You round the corner of the building. Go in for the kill. You get shot. Get used to it.
Ghostrunner
Developer: One More Level
Price: $40
Platform: PC/PS4/Xbox One/Switch
MonsterVine was supplied with a PC code for Review
As far as I can tell Ghostrunner is the first masocore first-person platformer. I’m saying masocore because I refuse to call it the “Dark Souls of First-Person Platformers.” There are probably others, and I’m sure there will be others after this, but Ghostrunner feels a revelation. Something that people have wanted for a long time, though I’m not sure it’s exactly the way they wanted it. It has tight controls and cool locations but also frustrating combat encounters and level design. It’s simultaneously one of the best and worst games I’ve played this year, and I’m not sure if that’s the game’s fault or mine.
Story wise, you’re a ghost runner: An ultra cool cyborg ninja cop in the cyberpunk mega structure called “Dharma Tower.” You’re awoken by someone called “The Architect” and are tasked with saving Dharma Tower from the despot controlling it. It’s a generic story but I couldn’t help being drawn into the story. Thanks in large part to the voice acting, which is good across the board. Locations are a bit of a letdown, however, as most of the game is set in a decrepit factory-ish area underneath the cyberpunk city. You don’t get to spend too much time amongst the neon ramen signs, but by the time you get there, let me tell you, running alongside those neon ramen signs never felt better.
Note the lack of ramen signs
Ghostrunner is a simple game in theory. You run on walls, you jump off walls, you cut dudes in half. All fun right? Yeah! Except at times it’s annoyingly hard. Like so hard, for a good quarter of the game I kept wondering if the game was bad or if I was just bad at it. As it went on I started leaning towards the latter. It’s very much a game where you learn from your mistakes, and as you grow as both a character and a player the game starts becoming really rewarding. Pulling off certain obstacles in one or two tries feels incredible. Dying in a combat encounter 60 times because some guy you didn’t know was there shoots you in the back, not so much.
The combat arenas in this game are more or less puzzles, the puzzle being the classic: “What is the quickest and most efficient way I can slice all these dudes in half.” Which is great on paper, but from the start the game doesn’t really give you a lot of ways to deal with these aforementioned dudes. Simply a sword, a slow-down ability, and gumption. Which again, great! But the game isn’t good at telling you when you’re being shot at or from where, which leads to a lot of frustrating encounters where it just feels like you’re smacking your head against the wall.
Get used to this screen
Thankfully, as the game goes on you start unlocking new abilities like a multi-kill, a force push, a sword burst, and a hacking ability. All of these make the combat encounters much easier to deal with and way less of a headache. But some of those early encounters were incredibly frustrating. Also, there was a boss fight where I nearly pulled my hair out.
That said, the overall platforming in this game is topnotch. Running through the platforming sections is where this game really shines, and you just feel so cool pulling off some of the crazy stuff the game asks you to do. I literally cannot wait to see some of the speed running videos for this game because they are going to be absolutely insane.
Anyway, the game is good. I think I died 1,000 times playing it, but it’s good. It’s probably the most frustrated I’ve been with a game in years, but I couldn’t help going back. It’s just one of those games that demands a lot of you, and if you’re willing to put the work in it’s incredibly rewarding. But if you’re not into harder games or technically demanding games maybe pass on this one.
The Final Word
Ghostrunner isn’t here to hold your hand. It watches you get frustrated and laughs, because it knows you’ll be back in 20 minutes
– MonsterVine Rating: 3.5 out of 5 – Fair
