Introduction
The first-person motion parkour sub-genre of video games is a small however nice one. It options the likes of EA’s Mirror’s Edge collection, Respawn Entertainment’s Titanfall franchise, and One More Level’s Ghostrunner – one in all my fav orite video games. I first performed this recreation two years after its 2020 launch, in the summertime of July 2022, jobless and depressed. It felt good to exist in a world the place capitalistic enterprise executives make inhumane selections in regards to the final of humanity dwelling of their Dharma Tower, besides as a substitute of struggling beneath their thumb, I, or somewhat, protagonist Ghostrunner, took a katana straight to the highest to deliver all of it down. The recreation concludes with humanity free and Ghostrunner liberated from the A.I.-powered Cybervoid trappings beneath a new identify: Jack.
I performed a roughly 30-minute vertical slice of Ghostrunner 2, the upcoming sequel hitting current-gen consoles and PC later this month, and got here away impressed. This demo didn’t include a lot – brief tutorial sequences, a few enemy-filled arenas to parkour destructively by, and a finale I’ll get to shortly. But this demo was additionally exactly what I wanted: affirmation that Ghostrunner 2 is, actually, extra of this glorious world One More Level crafted three years in the past.
It’s Good to be Jack
It’s Good to be Jack
Immediately, Ghostrunner 2 simply feels proper. It’s quick as hell, jaw-droppingly beautiful with neon-lit rain turning the glass of skyscrapers into cyberpunk watercolor canvases, and extremely tactile. Core to the complete expertise of Ghostrunner 2, although, is its parkour. It feels simply pretty much as good as Ghostrunner, even perhaps higher, however options some tweaks studio head and CEO Szymon Bryła describes as an evolution of the collection’ system, not a revolution.
“You will see that [evolution] on each layer, in gameplay, visuals, the combat system, and many others,” he tells me.
Gameplay director Radosław Ratus znik says the staff knew it couldn’t swap out Jack’s parkour talent set with one thing new, as a substitute opting to enhance on what’s already there. “The player playing the first game feels at home playing the second Ghostrunner, but for the newcomers and the people who like to experiment with their playstyle, there are new ways to play,” Ratusznik says.
One of the largest and most instantly impactful adjustments is the brand new blocking mechanic. You can deflect bullets within the first Ghostrunner, however solely after unlocking the particular means, and even then, you’ve got to time the power’s use with the bullet’s contact to achieve this. Ghostrunner 2 options bullet-blocking, activated by holding down a button. It options a gauge, which prevents you from blocking eternally, however it’s sufficient time to get a really feel for what’s occurring within the in any other case lightning-fast fight taking part in out round you.
Ratusznik says blocking works rather well for gamers who struggled within the first recreation. But it’s non-compulsory – veteran Ghostrunner gamers can stick to the in-and-out-style of fight required within the first recreation. I combine the block simply into my playstyle, utilizing it to cowl Jack from an onslaught of machine gun hearth whereas scoping out different enemies I can take out with a hop, sprint, slash, and a couple of shuriken throws. What I like most is obstructing feels non-compulsory, even within the puzzle-like fight arenas.
Cyberpu-zzle
Cyberpu-zzle
“It’s more like, ‘Try different options,’” Ratusznik tells me. “You now have access to abilities that you can use quite often, not like in the first game where there were only ultimate abilities that you could use not so often. [So] now you have a chance to somehow connect all these mechanics together and mix them how you want, and it’s really satisfying when you are successful with that. And of course, you are improving after each restart; you are becoming better and better, and then you reach the sweet spot where you know everything about the game and can use all your tools that we provide and feel really powerful.”
In one puzzle, I take advantage of a particular force-like push means to transfer an air vent that shoots Jack into the air close to a gap in a wall. I leap on it and, after being shot into the air, rapidly equip a shuriken to hit a change by the opening, which opens the door to transfer ahead. It’s a acquainted puzzle on this planet of Ghostrunner, and I smile at its return. The recreation is a first-person motion recreation, however it’s as a lot a puzzle recreation, too. Beyond puzzles just like the one I describe above, each fight situation is a puzzle due to the sport’s issue.
If Jack is hit as soon as by a sword, bullet, shockwave, or one thing else, he dies. Every assault, motion, sprint, slow-mo in-air directional shift, and grapple issues as a result of it’s one piece of the equation that takes you from X to Y and eventually, to Z. That glorious fight system returns in arenas even larger than those within the first recreation and in different, smaller areas the place enemies await.
“At first, when developing [Ghostrunner 1], that was new to us,” Ratusznik tells me, remarking on the staff discovering that its first-person motion parkour recreation additionally performs like a puzzle recreation. (*2*)
But the great thing about dying in Ghostrunner is now you understand what’s coming and the way it’s coming. So you attempt once more and possibly die once more, however this third time, you turn up your ways. “What works? What doesn’t? If I attack this enemy first, I can throw a shuriken to that explosive barrel to take those two out before hopping onto the zipline above to take out the tankier guy up here.” These are the sorts of ideas going by my head a number of instances on this brief preview, and so they’re precisely what One More Level needs me to assume whereas taking part in, Ratusznik and Bryła say, calling Ghostrunner 2 “a super-fast puzzle game.”
A New Set of Wheels
A New Set of Wheels
When growing this sequel, the staff knew it wanted to up the ante in a number of methods, each in fight and in its puzzle sequences. And whereas it tackled this by evolving what’s already there, it added one thing model new: a motorcycle. After simply 10 minutes sitting within the driver’s seat, I already adore it.
“We decided that Ghostrunner was a really fast-paced game and asked ourselves, ‘Alright, what if we want to have something even faster than Jack?’,” Bryła says. “We decided, ‘What if we have a motorcycle in the game and use it as a tool to go from one point to another and use it in the outside world?’”
Almost instantly after utilizing the motorcycle, it’s clear it’s One More Level’s finest addition. As I barrel down a futuristic freeway, utilizing my controller’s proper set off to throttle it ahead, I have to assume rapidly. There’s an in-world timer I’ve to keep forward of to stay alive. There are jumps to hit, however I can solely clear the hole if I enhance off the ramp first. There are unavoidable boundaries earlier than me till I notice this motorcycle can trip on the round partitions to avert them altogether. The motorcycle looks like an extension of Jack, and I look ahead to seeing how else it’s used. One More Level teases sequences the place Jack may have to leap off the motorcycle mid-air to slash a change that opens a pathway forward and land again on the motorcycle to advance, and I can’t wait to see this and the inevitable Akira-slide that can accompany these moments.
“It was more like, ‘Okay, let’s not treat this too seriously, let’s prototype it first,’” Ratusznik tells me. “We knew we wanted to move away from the Tower for a lot of the game [and] have levels outside the Tower. [Jack] wouldn’t travel too far [on foot] so we gave him something to travel there faster.”
He says they knew straight away the kind of transportation Jack wanted could be a motorcycle, which has a flashy reveal second in-game. Bryła says the motorcycle is already a huge a part of cyberpunk media and tradition, so including it was a no-brainer. It was additionally a no-brainer to ignore physics through the motorcycle sections, too, he provides, remarking that arcade racing video games like Mario Kart encourage it.
“It’s always about connecting to Ghostrunner 2’s gameplay,” Bryła says. “We are wall-running; let’s add wall-riding to the bike, but let’s not put too much attention into physics and it being realistic. We took a pure arcade-ish approach because you need to have fun, not simulate a real motorbike, and I think it’s a good addition. It makes for a really fresh approach to Ghostrunner.”
Ready for More
Ready for More
The bike is the breakout star of my brief preview with Ghostrunner 2, however it’s additionally essentially the most distinguished addition; I’m not stunned it’s the most important takeaway from my time with the sequel. What I would like out of Ghostrunner 2 is extra – extra of Jack’s story, extra characters to work together with, extra of this dour however stunning cyberpunk world to discover, and hundreds extra enemies to parkour round and slash by. So far, Ghostrunner 2 is delivering on that, and new additions just like the bike, blocking, a new in-world hub to speak to characters in-person (not as floating heads like within the first recreation), and extra have me craving for the sport’s launch this month after I can transcend simply a meager half-hour of play. Jack is again and I couldn’t be extra excited.
This article initially appeared in Issue 360 of Game Informer.
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