Ghostrunner - Танец смерти на путях Synthwave...

Polish cyberpunk is a phrase that has become a meme... how much pain is in those words! But, strangely enough, the infamous Cyberpunk 2077 not only did not become a stumbling block of the genre, but somehow managed to crystallize into a guiding star. From the Poles we've already seen a beautiful top-down Action-RPG The Ascent and a curious dialog-driven detective - GameDec. And now the Polish cyberpunk has another candidate for gamer's liking - Ghostrunner. And judging by the way the game looks and feels, the game will take that high ground. The main thing is that the players don't get more seasick during the game than they do from riding on Plotva...

A collective image

The easiest way to make an initial impression of Ghostrunner is through analogies: it's a kind of Mirrors Edge in a cartoon cyberpunk wrapper with game conventions from Hotline Miami, a slight accent of mechanics from Titanfall 2, all seasoned with a pinch of Neon White. This "dish" is baked in the oven to a cybersports crust, seasoned with speedrun sauce, and instead of garlic for appetite, Ghostrunner has added a slice of story. Not too obvious? Okay, let's break it down...

Digitized blade

Ghostrunner takes place in the typical clichéd world of the future: a world with a huge gap between classes, neon-lit neighborhoods, and the luxurious simplicity of the very future that has only come for the rich. What awaits us is yet another tale of corporations, decrepit industrial neighborhoods and, of course, revenge. As befits any cyberpunk game, the protagonist's personality here goes into the background, when in the first place - the picture of the wrong future. Don't get hung up on the story background. In Ghostrunner, it is only there to tie together what is happening on the screen in a thin, logical way.

If you reject all the script efforts of the developers, Ghostrunner can be described as a parkour platformer with extremely responsive control, and as an action from the first person. The essence of the game is in the title. Throughout practically the entire game our protagonist scurries around the locations and arenas like a real ninja, and chops opponents into cabbage with a digitized katana.

From Hotline Miami to Ghostrunner, two rules were passed down: "One shot - one corpse", and "The hero will die often, but the attempt to arrange a bloodbath should not take more than a minute. From Mirrors Edge the mechanics of point parkour was transferred: it is not enough for the player to know the location of the target, press the sprint button and occasionally hit the jump from time to time. In GHOSTTUNE the player must first study the surroundings, figure out how to get to the right place. Do not hope that the game will condescend to inaccurate jumps and hole timings. The player has only to rely on fine motor skills, reaction speed, and knowledge of the cybernetic samurai's physical capabilities. Forget about situations where visually the protagonist's model has not reached the platform, but the game has deemed its hitbox acceptable to continue. Therein lies 50% of the essence of Ghostrunner. Despite the fact that the protagonist is clad in augmentations, can run on walls, can change the direction of movement right in the air, and even stops time - the game does not turn into a fun simulation of surfing the map on some custom CS:GO server.

For parkour, Ghostrunner has all the current fancy vertical gameplay gimmicks: double jump, mainstream hook-cat, and special abilities that don't detract from the game's difficulty.

Game designers have tried their best, so each level consists of arenas, where each element of the environment you have to use. Orientation is not by the arrows. All levels are built so that the killing flow doesn't stop for a second, and the player does not rush around the locations in search of the right passage.

Checkpoints are placed so that Ghostrunner does not turn into a nervous breakdown simulator. Each section provides for saves, but only within one session, so no one will let you spam the quick save button. It is possible to pass a level only through the growth of the player's skills, not his character, although Ghostrunner is pumped, but about this later... And all this is only 50% of the game, the other 50% also include combat and the lion's share of challange...

Kill Cyber Bill...

Ghostrunner combat is an art form in its own right. The protagonist can not only run along the walls, but also swing a katana just as well. However, the katana is almost the only way to slay the local foes. But the quality fully covers the small amount. Not only that with the katana we shred the enemies at the speed of sound, but it all happens with a fair amount of dismemberment and ultra-violence.

Every now and then in the slo-mo the limbs of the enemies fly in different directions in front of your eyes. Not only pieces of live opponents, but also parts of hostile drones. The combat system in Ghostrunner is just a sight to behold. However, fans of elaborate assassinations will be disappointed, this is not Mortal Combat.

Do not expect the oncoming enemies to wait boredly until you deign to cut them a little bit. Our protagonist will be shot and launched force pulses, and at some point the player will have "competitors" - the same nimble assassins, but not very fast...

Ghostrunner skillfully balances between meaty action and quest, the complexity of the game grows gradually. So, at first levels the main problem will be slow dummies with firearms, and close to the middle of the game the enemies will have energy shields. This shield works similarly to the "Puts" ability in Dishonored 2 - somewhere on the level there is a sphere that feeds the shields of the whole group. So you can't run through the game at once, because the spell won't work. Get ready to consider not only how best to finish off this or that enemy, but also decide on the priority objectives.

In addition to the katana, the game offers us a whole range of side abilities: mind grabbing, shockwave, etc. All of these skills are a bit like Dishonored, which I mentioned before. In Ghostrunner the role of skills is much more modest: the special skills are charged and are used only if absolutely necessary, while in Dishonored the whole game is based on this.

The progression in Ghostrunner is also brought in. It is implemented here in the format of "tetris" and does not give a huge advantage. Blade Runner will not become Wanpanchman, no matter how hard you try, but will learn to run faster and counterattack sharper, reflecting bullets with his katana.

What definitely won't appeal to everyone is the levels in the "abyss", in the digitized space. Not only is the player deprived of all abilities and forced to pass irrelevant mini-games, but the visual style of the levels is also very questionable. Yes, these "slow" levels look amazing, and only in them DLSS technology and RTX are 100% revealed, but the levels themselves... They are story driven, and giving the story a voice-over in such a fast-paced game is a glaring failure. I'd like to see the narrative presented through the visuals. After an adrenaline rush, the player is forced to move at a normal speed, which knocks you out of gear.

And finally, I advise you to immediately discard the idea of passing Ghostrunner on the gamepad, only the keyboard and mouse will help here. You need speed and accuracy, otherwise it will not pass.

Is the Ghostrunner worth buying?

Ghostrunner is a game simple in concept, but difficult to master. Although the game's essence is contained in one sentence and looks too narrowly focused, this does not prevent it from holding interest until the final credits. For speedrunner fans, Ghostrunner will definitely be a revelation. For the average gamer who wants to join the high-speed genre, Ghostrunner will help you understand the magic of speed. However, if you have no desire to rush, you should not take it. The game is not cheap.