Ghostrunner 2 review – Weaponized adrenaline

A golden age

Cyberpunk has been getting a massive resurgence lately, hasn’t it? Phantom Liberty is out for Cyberpunk 2077, System Shock got a remake, Nivalis is releasing in 2024, and generally, we’re seeing a lot more of the genre being incorporated into parts of a game’s world (looking at you, Neon in Starfield). Much like Call of Duty clones in 2007-2011, it seems that we’re in a genre’s golden age.

And I, for one, am definitely not going to complain. We get blessed with games like Ghostrunner which we thought was a welcome addition to the genre. It truly breathed a breath of fresh air, so it’s no wonder we were going to see a sequel only 3 short years later. The question is, though; is it good enough to hold its weight in the genre once more?

Let’s start with the story

We follow some time on from the events in Ghostrunner, where our hero, Jack, saved the day by (spoiler alert) killing the big bad guy (the Architech). Much like the first game, we’re now facing off against a faction who aims to take control of Dharma Tower. And, much like the first game, we get to experience big boss fights and utilize an insane parkour repertoire to ensure we succeed in our end goal. It seems that developer One More Level has once again leant in on gameplay over story given how the latter doesn’t really play all that massive a role to the overall experience — it’s more like the characters point and tell us to kill something, and we’ll happily blindly follow. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, since it feels like it acknowledges from the get-go how goofy it is. I mean, either it’s a reference to Rise of Skywalker or it’s just a cheeky dig at itself, but we hear two characters talk and say something along the lines:

Victor: Somehow, the Architech has returned.
Butch2: What the f*ck are you talking about?

Return to form

A lot of the same systems have returned such as the wallrunning, parrying, sliding etc. But, for some reason it just feels… better? I think part of the reason stems from the game’s technical prowess. Running this on a 3060ti with settings on high, I was able to get my framerate to sit around 90. It’s extremely smooth, and the combat flows a lot nicer. Another reason is also due to Jack’s new skillset. Now you can combine everything you learned in the first game, and apply abilities like Shadow (which turns you invisible and creates a duplicate of Jack where it’s activated) and Flux (which shoots a stupidly high powered laser beam from Jack). Combine all these together, and you’ve got one hell of a fun experience.

Speaking of things from the first game, do you remember that damn puzzle you needed to complete when you wanted to upgrade your abilities? Well that’s gone, and instead it’s much more streamlined. You’ll unlock memory chips that allow jack to increase his ability capacity and allow you to run better and more skills, efficiently. Of course, you’ll need to match up certain abilities with their counterparts (i.e. traversal with other traversal abilities), so it’s still kinda nerfed and you can’t run the OP stuff at all times – but it’s a farcry and far better than what Ghostrunner initially offered.

Just like riding a bike

Ghostrunner succeeded because of its unique and challenging gameplay. What other games meld insane movement with reactionary gameplay? Ghostrunner 2 succeeds even more on this front, because it rewards creative thinking if you’re able to exploit in-game systems. The first title felt like a game built from the ground up to be a speedrunner’s dream, and Ghostrunner 2 is no exception. This game is all about speed, and finding tricks to keep high pace is one of the greatest rewards this game has to offer. Combine that with getting skilled enough to maintain high combos, utilizing Jack’s entire skillset, completing entire levels with little to no deaths, and your dopamine receptors will be shooting fireworks.

Of course, the game isn’t without some fault. We’ve acknowledged its lacklustre story (and forgiven it since it seems it also knows how comical it is to run a similar plot again), one of the biggest issues I had with pace. No, not game speed pace, but with overall design pace. These kind of games are really, really fun when the experience never stops — when there’s little to no downtime and you’re always on edge trying to do the coolest and craziest things imaginable. I found that a lot of battles (especially in the early game) weren’t really leading into each other, that once you completed one battle you had to then hunt for the exit, maybe even complete a puzzle on the way, then you could get into the next battle. With a game built on speed, having flowing-on areas would’ve been far more enjoyable. I would’ve really loved to see more on-rails experiences, where every battle flowed into the next, rather than having the experience be jarringly broken apart with a super basic puzzle.

Not every upgrade was smooth

The other thing I found a bit irritating were the motorcycle sections. Not that it was terrible, it was refreshing to jump onto the bike and drive at stupidly high speeds — all the while trying to make sense of the world around you, anticipating the next action, and trying your hardest to survive. There was one issue that kept rearing its ugly head, and it constantly broke the immersion. That is, if you hit the edge of a platform, the bike would just… stop. You couldn’t keep riding the bike, you wouldn’t keep grinding ala Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater-style, or somehow maneuver it back onto the platform, it would just abruptly stop. Then you had to wait til you were killed or failed the section just so you could get back to the action. I thought, maybe it was a skill issue? Maybe I just didn’t have enough pace to bounce back onto the platform? — No, if you landed on the edge of the platform, the bike would always stop.

But Ghostrunner 2 is just such a fantastic experience, and these issues pale in comparison to what’s truly on offer: fun. It’s so damn fun, I really couldn’t get enough of it. Especially since the movement tech isn’t too different from what’s available in the first game, getting into this game felt like riding a bike. One More Level has once again put out an absolute blast of adrenaline.

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