Ghostrunner Impressions

Twitch streamer revels in degeneracy

At first glance Ghostrunner may be mistaken for a budget take on Mirror’s Edge, filtered through the lens of Remember Me; or, worse still, YouTube gaming drama background filler video.

Luckily, looks can be deceiving. A combination of wall-running and bullet-dodging, the closest analogue is actually Hotline Miami; a comparison that springs to mind not solely due to the heavy techno soundtrack which makes up for what it lacks in visual identity.

A single hit means instant death, and the only way to avoid being hit is to keep moving. To reach an enemy without being shot, means taking advantage of bullet time; allowing for mid-air strafing on the way to delivering the fatal blow. Even in bullet time, timing is everything: dodge left or right too early, fly through the air towards the enemy at the wrong time, and it’s instant death again.

After each death, you spawn at the beginning of each “battle”. Winning a battle on a successful run takes but seconds; figuring out the paths to take and timing takes minutes: a rhythm also very reminiscent of Hotline Miami.

Enemies stand static as they wait to be killed by you, which means that each battle is a matter of figuring out the most expedient path between walls, grapple points, and platforms; all the while dodging bullets, and timing your own bullet time-infused attack.

The movement is not as joyful as it might be, with the levels being very angular in design, and the ability to wall run being unaffected by one’s momentum; and the level design is as limited as one would expect from a tutorial—which is really all that the demo consists of.

But, taken as a tutorial, Ghostrunner can be a truly exhilarating experience, and the rhythm of instant-death-to-instant-respawn as you figure out how to play is immensely satisfying, even in the confines of a tutorial!