Ghostrunner 2 review – the definitive cyber ninja experience

Ghostrunner 2 is a thoroughly fulfilling, adrenaline-loaded joyride

Dashing through the air, parrying bullets, and slicing up enemies with superhuman speed, I like to pretend Ghostrunner 2 protagonist Jack is a Jedi from Star Wars. One thing is certain, though: Yoda’s mantra of “Do or do not, there is no try” would not hold up in this game – in this adrenaline-loaded hack ‘n slash action experience, trying is all you can do. You try, you die, and you try again until you’ve perfected the section ahead of you. You die until you know where each of your enemies is going to be at any given time, until you block every bullet, until you have the right moment for each jump and movement.

Just like its predecessor, Ghostrunner 2 is all about getting in the flow, like a rhythm game – and the music you create is a symphony of screaming enemies and the swooshing of your blade. A single hitpoint is all you’ve got. Any misstep means death. Stray bullet catching you from behind: dead. Missing your jump timing as you take a parkour section: dead. Having reduced the boss to one HP and letting your attention slip for a moment: dead. Heck, the first achievement I unlocked was that of dying for the first time. It didn’t take me long.

Jack is back to slice and dice :: One More Level / 505 Games

While Ghostrunner 2 is well outside my usually frequented genres, I knew what I was getting into after having played it at Gamescom 2023, and I was ready for the challenge – and that’s what this game is, if you break it down: A series of difficult but fair trial-and-error challenges that make you feel like an absolute god once you nail them. I’d not recommend Ghostrunner 2 to those who feel easily disheartened by dying. If you’re tenacious enough, though, you’ll be rewarded with what is the ultimate cyber ninja fantasy.

Ghostrunner 2’s lethality, after all, cuts both ways aside from the brutal boss fights. Enemies go down as swiftly as Jack, which means you can carve up hordes of them like cake once you’ve got the hang of it – and that feels pretty damn good. In this game, every single click can be the difference between life and death, which means every single click is meaningful. You’re both a fragile and an incredibly powerful character, and developer OneMoreLevel walked this fine line perfectly. In the end, the greater the challenge before you is, the better overcoming it is going to feel.

This alley has been, uh, re-decorated :: One More Level / 505 Games

At the same time, it never feels unfair. I won’t lie, whittling a boss down only to fail in the final stretch and having to start from scratch is frustrating – but at the end of the day you only have yourself to blame for making the lethal mistake that cost you the battle. I sometimes found that keeping the overview in hectic situations was a bit difficult – for example, there is an early boss fight where you have to grapple onto a flying target that moves around to dodge the enemy’s area-of-effect attack, and that target is hard to keep track of – and some additional help from the UI would have been welcomed in those scenarios, but I never felt like the game was at fault for my deaths. Checkpoints are generally well-placed, and you learn more about the section ahead with every death. Eventually, you’ll crack the puzzle.

Speaking of puzzles, there are some environmental problems to solve once again, which allow you to progress or find hidden areas, which may even contain some collectibles or cosmetics. Fiendish traps can be found on the maps as well, which are often more brutal foes than those shooting back at you.

Thankfully, the game offers a variety of difficulty settings to make the experience more accessible. There are also options like an FoV slider and the ability to disable camera shakes that help out people who may easily get motion sickness.

Ghostrunner 2 has some excellent enemy designs and thrilling boss fights to offer :: One More Level / 505 Games

Ghostrunner 2’s movement feels super slick – you can dash forward, slide down ramps, run along walls, and so on. Chaining all of these different movements together makes for a great experience, especially once you mix in the shurikens you unlock early on or the ability to parry bullets. In the best moments, Ghostrunner 2 feels like a cyberpunk fever dream as the game’s electronic soundtrack embraces you and transports you into this world of neon colors and grime, in which rivaling factions of cyber ninjas battle each other – one to take control of the world, one to prevent this from happening.

Going in with very little idea of the setting and story, I found it a bit hard to follow at the beginning, but the battlelines are quickly drawn. Ghostrunner 2 also features a hub area not present in the original, in which you can practice your skills in a series of endless mini-games, but which also presents you with opportunities to learn more about your companions. Don’t expect anything of Larian Studios depth here, mind you. It’s enough to define the personalities of your compatriots more, though, and deliver some entertaining encounters. Honestly, that’s enough garnish for a cyber ninja power fantasy.

In the hub you can also change Jack’s looks by equipping those sweet sword cosmetics you find on the maps and kit him out with an ultimate ability, of which there are several you unlock as you progress through the game. You can shoot a powerful laser beam, enter the bloody Matrix and activate bullet time, or create a holographic clone of yourself while going invisible to fool your foes. If that’s not something a ninja would do, I don’t know what is.

What else is cool and totally something a cyber ninja would do? Oh, I know! Riding a motorcycle down huge ventilation shafts while slicing fools with his katana. Ghostrunner 2 lets you do that as well, including absolutely bonkers jumps and chase scenes. Controls for these sections still did not feel quite as smooth to me as when steering Jack on foot, but they are responsive enough to give you the amount of control you need to tackle the high-speed challenges.

You ARE speed in Ghostrunner's motorcycle sequences. Speed equipped with a katana :: One More Level / 505 Games

I believe the thing I appreciate most about OneMoreLevel’s sequel is that the developers did not compromise on their vision in any way and made a game that they believe their core audience would absolutely love – including the sillier moments and the fact that the rule of cool basically defines everything. They improved on Ghostrunner where they could, but kept its core identity intact.

On top of that, Ghostrunner 2 is an audio-visual spectacle. Yes, character faces look a bit iffy and clearly the focus was more on the stunning cyberpunk landscapes and level design, but again: Those are the things supporting the core experience in the game, which is the action, so that’s a completely fair call to make. And some of those boss fights? If there was an end of the year award for the best boss fight, this title has some contenders, without spoiling anything.

Ghostrunner 2 is the definitive cyber ninja experience – an unapologetically cool power fantasy that’ll get your adrenaline pumping in no time.

Score: 8/10

• Visuals: 7/10
• Sound: 9/10
• Gameplay: 9/10
• Story: 7/10
• Technical: 8/10

Version tested: PC