Ghostrunner is a game about sports fun, and I like its never forgotten game. You are a cyborg ninja with agile and agile weapons. Everything you do and everything the game throws at you revolves around it. There are many encounters and special abilities between the enemy and the boss, but they all focus on the basic concept of motivation.
This is a relief. I am worried that Ghostrunner will make a “Mirror’s Edge” and fall into the quagmire of battle, but this is not the case. One More Level, a Polish developer, understood why the Ghostrunner demo worked and sticks to it earlier this year. Do one thing and do it well.
Ghostrunner is a game about acrobatic routines, designing and executing them. This is what it all comes down to. You are a very agile character who can run, slide, swing, sprint and even slow time. However, you are also a very fragile character and will die in one blow. Therefore, the challenge for Ghostrunner is a kind of elegance: being hit while being close enough to hit and cut other people without being hit.
Repetition is the key. Ghostrunner is a trial and error game. Think of it as a “trial version” or “Miami Hotline”. There is an instant restart mechanism that you will use frequently. Die and press the R key (on the PC), and you will return to the beginning of the current checkpoint, usually only a few seconds away. This is the basis of the game loop. You don’t want to overcome a new field without sacrificing a few times in the process of honing your plan. Try one method, die, and then try another method: this is its method. You will accept it, so the pain of death is gone.
But not exactly. Ghostrunner is a difficult game. This is a smart game, if you have friends watching it, you might find it very impressive. But this requires practice. Playing it reminds me of a musical instrument, checkpoint areas such as musical passages, tiny moments such as bars.
One shot might slide down a ramp, then jump into the air, slow down, blast around the stagnant projectile, then land and cut an enemy in half. Another possibility is to enter the wall from there, then to another platform and kill. The third shot may swing to other places on the energy restraint and slow down time for another kill. and many more.
However, each of these bars needs to be studied individually before they can be combined in order. And there are various things that can go wrong. Sometimes, you don’t stick to the wall like you used to. Sometimes, you don’t lock on the armrest to slide along the armrest as you used to; sometimes the enemy shoots at different times; sometimes you miss the result just because you are tired. It all adds up.
I said that a boss met me and spent 246 attempts-death-clearance. This is not a joke, it sounds absurd. If someone told me that, I would not play games. But please don’t let it let you down, because, yes, it is frustrating, I stepped on my foot a little, but it’s not that bad, and it works well. Several levels cost me about 30 attempts, a few levels took about 80 attempts, and other levels took about 140 attempts, but it gradually accumulated so much that you rarely really notice.
I hate to say that, but difficulties bring a sense of accomplishment. There is a moment in Ghostrunner, when you slice the last enemy in a certain area, the game speed will briefly decrease, as if to admit your success, and it feels great. It feels great because you know it can be difficult.
Special abilities can help ease the challenge. They are like cheating tools available occasionally. There are four in total, and you can unlock them slowly during the game. In essence, they all found a different way to kill a group of enemies at the same time. For example, blinking allows you to slow down the time and mark nearby enemies, and then you can sprint and kill them at the same time. On the other hand, “storm” will produce huge gusts of wind, making the enemy fly like a rag doll, and it can also return to projectile shooting. I don’t want to spoil other people.
Charging timer means you can’t use them all the time because they are all shared the same Charge the timer, use one to reset them all. Therefore, it is not so much juggling as it is a situation of choosing an ability. Upgrade to this point. There are many possibilities, but again, you can’t have it once. For example, you can make enemies in a large area affected in the blink of an eye, or catch multiple enemies in an explosion and immediately resupply the storm. You can even make the sword brush return to bullet shooting.
But the upgrade is limited by space. It’s a bit like Tetris. The upgrade manifests itself as a Tetromino-like shape that you equip by placing them in a grid. But the grid space is very small, although it will continue to grow during the game. A choice must be made. Thankfully, you can change your mind at any time and exchange upgrades at any time, which means you can tailor the build for the situation you encounter.
I suggest that the only upgrade most of the time is to mark the upgrade of the collectibles on the mini map, because there are some cool sword skins here.
In fact, “Cool” is a good word to describe Ghostrunner. It overcomes occasional kinks and frustrations, because from an instant, its playing feels great. This actually reminds me of Wesley Snipes’ movie “Blade” and when he dominates in another battle scene, the trendy music is always constant Emerge. It’s a bit like here, when you encounter a problem full of enemies, fashionable music will sound in your ears, enough to stimulate your heartbeat. Then your enemy shouts “Oh, damn it-it’s him!”, then the acrobatics are blurred, and then everyone is dead, you land, wipe the sword, and move on. Imagine the smile of Wesley Snipes, you know what I mean.
What really helps to feel is the performance of the game. I will not pretend to be Digital Foundry because it will make everyone feel embarrassed, but it is enough to say that Ghostrunner runs extremely smoothly on my mid-range PC. Check out the screenshots, and all the lovely dirty metal and glowing neon signs and graffiti. I never thought it would work well on my PC, but it does in some way. (By the way, I apologize for the intermittent performance in the video. This does not represent my experience, but everything that can be recorded.)
This is what I am playing. I try to include many people who are dying because it is a core part of the experience. Sometimes you will do something spectacular and just jump into nothingness like a wall. Sorry again for the intermittent-this is everything my machine can manage while recording me. Play more smoothly. Oh, look with headphones. The music is great.
Optimizations like this prove how impressive Ghostrunner as a whole product is. I want to know how it will last for a few hours, but if needed, it will last more than ten hours. It will drop in new enemies, spread some boss encounters (endure them-they are mostly agility puzzles), and provide you with some new toys for you to play with (some of which are great for temporary power-ups). It has been telling a story of revenge and revolution in your ears for a long time. I have not mentioned it before because it is just the background of the game. But this sounds great, and will never slow you down, and can help you play at a certain time and place. In addition to the huge towers being climbed, you can also feel the wider world of cyberpunk.
All that’s left to do now is to go back and replay each level, collect the things I missed, and beat my completion time and death toll in the process. And I will do it, not because I am too picky about this kind of thing, but because, simply, Ghostrunner is fun.
