Ghostrunner Review
Release date: Oct 27th, 2020
Publisher: 505 Games
Platforms: Switch (Reviewed), PS4, Steam and Xbox One
Price: $29.99 (On sale for $22.50 right now)
Ghostrunner seems to fit right into the idea of a sci fi dystopian future. The game’s story isn’t too complicated and the movement and combat can be fun. But the frustrating gameplay and strange performance issues on the Switch may turn some gamers off
Gamers play as a cybernetic ninja who has lost his memory. Players are tasked with traversing this tower and taking down Mara and saving the human race. There isn't much to the story beyond this. The game plays a lot like Mirror’s Edge. Ghost Runner has players bouncing off walls, wall running, grabbling between points, and free running to traverse and make the climb. Ghostrunner has this quick dodge/slow down mechanic that also comes in handy. As a ninja gamers know there is going to be weapons and combat. All the Ghostrunner has is a Katana but this takes down enemies with one hit.
But the game isn't forgiving, players can die with one gunshot and it's easy to mis-calculate jumps and dashes. I found that using the Pro controller on the Switch helped with some of the slight movement issues I was having. Players will die a lot and will be forced to go back to a checkpoint which may be 5 mins away. While the game gives players the freedom to take down enemies in an area via multiple routes, this can take some trial and error. I ran into issues where I could kill guard A quickly but guard B or C always shot me. So I would try again, sometimes 2 or 3 times before I got the movement rhythm down.
The game looks good. The tower’s appearance is this mix of cyberpunk and industrial and I enjoyed looking around when I was able to stop for a few seconds. The soundtrack has a nice beat to it and never gets old. But sadly I did try the demo on PC and it ran great. I ran into some frame drops on the Switch while it was docked. I am glad this game got ported to the Switch but the performance issues caused me to make mistakes while trying to move quick. If you are going to get this on the Switch, as I suggested earlier, use a pro controller. I found this to work a lot better than the joycons.
Overall the game is about 8-10 hours long and it can be pretty unforgiving. But if you are a gamer looking for a challenge or want to play something different, give Ghostrunner a try. Currently the game is on sale for around $22 on multiple platforms. Thanks to the publisher for letting us review it.
Pros:
-Neat concept
-Fast paced
-Cyberpunk
Cons:
-FPS drops
-Can be difficult
-Story isn't very complex