beneath the burden of its goal when scaling among the outdoors partitions. Shifting via Dharma Tower is a delight that’s accentuated by a pulsating soundtrack carried by riveting synth rhythms, lots of which stored my foot tapping to the beat as I continued about my death-dealing duties.
It is tough to not benefit from the rhythmic nature of Ghostrunner 2’s finely-tuned mix of parkour and motion, and it is also unimaginable to disregard among the methods this sequel tries, however fails, to increase on its predecessor by way of scope. It is disappointing that in most regards the elevated ambition detracts from what makes Ghostrunner so fascinating within the first place, taking time away from the expertly designed fight arenas and satisfying platforming gauntlets and utilizing it as a substitute to discover a barren, empty world with no novel methods to traverse it. Ghostrunner 2’s narrative additionally fails to offer a compelling stopgap to ease the transition between these two distinct phases of the sport, however when this sequel does course-correct again to what made it so common to start with, it supplies an enthralling motion expertise. Ghostrunner 2 pulls again simply in time earlier than getting too near the solar to stay an entertaining sophomore entry within the collection that hopefully will not finish right here.