Ghostrunner is a 1st-person action-platform game was originally released in 2020 for PS4, XBONE, Switch, and PC, and was later released on PS5 and XSX/S in 2021.
It was both developed by One More Level and Slipgate Ironworks, and both published by 505 Games and All in! Games.
There are a lot of the FPS stuff nowadays that always about gun-shooting action instead of coming up any new ideas, so if you're one of the people are kinda got bored with the traditional shooting action, but wanted to focus on different style of game that involves heavily focused more on melee sword-fighting and cool platforming action then let me introduce the Ghostrunner.
It's a 1st-person action game with the combination of Platforming and Hack N Slash which seems to be an interesting title that I'd like to give a shot, so I decided to get a PS5 copy of this title to see if this game is anything good to play.
So without go further do, let's start the review.
Presentation
The game is set on somewhere in futuristic settings. So you're basically the Ghostrunner, an tech-enhanced superhumans who awakens with no recollection. He was contacted by the Architect, who established and ruled Dharma Tower, have order the Ghostrunner to free him from the Keymaster named Mara, who betrayed him in a coup that destroyed most of the Ghostrunner units.
The story in the game is rather kinda mixed in my opinion because I find the plot and narrative throughout the game is kinda sounded like the low-budget Sci-Fi b-movies, so all you hear the story is to go on the mission and defeat the Keymaster to set the Architect free, and also you may hear some of the Architect's conversation about the Keymaster's leadership that could rule the cyberworld city and blah and blah.
I wasn't got into with the game's story as much beside I think I really liked the Ghostrunner as a protagonist because the way he talks with his gruffy tone and seriousness, and I got to like his super-suit appearance with the leather-jacket hoodie, metalic-arms, the futuristic black-mask, and of course his razor-edge samurai-katana which is quite tough as a chad.
The presentation is looking decent for the settings choices which I really liked how the environments are designed to be very cyber-punk themed.
Stuff like you see the futuristic city-buildings, backstreets, rooftops, factories, has neon-light signboards, and some warehouses which I find these concepts design for the game's presentation is very well done.
I also liked the enemy's types of units which shared with really cool armors and metallic suits, and I got to say these bosses are looking awesome in the game, so stuff like you have Hel which has ninja-like mask, blackened-red and white suit, and has long-pony tail, but due to her unstable personality which she can't filter her emotions just to make her colder approach.
Then finally Mara is kinda has the vibes of Marvel's villain like Dr. Octopus, judging with her mechanical tentacles attached on her back, and she also does a lot of crazy electrifying all over the stage which is one insane boss character.
Overall, an below-averaged story, but has cool protagonist and decent presentation.
Gameplay
You take control of Ghostrunner in 1st-person perspective, as your main goal is to beat the entire stage by defeating many of the enemies and being able to reach at the destination point that leads you to the next stage.
To keep you in mind, my control configuration is played differently so if any of you have played the game with the default controls please don't get mixed up with my configuration choices while I'm reviewing the game.
You move the player with the left stick control while using the right stick control to use camera movement to look around.
You interact stuff like opening doors with the switch by pressing the cross button which I've changed it to square button. Pressing the right shoulder button to jump which I've changed it to cross button, so you can use these jumps which allowing you to jump on platforms or jump towards a surface or wall which makes you automatically run across the wall, as well as doing the wall jumps which you can jump off from the wall while you're running on the wall.
Pressing the right thumbstick button to crouch which I've changed it to circle button, so you can also use these couch action to slide forward or slide down the slopes.
You can perform the dashing moves by pressing the left shoulder button which allowing you to use dash to reach the long-distance platforms or evade the enemy's projectiles.
You can also hold the dash button to perform sensory boost which allows you to slow time and useful for dodging left and right to avoid incoming attacks or jump away from the platforms to avoid hazardous objects such as electricals or fire.
Pressing the left trigger button which uses as the grappling hook allowing you to attached on grappling spot which indicates the blue-rounded symbols on the above.
Hitting the right trigger button uses as the melee sword attack which uses to slice off the enemies or you can also use the sword to parry the enemy's melee attack or projectiles close to you when pressing the right trigger button in right timing.
Pressing the left thumbstick button to use skill moves which I've changed it to right shoulder button, so these skills move will allow you to perform various of 4 skill moves such as the blink will enables you to target multiple enemies at once and kill them with single attack, the tempest allows you to use a blast to kills enemies or deflect projectiles, the surge which highlight an enemy and attack them with your ranged projectiles, and finally the overlord allows you to take control of enemies causing them to attack other enemies.
You will able to gain the upgrades throughout the game which you'll have access to the calibration panel by pressing the touchpad button, so you'll have the list of available upgrades front of you and assign the ones you want to use.
Stuff like you have additional charge, cooldown system for faster re-charge, reflecting enemy's projectiles, absorbing projectiles charges the focus meter, the enemies are outlined for better visibility, the time moves slower during sensory boost, the blink has a significantly longer range, killing 2 or more enemies at once with tempest, the surge's wave travels much faster, and many more varieties of upgrades which improves upon your abilities and skills throughout the game.
I say these controls are pretty straight-forward to play because all you do is to run, jump, slide, and of course dash which these of the movements are worked really smoothly to learn many of the manoeuvring techniques which requires to use these for being able to reach higher platforms and gaps, evading many hazardous stuff like grinds, electrical currents, and fires, and trying the best not to fall off the stage.
I really liked how the game like this involving the stunts-platforms where you can run across the wall and swinging around with the grappling hook just feels really fun to play this kind of game.
The combat system is well designed which requires you to learn how to slice and parry against the enemies are really dead on simple to play, so it's not really complicated at all.
I also liked using these skills which works very responsive because I really liked using these skill power just takes the advantages to defeat the enemies pretty quickly.
The upgrades are also quite useful because you really need these to enhance your player's abilities to perform better on the combat and skills just adds up the beneficial of the player's play-ability.
What makes the game quite challenging to play is mostly one hit death, a term where you really need to survive the fight against the enemies or some platforming stuff that has hazardous obstacles around it without taking one damage from them, so if you do get hit by the projectiles or obstacles then you're dead in action.
It makes you repeat the multiple attempts to solve the problem which it may going to frustrate most of the casuals players who really hated some of the tedious parts in some stages are filled with many enemies and obstacles to deal with in regards of aggressive enemy's A.I are being a cheap with attacks and some time the platforming design can be too complex for them is because this game is about learning all the trials and errors that you really need to get used with the game's design choices that requires you to play perfect at this game without making many mistakes, but thankfully it has the checkpoint system where you don't have to start the stage over again so instead it takes you the spot to continue where you're left off which really helps the player.
You can also set the difficulty to assist mode where you can change stuff such as the game speed which you can slow down the game to give you more time to react, adding extra life to make mistakes less punishing, and shorten your cooldown ability time which may going to help beginners to enjoy the game quite more.
What I liked about the game is that you have each of the enemies that shares with their combat and abilities such as one of them has pistol, the other has auto-rifles, the big security guy uses their plasma shield to use it as defence or push the player off, the cyber-like samurai are really good at parrying and makes counter-attack, the reckless guy will make a launch jump at you from long-distance, the long-legged robot fires with horizontal-beam at you, and many more foes does a insane projectiles and melees which I see why the game is tough as nails, but also provides a really good challenge throughout the campaign.
Overall, it has well-designed combat and has good platforming design.
Graphics
The graphics is looking quite solid for the 9th gen title, as you see the visuals quality are actually looking incredible when playing on the PS5 consoles.
The level environments are sure quite big with great depths of height to make the whole game feels more like the platformer.
The textures are in sharper details on surfaces, it has the rain effects at the outside of the city and streets, the lighting effects made a good mix of bright and diming in some areas, and of course they made a details on the draw-distance are looking very good to keep the background environments look fine and crispy.
I also liked the use of the special effects on enemy's projectiles and some hazardous obstacles are quite easier to spot the dangers in surrounding areas.
The character's model is quite amazing throughout the game with good responsive A.I behaviours with their walking and running animation, and I really liked how they designed them to look quite so good in the stages.
The frame-rate and resolution quality in PS5 is bang-on 4K with locked 60fps on ray-tracing mode delivering a best visual quality, where as the performance mode goes up to just locked 120fps without running on 4K which you may going to lose a bit of the visual quality but also quite playable, so to be honest both of these settings are just plays absolutely fine with no sign of slow-downs whatsoever which seems to be a great news for the PS5 version, where as the XSX/S are completely different depending which model you're playing on, so on the X model which you still have the same configuration as the PS5 but its nowhere near consistent in terms of frame dips on the ray-tracing mode where as playing the performance mode are quite playable but doesn't adds-up the visual quality, and I got to say the S model are looking quite rough with the performance and visual quality just doesn't seem to play well as the X model.
I believe the PS4, XBONE, and Switch are running on between 720p and 1080p resolution but the frame-rate are kinda bit rough to play it on 8th gen with the 30fps, so it's better off playing on the 9th gen system and PCs just performed better than these version, so sorry 8th gen.
Overall, it has solid level environments, amazing animation and some good special effects.
The music in this game is actually sounds pretty good with synth-wave beats soundtrack which kinda gives us the style of the 80s cyber-punk themed.
It was composed by Daniel Deluxe did a remarkable job of adding the upbeating synth-wave to its action.
The sound design is stunningly quite amazing with the environmental noises and has the surrounding atmospheric sounds throughout the stages are just sounded great on the audio sound system equipment goes thumping about everywhere.
The voice acting is pretty okay on the dialogue conversation, so to be fair on this I say the voice of the main protagonist is sounded quite better than the rest of the cast of generic supporting characters are not nearly sounded as great.
Overall, it has really good soundtrack and amazing sound design.
Special Features
The game does come with extra DLCs campaign called "Project Hel" where you get to play as Hel in 7 campaign stages, and you can also participate with two extra modes such as kill run where you had to race through the stages within time limit, and you have wave mode where you had a task to beat all 20 waves of enemies using the randomised upgrades.
Overall, an impressive additional features.
Advantages
Cool main protagonist
Decent presentation settings
Well-designed combat and has good platforming design
Solid visuals
Really good soundtrack
Disadvantages
Below-averaged story
Some tedious parts in some levels
Final Verdict
Presentation 7/10 - below-averaged story, but has cool protagonist and decent presentation.
Gameplay 8/10 - well-designed combat and good platforming design.
Graphics 8.5/10 - solid level environments, amazing animation and some good special effects.
Music and Sounds 7.5/10 - really good soundtrack and amazing sound design.
Special Features 8/10 - has DLCs campaign and two game modes.
Overall 8/10 - Ghostrunner is a very good 1st-person action-platformer that does the job well done, so you got fun and challenged campaign filled with great combat gameplay, good platforming action, and of course dealing with the tough as nails enemies that keeps you busy with the game just for solid 7 to 10 hours length of playthrough.
Even though the story is not the strongest point of the game, but what really makes the game matters is all about having a good single-player campaign with unique combat abilities and skills to learn, and has the learning curves to find it's way to solve the platforming stages filled with many enemies and obstacles to deal is what makes the game plays really fun.
The game is actually pretty cheap on physical copies which you can get it on the PS5, XSX/S (X Model), and Switch in between £15 to £25, where as you can get it digitally for PCs and consoles platform just for £25.
I say this is definite a buy for those who are interested in playing the action-platformer in 1st-person perspective will likely to give this game a go and see if they can enjoy this style of unique game.
Hopefully I will consider getting the sequel in near future and see if it's doing anything good as the original in terms of levels, combat, and platforming that has to be well structured and enjoyable to play.
Skip it
Rent it
Buy it
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This is Zeeshan Mirza's Blog and I'll see you next time, happy blogging everyone.
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