Ghostrunner Preview – Cyborg Ninja Dredd Sim

One of the coolest games I got to see at PAX East this year was Ghostrunner. Take the smooth-platforming of Mirror’s Edge, the quick and violent kills of Dishonoured, and drop this madness into the dirty, run-down setting of Dredd, and you have Ghostrunner. If that sounds even remotely appealing to you, then it’s worth looking into the game, as my time with the demo fully delivered on every aforementioned concept while creating its own distinct, gritty, and cool-as-hell experience.

The demo starts abruptly, giving you the same sense of confusion as the character you’re playing as. After essentially dying, your character is alive and semi-robotic. Guided only by the voice of a mysterious prisoner named Whisper, you set off into the dangerous and grime-coated world of Ghostrunner to figure out what the hell is going on. Before you know it, you’re running on walls, slowing down time, and cutting people in half with your slick sword. It’s every bit as frantic and cool as it sounds.

Throughout the demo, I unlocked a few new abilities that made movement both more challenging and more exciting. Just when I got the hang of wall-running and sliding, I was taught to dodge bullets and slow down time, then as I figured those moves out, I was taught to swing like Spider-Man. This constant flow of new abilities felt like a perfectly natural progression as the demo went on, as I never felt as though I was too confident in my abilities.

“Everything from the structures to the technology feels like it’s on its last legs, but it’s all still colorful and diverse enough to not become drab.“

This feeling of “trial by fire” continued throughout the entirety of the demo, as I died a lot. Over and over, one bullet would hit me from the side, or I’d go slightly too far in one direction and fall to my doom. The impressive part of this is that every death felt like my own fault. I never felt frustrated upon dying, only more informed on how I should approach an area, and more determined to clear the place out. If that’s not the sign of a well-designed gameplay loop, I don’t know what is.

The atmosphere is just as stellar as the gameplay. Throughout the entirety of the demo, I felt as though I was trapped in a huge Kowloon-esque megacity that was worn-out and caked in filth. Everything from the structures to the technology feels like it’s on its last legs, but it’s all still colorful and diverse enough to not become drab. I’d describe it as Dredd meets Blade Runner, and that’s a pretty stellar combo when you’re trying to make a strong atmosphere.

While the environment and the story in the demo intrigued me, it was really this constant escalation of movement and combat that kept Ghostrunner on my mind for the remainder of the event. Simply put, dodging bullets in slow-motion and cleanly slicing goons in half is a visceral experience that makes you want more purely due to how smooth the implementation is. I can’t sing Ghostrunner’s praises enough, and I really can’t wait to check the whole thing out when it comes to consoles and PC later this year.