IGN’s Mitchell Saltzman sliced and diced through the cyberpunk future of Ghostrunner from All In! Games in a recent 8/10 review.
There is no shortage of great ninja-centric video games out there, from Ninja Gaiden to Metal Gear Rising to more recent gems like Katana Zero. But even among those, Ghostrunner stands out by being 100% committed to delivering that fantasy of becoming a super fast and deadly assassin. This is a game where you run fast, slide fast, kill fast, and if you can’t do those things fast enough, you die fast.
Taking place in a cyberpunk-themed post-apocalypse, Ghostrunner tells the story of a cybernetically enhanced swordsman who awakens after getting thrown out of a tower with little memory of what happened to him, who he is, or why he feels compelled to immediately plunge a sword into the poor soul waiting below him.
Of course, the action is what you’re really here for – and if you’ve got a thing for lightning-quick, reflex intensive, high risk/high reward combat that gets decided with just a single strike, then Ghostrunner was made just for you.
While it’s platforming portions are much more linear, they still benefit from a ton of variety in their challenges. Sometimes you’ll have to hack something to freeze it in place while you navigate through or around it, other times you’ll have to quickly throw shurikens at power plates to open a door and dash through it before it closes, and you’ll often find yourself using a dash in creative ways in order to get through tricky obstacles. The deep well of ideas Ghostrunner uses to power its short campaign is not quite Titanfall 2 levels, but it’s extremely deep nonetheless.
With its breakneck pace and skill-heavy gameplay, Ghostrunner is a speedrunner’s dream. But even beyond that demographic, this is a great first-person action game that feels punishing but fair. You may die hundreds of times, but instantaneous respawns and generous checkpointing ensure that Ghostrunner’s challenging combat and platforming never become a chore. More than all of that though, Ghostrunner is jam-packed with a great variety of enemies, mechanics, and special powers that constantly changed up how I approached its many unique encounters. That meant it always felt fresh, and by the end of its six to eight-hour campaign, I was all too eager to jump back in for seconds.
For more information about the developer, visit the official All In! Games website and follow them on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. For more information about the game, visit the official Ghostrunner website, follow it on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, as well as join the community Discord server.