Platform(s): PC (version reviewed), Xbox Series, PlayStation 5
Genre: First-Person Parkour Platformer, Cyberpunk, Ninja Game

The first Ghostrunner game in 2020 was a wake-up call for players who wanted a first-person parkour game with a challenge: you die in one hit, everything’s out to get you, and the levels are laid out like a dysfunctional 2D platformer with traps galore, and are covered in sleek cyberpunk coating.

In the sequel, the major new thing addition is you get a bike to traverse around. It’s unwieldy as sin, if we’re being frank. The courses given to you while you’re in the bike segments are absurdly tough even for the game’s standards, and you’ll probably scream bloody murder just getting through the first one. And that’s not even including the dip in frame rate during the outdoor sections.

Fortunately, the rest of the game is still the same action-packed parkour goodness you know and love from the first game, but with a lot more put in and upgraded.

Ninja Tricks Galore

Ghostrunner 2’s story picks up a few years after the first game: you’re still the titular ghostrunner named Jack who has to help out the human resistance while dealing with the nature of your kind. You still traverse through the Dharma Tower and its surroundings, while also venturing outside in the wasteland through the game’s plot, going through linear levels with some open-ended sections that may seem like it’s padding. And it is, to be frank. Fortunately, once you get in the groove of the game, you’ll lose track of time just playing, and retrying a ton of the game’s segments.

See, the titular Ghostrunner dies with one hit from enemy attacks. Fortunately, you are fast, deal one-hit kills, can deflect projectiles, and can slow down time for a second with your dodging and evasion. Figuring out the level’s layout while going through the motions of the platforming feels great; once you get going, there’s nothing stopping you. After multiple retries (and generously paced-out checkpoints), you’ll eventually learn to “git gud” and finish the game’s ever-escalating stages. Also, perfect parrying enemy attacks and punishing them for it never gets old.

You even get to replay these stages for the fastest time and least amount of deaths, either for personal gain or leaderboards-climbing.

Ghostrunner 2 is tough, and aggravatingly so by design. But it’s never unfair. Reloads are instantaneous, and your controls are spot-on, so you only have yourself to blame if you keep repeating your failures and not understanding your cyberninja’s skills and kit.

Ghostrunner 2’s other intricacies are also worth highlighting. The game’s upgrade system is streamlined so you can get more passive buffs (better projectile reflecting, dashing and blocking costing less stamina, and so forth). The cyber levels are more engaging and features level gimmicks and themes that just feel better to play than in the first game. The boss fights feel less cheap, and give you a better sensation once you take them down through your own determination, skill, and some little form of luck. The new skills and weapons you get are practical in both puzzles and combat: the shurikens can stun enemies and let you grapple onto them with your far-reaching ninja rope wire thing, while the stealth skill lets you lay down a decoy and then make you temporarily invisible, letting you sneak kill enemies for a brief moment.

Even if the bike segments are flawed, there is a chase sequence that’s better planned out in concept and execution. So it’s not all terrible.

Bushido A-Go-Go

If you want a 3D platformer that’s better designed than most of its ilk, you’ll want to play through Ghostrunner 2 from start to finish, then all over again for the best personal record. True, it feels a bit bloated with its wasteland segments and it’s still pretty tough, but when is that a bad thing when you already are the go-to game to corner the first-person parkour niche where others have failed? Sometimes we all need a little challenge in our lives, especially when the developers have laid out fair and quick checkpoints and loading to keep the action more seamless than usual.

Ghostrunner 2 will still make you feel like a badass as you make split-second decisions in traversing and killing, picking the optimal path for success when given multiple entry points in a segment. Even with some of its unnecessary extras, it doesn’t pollute the entire experience and still excels at what it delivers: parkour ninja action in the first-person degree.

Final Score: 70/100