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Ghostrunner review
by Misha

Other reviews6

How have I not played this game before?

It's really amazing playing something where the focus is on the gameplay. This game has a cool story, with a simple but efficient plot and characters; nice graphics and a cool OST. The art direction and level design are well-tied. All of this, along with the gameplay itself, adds to the world-building. You feel like a Ghostrunner progressively. But why?

This game, unlike many others, understands its premise and holds it still. The mechanics are simple and not many. With time, the game will introduce more skills that could change your gameplay considerably. Since the difficulty is hard sometimes, you will die a lot, but it never feels unfair. Also, since the respawn is immediate, you are actively playing 99% of the time. There is no time to cry about it because two seconds after your death, you are already trying again, with more accuracy or different paths. Oh, and the challenge is also in the movement. There are a lot of "platform" moments in the game that require a lot of coordination. I loved it all. Like Doom, this game mixes all of your learned skills until the end. As I said, you progressively start to feel like a Ghostrunner.

To mention something I believe could be better here: the boss fights. They were much more gimmicky than fights themselves. The parry window was too big, and the movements were slow. It's strange to think that the game's difficulty decreases in the boss fights specifically. Well, at least their design was cool.

There was a lot I liked here. I'm going to play the sequence right now. I hope it's like this gem.
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«Can’t stop playing»
«Constantly dying and enjoy it»
First couple levels had me thinking the game was just so-so. I didn’t have a good grasp on the controls or the feel/rhythm of the game. It has grown on me as I’ve unlocked a few abilities and I have a better understanding of how the game plays. It’s not bad. But still it isn’t drawing me in that much. I usually play 1 or two levels. Which is like an hour or so and then I move on. That might change for the second half of the game though. It is picking up.

One big point of praise is the load times are actually instant between deaths. This game would be super frustrating  if the load times were even like 2 or 3 seconds. I’ll die like a 100 times in a 30 minute level. The instant retry really is nice.

Ghostrunner keeps getting better. I’m liking deflecting bullets back at guys and the force push move is good as well. It’s challenging but hasn’t felt unfair. 

The story twist at the end was predictable but I liked it. The final act had some really good intense levels. It definitely had some good dopamine release after beating some very challenging sections.

Final Score: B+
Cool!
«Blew my mind»
«OST on repeat»
Recommend at a discount, but for $30 this game doesn't offer quite enough content.

Ghostrunner is a trial-and-error cyber-ninja game that features similarities to other perfection seeking games like Super Meat Boy. Some of the platforming can be frustrating, especially the later wallrunning segments. The Ghostrunner doesn't always grab onto walls the way you expect. Visually striking, plus great visual clarity of enemies, projectiles, and interactive objects. The soundtrack is immersive, fitting, and perfect to zone out to, but ultimately forgettable. The game is only 6-8 hours long unless you get stuck. There's some replay value to be had in finding collectibles and improving your times, but it would have benefited from another few hours of slicing baddies up. I also frequently ran into bugs with my controls, where everything would become nonresponsive unless I restarted, losing a good chunk of progress.
It's a first person Hotline Miami.