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 partaking traversal and motion. Ghostrunner II is a sequel that hasn’t completely misplaced the fascinating nature of its core gameplay loop, however in increasing the world that you simply’re taking part in in and looking for new parts to introduce into the combo, it loses itself alongside the way in which at occasions earlier than discovering its ft as soon as once more.
Ghostrunner II takes place a yr after the occasions of the primary sport, with cyborg murderer Jack now snug in his position as enforcer for the Climbers, one among 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 transferring ahead. Within the sequel, the narrative is much extra prevalent, which may make a lot 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, a lot of that are exposition-heavy explanations to get you on top of things as rapidly as doable. It makes the opening hours really feel overwhelming and disjointed, earlier than the story finally 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 solid of characters or fascinating story beats that you will seemingly keep in mind by the point credit roll, and definitely not lengthy afterwards.
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Fortunately, you do not want a very compelling story purpose to take pleasure in Ghostrunner’s essential draw. Similar to earlier than, you are in a position to elegantly zip round ranges with pace and beauty, chaining collectively wall runs, speedy slides, whiplash-inducing grapples, and nimble jumps. Ghostrunner 2’s levels function some intensive platforming parts, all of which use new and present mechanics in regularly novel methods. What might need been a easy wall run a couple of ranges prior is changed into one which requires a shuriken lodged right into a wall earlier than you possibly can grapple to it, with the added problem of getting to additionally disable a lethal electrical subject in your method on the identical time. Ghostrunner 2 rewards considering and reflexes in equal measure, however balances them nicely sufficient that you simply’re typically making it by 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 by frustration, making every little bit of progress really feel rewarding.
All through your time working round Dharma Tower and past, you may encounter pockets of enemies in small arenas that impede your progress. These begin off easy, with melee fodder that rush in the 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 simply’re up in opposition to. That applies to the senseless drones and all the way in which 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 unique 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 may not solely recurrently pull off, however be required to grasp to progress previous Ghostrunner 2’s difficult (albeit truthful) fight. Enemies are intelligently positioned to provide 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 may achieve entry to new talents that increase your repertoire in each fight and platforming. Returning talents, just like the shuriken, offer you a much-needed ranged choice in fights, gorgeous enemies and creating a brand new grapple level that opens up extra methods to circulation between them. One other permits you to create a duplicate of your self while you’re cloaked, which may generally work nicely with a 3rd capacity that affords you a short-range kinetic push, good for enemies on precarious ledges. The shuriken will get probably the most use out of the three, particularly relating to its integration in common platforming. Each stealth and the small power push are featured in some ingenious puzzles to unravel within the areas instantly after you purchase them, however past that, their usefulness isn’t explored additional, which looks like a missed alternative.
Every of those talents, in addition to your primary assaults and motion choices, could be upgraded by a barely convoluted system of buying passive improve chips after which assigning them into locations on a circuit board. This board grows as you acquire chips scattered all through every degree. You’ll come throughout some not too far off the crushed path, and plenty of of them require cautious examination of every space if you happen to’re desirous to unlock your complete board earlier than reaching the tip of the sport. It really works in opposition to the precept of regularly transferring 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 way in which you possibly can play, and, conversely, how one can survive higher in a combat, it is seemingly that you will end up settling in with a construct early on and doubtlessly 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 by the marketing campaign: You are outfitted with a bike and rapidly set off on a high-octane chase to flee Dharma Tower, abandoning the setting that has served the sequence utterly 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 method out and into the wasteland exterior 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 one more locked gate blocking your path. Ghostrunner 2’s lengthiest degree is one which presents you with three aims to finish, letting you resolve which order to deal with them in. This alone is not novel, and the order would not appear to make any tangible distinction on the remaining aims, so all it enforces are prolonged intervals of driving between the three in a needlessly convoluted open space devoid of any attention-grabbing challenges or skirmishes.
Ghostrunner 2 tries to make use of this transformation in atmosphere 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 present archetype and that many of the story is delivered by conversations as you drive round a barren, brown panorama, it is a uninteresting detour from Dharma Tower that takes up a superb third of the overall runtime. Its solely saving grace is an unimaginable 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 levels whereas making progressive use of the brand new mechanics Ghostrunner 2 has to supply. The identical could be mentioned for each boss combat all through the marketing campaign, barring a weak exhibiting with the sport’s preliminary one within the very first stage. Not like its restricted area 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 frequent repetition of phases as you be taught a foe extra academic than wholly irritating, representing the very 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 development and the mundane nature of every part exterior of it. As soon as you come, the flood of shiny neon lighting that bathes avenues with delicate touches of the numerous struggles which have occupied them is instantly extra attention-grabbing than a set of sand, rocks, and deserted buildings with nothing to say about their historical past. Dharma Tower invokes numerous acquainted cyberpunk imagery that has dominated video games in current occasions, however Ghostrunner 2 nonetheless stands out due to welcome selection between districts, be it the ominous halls of a spiritual cult that has expertise hiding behind its sacred partitions, or the uncovered framework of a system collapsing beneath the burden of its objective when scaling among the exterior partitions. Shifting by Dharma Tower is a delight that’s accentuated by a pulsating soundtrack carried by riveting synth rhythms, a lot 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 not possible 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 well-liked to start with, it offers 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 sequence that hopefully will not finish right here.