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Ghostrunner 2 review: an unforgiving cyberpunk slasher you’ll either love or despiseA love or hate relationship
A love or hate relationship
Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/505 Games
Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/505 Games
I know some things aren’t for me: The sitcom Friends, a small bowl exclusively filled with olives as a side dish, V-neck t-shirts. But I appreciate that while I might not get on with them, many others will enjoy the bite of an olive on its own, or the increased airflow to their larynx as they chortle at Joey doing the silly thing he does at Rachel, or whatever.Ghostrunner 2, a first-person cyberpunk slasher and sequel toGhostrunner, has joined the echelon of things that aren’t for me but might be for you.
That’s because the game’s relentlessly unforgiving, and sets margins so small you’re rarely afforded much freedom. Sometimes it really does put you in the RGB kicks of a cyber ninja as you dash between the halves of cyborgs you’ve cleaved in two, but these moments can often be the weary culmination of agonising trial and error. If you’re into that, great! If you’re not, then I’d slink back into that shadow.
Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/505 Games
Ghostrunner 2 follows on from the events of the first game and sees you reprise your role as Jack, a metallic ninja who’s basically a legally distinct Genji fromOverwatch. This time Dharma, a big tower where people live, is under siege from an AI cult of other metallic ninjas who have shining red eyes and speak of things like everlasting power. You are to hunt them down and slice them to bits, which is what you’ll end up doing, but it’s about as gripping a tale as the “about us” page on Lloyd’s Bank. Don’t expect to build a lasting bond with any of the folks you’ll speak to over the radio either, because they like irritating small talk and Jack feeds them with short, gruff responses.
Between most missions you’ll warp back to a small hub space where you can talk to folks for extra lore, start a new mission, or upgrade your character with new abilities you unlock as you progress. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/505 Games
You can’t knock the game’s drive to keep things fresh, though, as you jack into cyberspace and take on platforming challenges that conform to different rules: suddenly your jumps are floatier; orbs of a different colour need to be destroyed in a certain sequence as a clock ticks down; tokens let you double jump, so you’re sort of cashing them in to bounce up and between obstacles like flappy bird. At one point you barrel down the side of the tower on a cyberbike, then take it for a thrash around a desert.
Ghostrunner 2 does work on the Steam Deck, but I had to turn all the settings down to “low” or “off”, with AMD’s FSR2 at “Ultra Performance” for a relatively hitch free experience. If I turned things up a notch, then I’d get big frame drops in busy areas which aren’t ideal in a twitchy game like this. If you’re a bit tech savvier than me (you almost certainly are), then perhaps you can jig the settings into something that’s more of a balance between looks and FPS. Good luck to you. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/505 Games
For those with sharp reflexes and infinite patience, the Ghostrunner 2’s combat won’t be a problem. If anything, you might be able to pull off silky manoeuvres with ease and slice everything to ribbons like a Russell Hobbs-branded pinball. And there were a handful of instances I managed to pull off some cool things, as the tools you’re given can help alleviate the pressure of fights against multiple lads. Shurikens can stun robots, turning them into helpful grapple points to cover ground quickly. Leave a decoy behind and enemies will focus on it briefly, giving you a chance to slice the worst of the bastards. Hold the dash button and you’re given a slow-mo window to strafe out the way of oncoming laser beams.
But again, the game’s teaching methods lie in trial and error, in a similar vein to platformers like Celeste. Unless you’re an absolute demon, most fights may not be as open-ended as the game’s tools tout. There’s often clearly a best route through these arenas, and most fights become an exercise in input repetition where straying from the script means a bullet to the back of the head. Did I mention everything in this game just murders you instantly? I died so often to dudes who shoot you in the arse from miles away, just as I was about to get in the rhythm of things. In the end, I opted for the path of least resistance: being as uncool and boring as possible.
Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/505 Games
