Ghostrunner Review

One of the best games of the 2020s if you can handle it.

Picking a subject for the very first proper post in what’s supposed to be a series of articles isn’t easy. In the end, I picked Ghostrunner, as it embodies very well what I want to talk about in this Substack. To put it simply, I’m bored with modern triple-A games and hence want to shine a spotlight on better games.

Games that aren’t for everyone, due to their uncompromising nature, and hence, tend to remain in the background. And Ghostrunner is precisely that kind of game. Before I explain what makes Ghostrunner so special, let me first give a brief description of the game just in case you’re not familiar with it.

Setting

Ghostrunner is a first-person action platformer developed by Polish studio 505 Games and released in 2020. Ghostrunner takes place in a post-apocalyptic world. Humanity had to retreat into a sealed skyscraper, as the outside world has become inhospitable.

Over time, things have deteriorated, and now the tower is ruled with an iron fist by Mara, the keymaster. If this sounds like cyberpunk to you, then you’re on the right track. Ghostrunner leans heavily into battle-tested dystopian future tropes, and, unsurprisingly, they work reasonably well in this game as well.

The cyberpunk atmosphere is thick in some areas of the skyscraper.

In the intro of the game, we see an attempted coup against the keymaster. Several katana-wielding cyborgs try to take her out but fail. One of the cyborgs gets tossed over a balcony and falls to the very bottom of the tower.

We assume the role of the fallen cyborg, the titular Ghostrunner. Our goal is to topple the keymaster. However, to do that, we need to climb back all the way to the top of the tower and somehow deal with Mara’s henchmen, who are hell-bent on stopping us.

Fortunately, we have an ally. During the very beginning of the game, we get contacted by a mysterious man who calls himself “Whisper.” He wants to help us get rid of Mara, and he has some useful tips on how we can get back into shape so that we actually survive the second encounter with the pesky keymaster.

But enough with the stage setting. What do we actually do in Ghostrunner?

Gameplay

As Ghostrunner is an action platformer, jumping and fighting are the key gameplay elements. The levels themselves are rather winding and filled with gadgets like hook points for our grappling hook, runnable walls, and zip lines.

To make things even more interesting, they also contain a lot of deadly obstacles and a lot of chasms. Traversing the environment is a main game element, both during and in-between fights.

Ah, yes, fighting. To beat the game, we have to fight our way through Mara’s surprisingly large number of henchmen. Things start harmless enough: the first enemies are equipped with a rather puny laser pistol.

However, things quickly ramp up. During the game, we will fight, among others, soldiers with personal laser shields, soldiers with laser assault rifles, snipers, drones, and mechs. Most of these have a distinct advantage over us, as they can attack from a distance.

As mentioned, we’re wielding a katana, and katanas are rather useless at a distance. So, we have to close the distance to beat our enemies. Fortunately, we can reflect at least some shots, but this requires precise timing and hence isn’t a great strategy for most players. Instead, it’s usually better to just outsmart our enemies with the correct route and by simply being too fast for them.

While we get some rather useful special attacks later in the game that work at a distance, the game’s focus always remains on melee combat. And there is one more thing: every hit is deadly.

That applies both to us and to the enemies. So, the game combines a lot of enemies that we have to eliminate in close combat with winding levels and a very fragile player character. Unsurprisingly, this results in a very tough game.

Difficulty

Ghostrunner is a very difficult game. The regular levels are already challenging, as you can expect to die at least a couple of dozen times in each of them during your first play-through. However, the boss levels are in a league of their own. I remember dying more than 200 times during my first encounter with the first boss of the game.

That’s the first boss of the game. We’re in for a wild ride.

In Ghostrunner, there is no way to avoid this difficulty. This isn’t Dark Souls, where we can grind or use the perfect build to handle a difficult boss. We just have to try again and again until we understand its patterns and how to react to them. This lack of “shortcuts” is probably one of the reasons why only 25% of Steam users have beaten the game.

However, success in Ghostrunner isn’t random. Once we have found a working strategy for a certain situation, it will work reliably, even though executing it will still require precise timing.

In that sense, Ghostrunner is a bit of a puzzle game. We cannot rely on our reflexes to carry us. The game is simply too hard for this. Instead, we have to rely on trial and error to find the correct routing and strategy for a certain situation.

Intensity

Now, it’s finally time to explain why I think Ghostrunner is great: it’s incredibly intense. Playing it is almost a physically demanding experience, as it requires so much concentration. In that regard, it’s the antithesis to many modern games that don’t demand anything from the player and offer help whenever the player gets stuck for a few minutes. It may sound embellished, but playing Ghostrunner makes me feel alive.

In addition to being very intense, Ghostrunner is also incredibly dense. There is very little downtime in this game. The story is mainly told between combat encounters when we make our way through the skyscraper. These interludes are very brief and don’t slow the game down, as we’re still actively playing and have to pay attention to not fall into some pit.

Ghostrunner doesn’t waste our time. In that manner, it’s the opposite of a game like Persona 5 Royal (for the record, I like Persona very much). In total, Ghostrunner feels refreshingly old-school, almost like it escaped from an arcade. When I first played it back in 2020, it felt like a breath of fresh air, a reminder of how things used to be.

Music

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the game’s fantastic synthwave soundtrack here. It was composed by the Russian music producer Daniel Deluxe. The music is both dark and energizing at the same time and fits the game like a glove.

Similar to Hotline Miami, the music is a big part of the whole experience. There are a lot of great tracks in the soundtrack, and I highly recommend listening to it in full. However, if you’re in a hurry, I recommend the track “Infiltrator” to get a general feel for the sound.

Flaws

Like every game, Ghostrunner has some flaws. They don’t bother me, but I think I should mention them to at least halfway balance my gushing over the game. First, the game sometimes feels a bit janky.

Sometimes, the collision detection doesn’t work as expected, and on occasion, the game will stutter a little even on potent hardware. This is annoying, especially because the game is so demanding, but it happens rarely enough that it isn’t a fatal flaw.

Also, the level design is only functional and makes no sense whatsoever. It’s still fun and perfectly serviceable. However, you will be disappointed if you want an immersive setting that feels real.

The story is also not great and quite predictable, but it does the job. Last, I have to complain about the final level. It’s a pure jump and run level without any combat and it’s incredibly frustrating and overstays its welcome. Cutting it in half would be a great improvement.

Reception

Ghostrunner sold a respectable 2.5 million copies. The game received a DLC called “Project Hel.” In it, the main character is a different ghostrunner with different abilities. This greatly changes the game experience and is a nice change of pace. As a side effect, the DLC is a bit easier than the main game. I’m not sure whether this was intended or not.

Unsurprisingly, the game also got a sequel. Ghostrunner 2 launched in October of 2023 and, to me, is a big disappointment. For some reason, the developers added an open world to the game. I’m not fond of open worlds in general, and here the open world seems greatly out of place. In total, Ghostrunner 2 is okay, but a far cry from the brilliance of the first game.

Conclusion

I consider Ghostrunner a masterpiece and highly recommend it to anybody who likes action platformers and can handle a challenging game. The game revitalised my love for gaming and I’ll be forever grateful for this.

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