Ghostrunner

Hard jump and kill Game I guess, thats what I would call it.

Really Adrenaline filled, frustrating, but rewarding

Highly recommend if your into games with high mobilty skill gaps that you have to learn and like speed running have fun trying to beat the entire game in less than 1h 43m tho

"Look at this guy bringing a knife to a gun fight" *gets cut in half*

Despite the majority of the reviews, this game isn't absurdly hard, the deaths per hour on average is much less than Celeste. The game is generally designed around being satisfying while presenting a minor challenge. The movement itself isn't as well tuned as pure platformers or a select few others like Titanfall 2, but generally the movement is quite enjoyable. A common complaint was the cybervoid puzzle sections which does break the flow a little, but is generally short enough to be more of a slight break than a nuisance.

The levels are also paced decently well (although the ability to exit and continue from a checkpoint would be great), with each designed to take less than an hour to complete. If it takes more than that or if a puzzle section takes longer than a few minutes, that's generally a sign of a skill issue rather than an issue with the game.

Similar to Celeste, this game also offers an assist mode for those who decided to keep their will to live (and their skill issue) to enjoy the outstanding soundtrack and graphics far ahead of its time.

The story isn't carefully crafted and masterfully scattered like Hollow Knight, or particularly touching like Celeste, but it's crucial to note that it doesn't need to. Its main job is to tie the levels together without too many plot holes, which it does quite well.

The game is also designed to be immensely satisfying through all of its details, from 74 swinging his blade midair, to blasting a crowd of enemies into pieces with Tempest, to watching the last enemy gets sliced cleanly in half in slow motion, blood spilling from the top half to the bottom and vice versa (The gore effects are *chef's kiss* beautiful). The sound design is also amazing, the amount of dopamine released by a series of successful parries owes a large part to the sound effect, not to mention the slicing sounds itself, the sound effects are meaty, deep, thick, and most importantly, it sounds exactly how you'd expect slicing someone in half sounds like.

Overall, a slightly challenging game with a lot of satisfaction. 9/10

Extremely fluid combat, sick weapon designs, good dialog/voice acting, intense platforming, multiple enemy types introduced throughout the game which keeps it interesting, and a great cyberpunk atmosphere (plus it has a photo mode which is always a nice bonus).

I've only played the story so far but I can see myself playing the other game modes just to experience more of that satisfying combat. I'm glad I got it in a bundle with the second game though I'm hopping straight onto that :) Highly recommended 8/10

critically underrated, game is brutal and lightning quick while being comprehensive with experience. the levels are quite open and its always possible to cheese, and there are many different strategies with which you can go into basically every room. music is okay, its meant to be listened to over a dozen times every level so its pretty generic but each track fits well with it's respective level. the story isnt "background noise," as many would say, but its not the witcher 3 either. its like something out of a 10$ short novel at a barnes and nobles; you help a rogue ai (or a great scientist's mind copied into ai, its left fairly ambiguous) who wants to stop mara, the co-founder of "the tower" from turning everybody into cybernetic abominations and setting them loose on the outside world. "subservience and prosperity, or freedom and chaos?" is the general theme, but it kicks that question away when a side character pops up in the ending cutscene and goes "the day is saved because of what you did! how do we prevent this tower, formerly lead by the two greatest minds in history, from collapsing and the last bastion of humanity being lost to stale air? through the power of democracy!" and then the game ends

the only real issues ive had with this game is that the enemies can be quite janky, especially the jumpers who like to bug out when they attack; dropping in one place, then turning and zooming across a chasm superman style, before spinning a 180 and punching you into a restart. and the ai in general is unpredictable, which can be a massive issue with a precise action game that moves as quick as ghostrunner does, but it rarely culminates, and it keeps pretty tight in general

This game has such a good vibe and reminds me of great shooters like DOOM - in a kind of cyberpunk stiyle.

Great mechanics, it just makes you feel your in control even when you're dying all the time xD

It's fun as a problem solving game. It stutters which is annoying.

The aesthetics are neat. But the wallrunning feels so off and I cannot put my finger on why. It feels flat? Limp?

Getting to run around with a sword and kill people is fun but the "puzzles" just make me rage.

Ghostrunner is a challenging, fast-paced game. It's very satisfying when you finally conquer a stage or take down a boss. I had a lot of fun (also a lot of rage) completing this game and I definitly recommend it if you're looking for a challenge!

Ghostrunner is a complete fucking shitshow from start to finish. It tries to sell you this "cyberpunk ninja fantasy," but what you actually get is a steaming pile of donkey shit held together by neon lights and false promises.
The controls? Absolutely fucking atrocious. If you're on a keyboard, you might as well just fuck yourself out of the game immediately. The difference between keyboard and controller is so fucking massive, it feels like two completely different games — one barely fucking playable, the other just mildly tolerable. How the fuck do you even manage to fuck this up so badly?
And the story? Holy fucking shit. It's nothing but background noise, like someone tried to duct-tape a "narrative" onto a glorified obstacle course.
This is supposed to be a combat game, right? Fuck that — you'll die 90% of the time because of the janky, annoying-as-fuck parkour sections before you even get a chance to swing your goddamn sword.
It's not exhilarating. It's not challenging. It's just endless, stupid, soul-sucking repetition wrapped in cheap-ass cyberpunk dressing.
Honestly, playing Ghostrunner feels like being forced to do parkour over a field of broken glass — blindfolded — while a bunch of developers laugh in your fucking face. The only thing that runs smoothly here is my patience running the fuck out.

Exceptionally fun game. The movement. The pacing. The art style.
Ghostrunner is a challenging, yet fair adrenaline-fueled escapade of violence and speed. Running through the streets, jumping off walls, and cutting through enemies is a lot of fun, and there’s a rush of satisfaction when you finally overcome a challenge. Some parts like its story could be better, but what it offers in terms of gameplay is nothing short of greatness. It may take a bit to settle in, but when everything clicks, you'll feel like a badass in no time. The easiest way to describe Ghostrunner is to call it an illegitimate child of Hotline Miami and Mirror’s Edge.

Review after playing 90 minutes, so please take that into consideration. I also need to let off some steam and am admittedly using this game as a bit of a punching bag, however this negative review is genuine. I'll try to make it constructive.

Ghostrunner: a game set in a large panel factory the size of Aperture Science, where you play as a cyborg Faith Connors with dialogue that isn't even a little bit engaging.

I love games with cool movement. This is a game that looks like it has cool movement. It's passable for the most part, but needs more work. I seem to magnetise to walls even if I am trying to fall straight down instead of to wallrun. Unless you're sliding down a sloped surface, momentum isn't much of a factor, which takes a lot of energy away from my desire to send me and my blade hurtling towards enemies. I'm sure this is done so players don't lose control of the character, but I yearn to travel faster than I'm able to at this point and the abrupt stop after dashing is killing my flow. There are puzzle sections, for some reason, and the type of puzzle keeps changing, for some reason. These are so painfully out of place I was asking myself why I was even bothering to continue. I'm still walking around in a physical play area but now I can't dash or do anything relevant to the main gameplay loop. Why am I doing this? Why is this in the game? I can see the effort that has gone into the level design, but sadly it ends up being quite disappointing; the platforming with combat feels unintuitive sometimes and the platforming without combat is bulky and takes up far too much game time. I presume this is to give the dialogue enough space to actually play out, but frankly the story is not particularly engaging up to this point.

The writing and voice acting leave much to be desired. I understand the robotic nature of the interactions between 74 and The Architect, but I don't think this is a fair reason to have the world-building essentially be an infodump explained at our character. The world desperately wants you to know about it, but has very little tact or subtlety when doing so and has no interest of actually serving the gameplay at all. As someone who tends to align with anti-capitalism, I still wasn't compelled by the story being lazily draped over the same tropes of corporate oppression and egregiously steep class divide. It seems to be more set dressing than anything deemed worth exploring. Additionally, when you first hear Zoe's voice lines, it sounds like someone sat in front of a microphone who was told to "sound desperate" while reading their lines. Despite her apparently sending out calls for help for so long, it sounds like this is her first time doing so. She's not fatigued, dejected, nor demonstrating any amount of personality like you would realistically expect of this character, and she simply doesn't sound like the interesting character she could have been.

At 1.5 hours of gameplay, I realised I just wasn't having as much fun as other games could have provided. It's not that the game is "too hard", but rather that the challenge comes from imprecise controls and level design, as well as uninteresting writing and direction. Only so many situational awareness issues can be blamed on player error before one must ask why the sound design is dragging its feet. A couple times I found myself zoning out and blocking projectiles based on the time interval between shots while wondering why I wasn't just having a nap instead.

Ghostrunner has some good ideas in terms of mechanics and world design, and does deliver to a certain extent, but fails to make them interesting or fun enough for me to persist with the game at the moment. There is so much that could have been done better, and maybe they succeeded in the sequel, but I don't currently plan to find out.

If you really want to play it, get it while on sale. It's 75% off at the time of writing.

This game was pretty fun up until the Hel fight. That had to be the dumbest and worst designed boss fights I have ever done. The hit registration makes it impossible to figure about how to parry the attacks by the third phase. I refuse to continue trying to beat this game at how the combat can be.

definitely one of my all-time favourite games. I haven’t found another game that replicates the feeling of absolute flow given from the relation between the movement and the combat.
The balance between story and gameplay is perfect. Honestly, similar to portal in terms of how engaging both the story and gameplay work together.
I would completely recommend this game, though the immediate campaign will not get you as much time as other games with its price point. However, I have come back to this game years apart and replayed the campaign. And every time I love it. There’s just enough customizability that replaying the game is still exciting.

It's been a while since I got proper challange on a FPS game. got more than 90 attempts on some levels, nevertheless FUN FUN FUN, plus lots of wall running

One of the hardest games but most satisfying games I have ever played.

A rough first outing in this franchise (can I call it a franchise with 2 entries? Will do so anyway) which is exceptionally hard in some parts; In so far as, you won't get flawless first time through anywhere, and that's fine. The game is SO fast, the resets so quick and generally the elements basic enough that it's not really requiring to "string anything stupidly complex together for several minutes and without a flawless execution you won't see the end of it". No, it is genuinely good fun and failure is constant (To those people that say they no-deathed the entire game in one go and I should just 'git gud', please talk to Bullet-Hell-Game designers instead of me, thank you), and that is FINE. The game kicks my ass, but I come back and kick it back down eventually.

Good game, tough gameplay, great atmosphere, loving it.

Really good fast paced or slow paced very movement based very nice development kills and clearing a area in fast succession is very satisfying!

No joke I have to rethink my top 10 because this game is so damn good. Fast paced hack n slash gameplay, first person action, one hit kill/one hit death, and cyberpunk aesthetics/world is everything I love. The story isn't wholly complex but engaging and vague enough to keep you invested in learning more. Not a very long game but that's fine, there's a hardcore mode that unlocked after the main game which allows you to carry on your previously acquired skills in a remixed version of the game that includes more varied enemies and reorganized geometry + an assist mode that's fun to mess around in and is a good way to introduce to the game to people who would be turned off by the standard difficulty of the game. It's a great game, I wouldn't be mad about getting this game at full price, excited to try out the story dlc, it's sequel and will most definitely replay again soon.

I love how this game handles diffilculty yea its hard but it has a lot of check points and does not try to test you on how much you can take

As a huge fan of Dishonored and sci-fi themes in general, this game quickly asserted itself as one of my all time favorites. The gameplay is polished, the narrative is competent and classic, and the world design is one of my favorite representations of cyberpunk style. It's easy to pick up and put down, and basically never slows down. Challenge seekers can go for speed and collectibles, and casual will get a thrill from simply completing the game. And let's not forget the killer soundtrack, which takes everything over the top.

Hint: this game has a demo so I recommend you play if before making a decision to buy.

Levels in this game are mostly designed in a way such that enemies shoot your back while you trying to fight them. So instead of having and idea what you're doing you're just praying that they miss this time. This just artificially lengthens the game time.
The parrying sometimes work, sometimes it doesn't; the game even doesn't tell you that you can parry so you need to figure that yourself.
The dodged work only in air so holding shift in air will let you strife left/right and dodge the incoming projectile but when you do that being on the ground the character dashes instead. Bad control design especially that you develop muscle memory and then it suddenly doesn't work.
I got some blink ability but the tutorial was bugged and I needed to spent some time in there just to get over it. When playing the next level I couldn't even use the ability because the load time was so long.
As much as I've played, the levels were pretty similar and generic. Jump, run on the wall, use some grappling hook, dodge enemies, shoot. There are some platformer-like sections when having a dialogue with side characters and they're neither challanging, not interesting, seems like they're only to make you do anything while listening to the dialogue, akin to jumping from tree to tree in Minecraft while talking to your friend.
I found the game quite boring tbh, I did the same thing over and over again. I guess if you like this type of gameplay you can find yourself quite right in the gameplay loop. But before you buy I recommend you play the demo in order not to waste your money.

10/10 – I can only recommend it. Pure FPS ninja mode, absolutely addictive. The visuals and the soundtrack are simply stunning. +++

super fun and flowy movement. great soundtrack, always sounds amazing. difficult to get good at but once you do its super rewarding

When I started playing Ghostrunner, I thought I had accidentally activated hardcore mode because I kept dying—a lot (and I mean a lot). But once you realize it's more of a puzzle game than a hack 'n' slash, it becomes much more enjoyable.

I love the linearity, the art style, and the speed—this is by far the fastest game I've ever played. The soundtrack is full of banger after banger. Definitely a top-notch game.

beautiful story about an autistic transgender robot standing up to her parents

I had fun. Nice and short.

Wake the fuc-oh, wait...wrong Cyberpunk game

It's a fun game to kill some time, dont expect anything groundbreaking, but it does its own fairly well. Better than the second game.

This is a challenging game. Thing is the challenge comes from fighting with the controls rather than the game itself. Dashing and slowing time are inexplicably bound to the same key and this cannot be changed. The most egregious thing about this game is, for some insane reason, it WILL NOT save until you complete a level. You have checkpoints and can continue right where you left off if you die. But if you quit to desktop without finishing a level, you CANNOT continue where you left off mid-level. Continuing your game without having completed a level puts you back at the very start of the level. I can't abide with a game that has such an absurd design choice that blatantly disrespects its players' time.

rewards you for getting better, and you can never stop getting better. first 0 death on hardcore hit harder than any other feeling a game has given me. only game ive wanted to 100%, and even after doing it i still get rewarded playing the game. the better you get the more options open up to you in every level. play this game and trust that you wont always die so much, and take the time it takes to do it the cool way

Easy to learn < > Hard to master

Ghostrunner offers insanely fast paced free running-esque hack and slash action. it will challenge your reactions and will not hold your hand. Enemies are aimbots, so they don't mess around if you are in their aggro range. (don't even get me started on the samurai enemy).. granted there are multiple checkpoints throughout each mission and with the assisted mode it gives you a little bit more of an edge if you are truly struggling.

kill run: -is very fun and challenging. The stages are set out so that it gives you multiple routes you can take to further decrease your time loss, as you try over and over and over to get that precious master rank.

wave mode: -is tough as it basically throws all the enemies at you in the usual wave survival form.
i recommend playing the campaign first because you might encounter enemies that you don't know how to deal with yet.. regardless have fun with this mode.. i didn't :P

Overall if you love a good challenge and have decent reaction times, this game is definitely worth picking up when you have excess legal tender you wanna burn!

good artstyle and probably a great game but after only half an hour i can realize this is not my kinda game. you kinda just gotta get lucky for atleast the first couple levels but the parkour is fun. from what i can see this is more a game to turn your brain off but i dont really wanna die to the same group of enemies 50 times in a row until i get lucky and the bullets dont hit me. also why is the dash and the time slow the same button? the amount of times i tried to time slow and ended up dashing was crazy. probably good game try it on sale

The movement is fun, and the story is actually what kept me playing. The achilles heel is the boss fights and the overly difficult levels that would randomly pop up. Still recommended though.

recommended the music and combat is great

Really good fast paced game, requires a very high reaction speed, and requires high amount of awareness, but definitely worth the fun for the difficulty. Also do not ever use a controller on this game, as it requires very precise inputs that only an keyboard and mouse can offer.

The parkour is very smooth and the combat is EXTREMELY satisfying. Graphics are a 8.75/10, parkour is a 9/10, combat is a 9.5/10, story is a 7.75/10. overall, i'd say this game is a 8.5/10.

One of, if not my, favorite game of all time. i binged this game over the summer on a computer older than I am (19) and loved it. I just got it again and have been playing it on a modern computer and this game is so much fun. Reading the other reviews people seem to have an issue with the difficulty. Those people need to toughen up, if i can beat it on a computer with frames like a powerpoint presentation its not that hard. in fact i wish it had different dificutly modes so i could play the hardest version. Excelent game deffinently reccomend and if the developers read this please remaster it or come out with a new one and make it ultra hard.

Great game. I don't understand the bad reviews for it "being to hard." The point of the game is to die, try a new approach, learn with each death, and adapt. Its not the games fault if you suck and rage quite like a toddler throwing a tantrum. They make the respawn so fast for a reason, its cause you're meant to die.

Ghostrunner is a fantastic representation of what a first person platformer can be. Initially I was dismayed by the lack of a sprint function.
But one day, something clicked! There is no input delay between actions. If you can perform an action it will happen. Chaining these individual elements together creates this flow state of movement where you feel as if you are truly running along the walls.
Take your time, enjoy the journey, and get better as you go. You will enjoy it that much more.

(I have played it on both controller and keyboard. I prefer controller.)

very hard, not for everyone. soundtrack be hittin

the puzzling sections made me want to blow my brains out, what were the dumbass devs thinking?

"ayo, the player might be having too much fun playing as a cyber techno ninja, we should force him to collect orbs on fucking rotating lego pieces"

Personally I thought it was the best hack n slash game of all time. The fast pasted game play made me feel like a real ninja. Not only is the game play great, but it also has a great and interesting story!

This is a great game. The game is decently hard to start out. Speedrunning is really satisfying. However just a warning before learning speedrun tech. Once you know it you can't go back to playing the game normally.

great game - currently replaying

The coolest game that I'm not even sure I like. Played on switch and bought on steam to play without garbage FPS before trying Ghostrunner 2.

Pros:
- the music bumps
- quick moment to moment gameplay that when you nail feels smooth and amazing
- cool cyberpunk world building and visuals
- looks good and runs well even on my laptop (on low/medium settings)
- most of the platforming is fun (and you can listen to more of the soundtrack)

Cons:
- there is clearly a right way and a wrong way to approach combat. Sometimes its amazing and feels challenging but fair. Sometimes it feels like bashing your own forehead against concrete because there is a way that the encounter has been designed that feels impossible if you don't figure out what the developers wanted. At best combat feels like playing titanfall 2 again, at worst it slows the whole game momentum down and feels like you are being forced to solve a puzzle to proceed.

Disclaimer - It has been a while since I have played fully through the game. This may be alleviated once I unlock the other special powers and can add more skills.

This game is incredible and idk how I havent heard more about it, there are a few glitches but theyre few and far in between and dont mess with the gameplay. The story is intriguing, the visuals amazing, and the music is incredible, its one of the few games that actually made me want to review it. 10/10

Fun and unusual. But hardcore. Not for everyone.

Ghostrunner is a game that boils down to "okay" at best. The evolution in gameplay is interesting, but the story serves more as an excuse for the crazy things you can do. At times, the gameplay and music get quite frantic, reminding me of the almost agility-puzzle dynamics present in Neon White, which I found to be a mechanically more satisfying game. Evading enemies can be quite frustrating on some occasions, and it’s the kind of game that could easily lead to a rage quit at some point. While that wasn’t my experience, I feel that I have more interesting games to spend my time on, and since then, Ghostrunner has been left aside.

a definite must play. I originally played through most of the story on a pirated version of the game back in 2021 and loved it so much that I decided to buy it. I never finished it and decided to try it again yesterday, and man it's as good as I remember. It is a bit challenging, but it's nothing too hard that it's annoying. There are a few annoying things here and there (those crawling exploding things had no reason to exist beyond being a nuisance) but overall a good experience, and what annoys me only lasts a few minutes so it's nothing game ruining. Overall, a very cool little game, the story is nothing to write home about, but it's there, and the game-play is fast paced and you can get good at movement. I don't know if i'd pay 30 dollars for it since its a fairly short game (it would probably take a lot longer for people who haven't played the game in the past), but in terms of how it looks and how smoothly it plays (most of the time), i could see rationalizing it to an extent.