Ghostrunner – Ninja Parkour Review!

Becoming the best Ghost Ninja Parkour Runner

Finding a way to calm ourselves from the wait for Cyberpunk 2077, becoming a parkour Ghostrunner that hack & slashes their way through enemies like butter, is good enough for me. Ghostrunner is a recent fast-paced swordplay game that will have you living in the cyberpunk world while we wait for the upcoming release of Cyberpunk 2077…ohh wait. But putting aside the views of the Cyberpunk 2077 announcements, Ghostrunner has a fun take on the cyberpunk world when it comes to beating times for each level completed and having fun while doing so.

The developers of One More Level and Slipgate Ironworks aren’t completely new to the fast-paced genre, with the 2019 release of God’s Trigger being a top-down fast-paced shoot ’em up game that latest enough time to even replay a few levels to beat your times. The recent release of Ghostrunner has those same perks of being a fun, fast-paced first-person game but with a  few tight corners to handle when it comes to level design and trying your best to move fast and learn the level in enough time to keep your timer down to feel like a full-blown ninja!

Ghostrunner Fast-Paced playthrough

Playing through Ghostrunner, it places you in the shoes of a fast-paced ninja ghost that parkours around different obstacles while your character relearns its mechanics after a long slumber. You start by learning how your sword swings and character body mechanics can move, mostly like any other first-person hack and slash, with wall-running and movement abilities that make the game feel like mirror’s edge gameplay style. After learning the mechanics, I was able to see more of the enemy movements faster but was having a hard time wondering where to go after a few slashing scenes of enemy royale. The game sets you up in one space at a time to kill a group of enemies that are spread out with their weapons and are facing a specific way, not really moving around, so learning the map layout happens after one death. But figuring out how to get around the different types of enemies, shields, and weapons is an interesting touch for the gamer to map out the room a bit more to understand what happens next. But I found myself, again, after killing all the enemies, wondering where I go next since the music and voice in your head stops after dying a couple of times while finishing the room. So it seemed to me like the game was waiting for me to finish the room and then find my way to the next without much help or guidance and motivation with music or a spot of “good job, my son.”

Putting the room fights and what’s next aside, Ghostrunner does a fantastic job when it comes to how it handles combat with a perfect sense of letting the enemy you’re about to slice into pieces know there is nowhere to go. Each of the levels doesn’t take too long to go through if you know where you’re going, but I would have liked a little more music and more room to move around other than each time I died having to come back and do the same thing over again. It felt like a set of tasks instead of moving your way up the levels to get to your final boss battle, which was nice and made you feel powerful once there because of all the time you spent on the side levels learning your powers.

How long can you be a Ghostrunner?

After enjoying the ninja fast-paced mechanics in Ghostrunner, I was able to get through the levels that mattered most on teaching me the main mechanics of my character and learning the story ahead. After that, it seemed like it went a little too fast for my liking looking at the price tag. Comparing Ghostrunner to Mirror’s Edge and a few other fast-paced parkour like games is perfect for the mechanics and looking at what kind of gamer this game is targeting. But if you’re looking for more of a story and “why am I doing this?” type of game, then Ghostrunner may not be for you completely. Looking at my game experience, I liked the mechanics and gameplay to learn the levels enough to walk away and remember the pros over the cons. Looking into the future of the game, purchasing during a quick sale, or if you’re a die-hard parkour and hack & slash fan, then Ghostrunner is for you, and being that type of gamer is why I would give the developers over at One More Level and their partners an 8.5/10 for Ghostrunner, and maybe a little more wiggle room to go up the chart if they mess with their AI movements and pacing of levels a bit.