Developer: One More Level, 3D Realms, Slipgate Ironworks, All In! Games
Steam Deck Compatibility?: Playable
Rrp: £24.99 (Gog.com, Humblebundle, Steam and Epic)
This game is one of those titles that I simultaneously enjoyed immensely and also found extremely frustrating. The enjoyment of the game came from getting to play the part of a wall running, sword slashing cyber ninja who kills his enemies in a single blow (except for the bosses). The frustration comes from two sources one mechanical and the other accidental. Mechanically the frustration comes from the fact that the bad ass cyber ninja that you are, like your enemies, dies in a single hit. This means an entire successful run can be ended by a single stray shot. But the accidental frustration stems from the fact that this game is a bit… janky. The wall running works perfectly until the moment it doesn’t and suddenly for no reason at all your ninja refuses to stick to the surface which plummets you to your death. Thankfully the checkpoint system is very generous so restarting a section doesn’t set you too far back.
As you play through you unlock special abilities and upgrades. I quite like the upgrade system as each individual upgrade is shaped similarly to a tetris block (no, not a tetrominoe as most have more then 4 squares) that must be placed on a grid to activate. You can change these out whenever you want meaning you can change your playstyle to match the situation. For example, I generally had upgrades equipped that allowed me to deflect projectiles right up until boss fights where I swapped them out to allow me to dash more often.
Ghostrunner isn’t a very long game with the campaign lasting about eight or so hours, but honestly I think that’s about the right length, any longer the game would overstay its welcome. However, if you truly want more the game does have a new game plus mode as well as two other modes (a wave mode and a kill mode’).
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