Ghostrunner reviews
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Those of you not put off by the difficulty or performance will find that there’s a decent bit of content to fire through in Ghostrunner. It’s not all bad for the most part, it seems like Ghostrunner is at least hovering somewhere over 20FPS, but this is a title which seldom feels like it’s performing at its best. In a game as unforgiving as Ghostrunner, this drop in performance can prove to be quite fatal, throwing off the movement and visual cues that usually spell the difference between victory and defeat. Those buttery smooth 60FPS on other platforms is replaced by a shuddering 15-30FPS range here, depending on how busy the screen is. Such matters are worsened by the poor performance of this Switch version, regardless of whether you’re playing docked or handheld. Captured on Nintendo Switch (Handheld/Undocked) You don’t feel a fulfilling satisfaction, just an exasperated relief. Success, when it finally comes, feels less like a legitimate accomplishment and more like a lucky break. You’ll have a route you know works and you’ll know it forward and back, but there’s almost always something that doesn’t quite line up right which torches the whole thing. While the sting of defeat is softened quite a bit by the ease of near-instant reloading of checkpoints, many combat encounters can quickly become an exercise in frustration. Did you make it onto that wall you can run along? You should’ve taken the other wall, here’s an undodgeable laser blast.
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Finally killed that guard? Too bad you didn’t turn around fast enough to kill the one behind you. This sounds good conceptually, as many players welcome the opportunity to improvise and think on their feet, but Ghostrunner seems to take a little too much pleasure in punishing mistakes. Often, there are multiple routes one can take to dispatch all the baddies in a room, and you’re expected to figure it out as you go. The issue at heart here is the lack of control one feels in a given combat encounter. Naturally, some will be attracted to this high level of difficulty while others will be put off, though we feel it bears mentioning that Ghostrunner tends to lean more towards the frustrating end of high difficulty than the rewarding end. There are some factors you can work to your advantage – like temporary pickups or equippable abilities – which can help give you an edge in combat, but Ghostrunner is very much a ‘put up or shut up’ kind of game that demands you play it a very specific way or not play it at all. One miscalculated dash angle or jump will likely result in your ninja eating a faceful of laser fire and dying a horrible death. This high-risk, high-speed gameplay makes each encounter tense and razor-sharp, as nothing but perfection is tolerated before you’re granted access to the next room. Why should we care about the Ghostrunner’s quest? Well, because everyone at the top is living in luxury and it’s time for the people to take back what’s theirs! All that’s missing is an extended pseudo-philosophical monologue from an AI on what it means to be ‘more than human’. All of this is played completely straight, without the vaguest hint of humour or lightheartedness, and this can make for a rather drab story. Players can expect plenty of eye-rollingly vague references to Very Important Things (which are always capitalized) and cynical speeches on the downfalls of classism and wealth inequality.
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The narrative is fine for what it is, but it does tend to flog conventional tropes of the cyberpunk genre a little too flagrantly at times. At the apex of this Tower of Babel is the enigmatic Mara, an evil ruler who needs to be deposed because she’s an evil ruler, and you’re guided on your murderous journey to the top by voices in your head who swear they’re on your side. You play as the titular Ghostrunner, a cybernetic ninja who has conveniently misplaced his memory, trapped at the base of an industrial tower which supposedly acts as the living quarters for the last surviving members of the human race. Ghostrunner’s story is rather straightforward, which can be a positive or a negative depending on how you look at it.