Cyberpunk is coming. No, chipping has nothing to do with it, we are still very far from the real deus ex machina. But for the gaming industry, the cyberpunk genre will soon enter a renaissance again thanks to the efforts of the wizards from CD Projekt RED… And the closer we get to the release, the more the creators of other games are trying to catch the wave of hype and present their creations in a popular setting.
Announcement Ghostrunner took place quite suddenly. Studio One more level, who previously created mostly modest indie projects, suddenly showed a stylish and expensive-looking game, with which she was helped by people from Slipgate ironworks, and enlisted the support of the publisher in the person 3D Realms… The demo intrigued many, but it was too short and could not fully show the development, as well as relieve fears of uniformity. Today we will tell you about the final product.
Publisher describes Ghostrunner as a cross between Titanfall and Mirror’s Edge, but most of all “Shadow” (as the translation is called Ghostrunner) resembles Super meat boy or Hotline miami… We seem to be passing tracks with obstacles, there are no branches or the need to explore locations, except for the sake of secrets, including audio recordings, various swords (differ only in appearance) and objects that tell the history of the world. The levels are divided into segments, in which you either need to get to the desired point, running along the walls and grabbing onto specially designated places with a hook, or cut out everyone in your path, or do everything together and at once.
So that the player does not get bored of monotony, the game constantly adds new enemies, each of which needs its own approach, the levels become more confusing, and now it is harder to move along them due to new obstacles, and so on until the credits. It may seem that it is very difficult to simultaneously parkour along the reinforced concrete streets of the Dharma Tower and at the same time monitor enemies with different attack patterns, but in fact, competent level design often allows you to separate opponents separately and take cover from danger. The main thing is to choose the right route.
The Ghostrunner provides virtually no slack for 6 hours. To some, such timing may seem rather modest, especially considering how quickly it is passed due to continuous action, but taking into account the repetitive gameplay – we mainly run along walls and chop adversaries – and very frequent deaths, excessive protraction could ruin general impression. And so this time is enough for the game so as not to tire. In addition, generously placed checkpoints and fast respawn are beneficial.
