Developer One More Level and publisher 505 Games brings you Ghostrunner 2. A futuristic, cyberpunk, platforming, slash ’em up mash of a game. There’s a lot of action and a lot of killing… but is it a lot of fun?

“Blood will run in Ghostrunner 2, a hardcore FPP slasher set in a post-apocalyptic cyberpunk future. Become the ultimate cyber ninja and prepare for epic boss fights, improved skills, an interactive story, new game modes, and captivating synthwave soundtrack.”

Let me just start this one by saying that I didn’t even know there was a first game. I’d never even heard of Ghostrunner, let alone played it. So this was a case of me going into this game very much blind.

The best way to describe Ghostrunner 2 is to think of it as a first-person, parkour platformer (a bit like Mirror’s Edge) blended with plenty of sword-swinging action with you playing as a cyber-ninja. Oh, and it’s really fucking difficult too. One-hit deaths, fast action and little reaction time. You will die and die a lot in Ghostrunner 2, after which, you’ll die some more. Thankfully, the checkpoints are very generous and they really do need to be too.

Between wall-running and such, there is a lot of bloody combat. The one-hit-deaths will mean that you will be playing and replaying the same sections over and over until you find a way to deal with the enemies that suits you best. Tiresome at times, but admittedly, it does feel quite satisfying when you do get past a particularly tricky section. But, punishing difficulty aside, I just didn’t find the levels or the action in them here all that interesting. There are a few bike sequences that break up the monotony, but they soon end up becoming pretty monotonous themselves soon enough.

The first 5 hours or so of Ghostrunner 2 were really quite enjoyable. Wall-running, grinding (not continually killing the same enemies over and over to level up, the other more skateboard-like grinding), using a grappling hook and so on were great. You bound around areas feeling like an unstoppable killing machine (until you are stopped… a lot) but honestly, the last few hours really felt like a slog and I soon became quite bored. This is a decent 6-7 hour game that has been stretched out to try and hit a 12-14 hour playtime… and it really feels like it too.

£35 for Steam, PlayStation and Xbox. Honestly, I really didn’t care much for this one and admittedly, that is just because I’m not much of a fan of games where dying a lot is by design. Titles like this always remind me of arcade games like Dragon’s Lair where the only way to learn is by trial and error and not so much skill… which does mean dying a lot. It artificially extends the length of the game and that just starts to grate on me after a short while. Again, this is just personal preference. I’m sure there are those out there who do enjoy the masochistic nature of these types of games.

As I’ve never played the first game, I honestly can’t tell you if this is better or worse. I can see how and why this would attract an audience. Ghostrunner 2 is most definitely not my cup of tea, but I can respect it. I would assume that, if you liked the first one, you’ll get a kick out of the sequel too.