If you enjoy Mirror's edge and fast-paced 3D platformer, you will be in love with this game. The story takes place in some dystopian post-apocalyptic future where the last humans take refuge in a huge tower which was built to protect them from the outside word. Very little is known about the setting of the game, other than that the tower was built by scientists who used their knowledge to construct hybrid bio-robotic implants. The hierarchy was decided based on whose implants were the most powerful or useful. This eventually led to a rebellion and a powerful scientist called Mara now turned half machine took over. Another scientist who had an opposing view on how the tower should be run sent "Ghostrunners" a type of machine ninja able to deal with threats within the tower. Mara defeated most of the ghost runners except one which somehow survived the clash and ended up getting repaired by some city dwellers.
Your mission is to climb the top of the tower to stop Mara and bring back order to the tower and save humanities last hope for survival.
The Good:
- Impressive graphics with a cool dystopian sci-fi punk vapor wave feel. The tower is seriously a work of art navigating through the various sectors and neighborhoods. It makes Blade Runner look like a slum.
- The move set and capabilities of the ghost runner exceeds games like mirror's edge where you can literally slow time, walk on many surfaces and the best of all, is you can do it in real time. The mechanics are built in such a way that slowing down time only allows you to choose a path or give you an extra half second to make a decision while speed running, platforming and slashing. In the end, you feel like you are seriously moving like a cyber ninja whereas most games like Max Payne feel like you could literally beat the whole game in slow motion. In this game, its used only to allow impossible timings to be accomplished, nothing more!
- The game feels fluid, bugless and polished.
- The combat is interesting and at times feels more like a strategy game than an actual slasher. If you expect to kill thousands of enemies, this is not the game for you. In this game, one bullet kills you. Your job is to kill as much as 10 enemies without getting shot which is difficult considering how bullets move at the speed of sound. You have to jump around and walk on walls in such a way not to get shot down and use your dashing appropriately in order to delivery a deadly blow. All enemies take one hit to kill, but so do you. So it feels a lot like strategy but on occasion it might be a borderline FPS.
- Interesting abilities to help you take on those enemies ranging from kinetic powers to mind control.
- The story is very interested in its presentation. It feels like one of those dystopian Japanese anime. The story isn't anything new but it's well delivered with a unique ambiance.
- The soundtrack is amazing... I mean it's a solid 12/10. Thanks to Dj Daniel Deluxe which is responsible for other type of new wave 80s dark synth electronic music. I would often just stop playing in order to hear the music. I even got the soundtrack after finishing the game (it's that good!).
- The puzzles are interesting and varied. You can tell that they have tried to change up the game.
- The voice acting 10/10
- You can find cool sword skins like my lovely neon yellow Katina.
The Bad:
- The combat is simplistic, you literally just slash in one direction. They could have tried to add a secondary attack or some extra offensive moves. I mean they did a lot with the bare minimum but it was a bit disappointing. I wasn't asking for 10 moves, but I mean your basic street fighting had at least 2-3 attacks.
- The bosses are a bit disappointing. There are like 3 bosses in the game total, but they are really easy and short once you find what to do which is one of 3 things. Jump around, parry and slash. Most bosses can be killed in less than a minute.
- I found the game to be short. It can be beaten in under 7 hours, and if you are good at FPS and platformers like me, you can easily beat it in 4-5 hours. I saw a guy speed run it in 40 minutes without using any exploits, bugs or wall hacks.
- There are no items in the game. No healing items, no weapons no armor. I mean it would have been interesting to have something to collect. I mean I can do without armor, but what about a sword upgrade or and extra life point. There is so much they could have done. You can collect some junk but its useless really..
- Some powers feel useless like Mind Control and some of them feel overpowered like tempest when you can literally blast 6 enemies with one attack. In general, powers are kinda secondary in this game, they don't make much of a difference since you need to kill like 3 foes to get another charge.
I personally think this game still deserves a 10 because it delivers on all front, but it could have been so much more. I hope they improve the mechanics in Ghostrunner 2, if it is every made.
Verdict:
If you like Mirror's Edge-like platforming, Robot Ninjas, Sci-Fi Dystopian Futures , strategy games and FPS all mixed into one awesome package!
Don't miss this game! I mean it must be played seriously!