Ghostunner 2 adds a lot but can’t match the precision of the original

The primary Ghostrunner was an ideal instance of no-frills excellence: a lean cyberpunk parkour-based platformer by which you and your enemies each died in a single hit. The controls had been tight, the story was principally nonexistent, and the environmental design was sparse and utilitarian. Each a part of the sport felt prefer it was constructed round Ghostrunner’s stellar kineticism. Ranges had been finely tuned so that every encounter pushed the sport’s issue precisely one step additional than the final, at all times offering a brand new problem with out ever feeling out of attain. With Ghostrunner 2, developer One Extra Stage tries to construct on the bare-bones method of the unique, however each addition feels prefer it will get in the way in which of the straightforward wall-running, leaping, dashing, and killing that made the unique nice.

Ghostrunner 2 takes place shortly after the occasions of the primary recreation and places gamers again in Dharma Tower, a futuristic spire that stands because the lone beacon of civilization in an in any other case apocalyptic wasteland. Gamers management Jack, one of many few remaining Ghostrunners (principally the tower’s now-defunct staff of supercops), as he works with a small band of individuals hoping to maintain the tower out of the fingers of non secular fanatics.

The story is meted out by near-constant in-game dialogue that principally quantities to exposition punctuated by bland, unfunny jokes as Jack runs round completely different elements of the tower killing enemies. When he isn’t in the course of a mission, Jack heads again to a house base that feels pulled immediately from a big-budget RPG — every of the sport’s NPCs has a small workspace space the place gamers can chat with them by way of dialogue bushes, asking questions concerning the world and their thinly sketched backstories (which often quantity to stereotypical hacker or ex-soldier origin tropes).

Picture: One Extra Stage/505 Video games

Fortunately, when Ghostrunner 2 emerges from its slog of pressured story interplay, the degrees themselves are nonetheless properly designed, although these, too, not often dwell as much as the standard of the unique’s. The sequence’ mechanics shine brightest in large areas with dozens of enemies to dispatch by way of fast actions and completely deliberate timing. It’s a trial-and-error sequence about discovering the precise path to suit your most well-liked play model earlier than executing it flawlessly — very like final yr’s unbelievable platformer Neon White. However slightly than holding the emphasis on finely crafted fight arenas, Ghostrunner 2 is in any other case packed stuffed with environments that really feel extra harking back to a conventional journey recreation: transitional hallways and small rooms with solely 4 or 5 enemies to juggle.

These smaller rooms are nonetheless enjoyable — in any case, Ghostrunner’s kinetic motion is at all times gratifying — however they don’t invite the sort of creative options that the unique recreation did. Preventing so few enemies typically turns into both trivial or irritating, with restricted approaches to eliminating opponents, slightly than the liberty supplied by the unique’s bigger, free-form environments.

Picture: One Extra Stage/505 Video games

Ghostrunner 2’s greatest moments arrive within the few ranges the place Jack acquires a brand new capability. These ranges are all exquisitely designed round distinctive mechanics, forcing you to consider your new capability in more and more inventive methods whereas additionally placing your platforming to the check.

One among these powers lets Jack make clones, which he has to make use of to dam lasers that open and shut doorways or spawn and despawn platforms. To get by this energy’s “tutorial” stage, it’s important to summon and dismiss the clone in speedy succession, all timed to an intricate sequence of tough jumps. One other stage assessments Jack’s Pressure-push-style capability to maneuver a sequence of platforms as momentum flings you towards them at speeds that imply even a slight error in timing will get you killed. There’s even a high-speed motorbike sequence that makes for the sport’s most unusual and sudden challenges.

Picture: One Extra Stage/505 Video games

All of those are unimaginable, discrete items of recreation design that give temporary glimpses at what the remainder of the sport may have been — however by the eight or so hours of the sport I’ve performed, One Extra Stage by no means manages to make these powers really feel vital outdoors of the degrees they’re acquired in. Even worse, it by no means feels vital to mix many of those powers directly. As a substitute, slightly than constructing towards challenges that require you to juggle your whole newfound instruments, every subsequent mission feels extra like a reset — a begin from sq. one each time.

None of this makes Ghostrunner 2 a nasty recreation, per se; its mechanics and baseline design nonetheless thrilled me on a number of events. However it lacks the cohesion and clear momentum of the primary recreation, and its many additions by no means construct towards a extra attention-grabbing or advanced recreation.

Making a sequel to a online game is rarely straightforward, however making a sequel to a platformer is much more troublesome. Increase on too little and it seems like a stage pack; iterate an excessive amount of and also you lose what made the unique nice. Sadly, Ghostrunner 2 is firmly within the latter camp. In its quest to boost its stakes, Ghostrunner 2 loses its id. And whereas the sport does discover its rhythm from time to time, these moments are too few and much between. There’s nonetheless nothing fairly like the sensation of nailing an ideal run by one in every of Ghostrunner’s areas, hitting the precise proper line of jumps and grapples, slicing enemies on the good time, and adapting on the fly when wanted. It’s only a disgrace the sequel hinders a lot momentum with AAA tropes.

Ghostrunner 2 was launched Oct. 26 on PlayStation 5, Home windows PC, and Xbox Sequence X. The sport was reviewed on PC utilizing a pre-release obtain code offered by 505 Video games. Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These don’t affect editorial content material, although Vox Media could earn commissions for merchandise bought by way of affiliate hyperlinks. You’ll find extra details about Polygon’s ethics coverage right here.

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