Ghostrunner

This game was really suprising. The platorming, and combat were so smooth and satisfying in this game. If you want to play as a badass cyborg jumping through a dystopian futuristic town, rife with a solid variety of enemies, this is your game. While you always die in one hit, and enemies can behave differently from how one would be used to them behaving in other action games, the game is not too unforgiving. The enemies are quite predictable all things considered, and they also die in one hit with the exception of the bosses. Finally, the game runs on a checkpoint system, and it does not make you repeat a lot of content if you die. All in all, this was a huge blast. I died many times, but it never got tedious to the point that it wasn't fun for me. The story and characters are quite decent too, though they're not a huge focal point.

Whoever designed the assist mode for this game is a genius and should be complimented as such, it’s done beautifully, doing enough for people who didn’t want to deal with how challenging the “normal” mode is, without sacrificing what’s fun about the game, plus the fact that you can tweak and customize things like how slow the slow motion in the air is, or how quickly does your charge recharges makes things even better. The story is fantastic and as you progress it becomes deeper and deeper, there are very few characters but everything is presented so beautifully written and in such a well-paced manner that for the most part you end up loving them all, even the one’s that may appear to be overly robotic and with a complete lack of character end up turning out to be charming and humorous, whilst also retaining a mystery to them, making you want to know more about them without getting to anxious to know more about them. The gameplay is quick and violent, gory and satisfying, extremely empowering and adrenaline pumping, you dodge through the air, cut throw bullets, afterwards you obtain abilities and the gameplay that already was satisfying enough gets even more profound, after a while, once you get into the rhythm of the game, you’ll flow through the game’s mechanics, slowing time down and dodging shots only to then land and cut an enemy in half, dash across the ground towards an enemy, wall run towards them and then decapitate them, all the while you’re filling up with every kill your abilities. If there’s anything wrong that I found with the game was some missions that were composed with some boring puzzles that hampered the pacing of the game rather than help it, plus there was also the horribly implemented ray tracing that destroys the game’s performance; but frankly these issues aren’t that big of a deal when you consider what’s in store for you here to experience. I couldn't write my whole review here, but I can say enough; thank you for assist mode!

... but man, did I suck at it. Had lots of fun, but I am trash at platformers/parkour games. Runs beautifully on a 3070 RTX. Worth the time if you're better at movement puzzles and dodging telegraphed attacks or can learn those things easily.

Think of this game as a mix of Shadow Warrior (without the humor) and Hotline Miami that is taking place in a big, postapocalyptic, cyperpunk parkour. It's clear the developers put a lot of love into their work and this game is worth the 30€ (even more so on sale). Good: - Short and intense levels and overall story ( ~10hrs for me to complete the game) - Very, very, VERY smooth controls (it's like wiping with silk) - Amazing soundtrack (keeps you hooked) - Challenging (1 hit and you are dead, but with well placed checkpoints) - Good learning curve (new enemy types, new formations that keep forcing you to adapt) - Kills feel satisfying (especially when you parkour around the enemy and execute them one by one) - The GORE - Simple and flexible skillsystem - Nailed the cyberpunk theme (visuals, artdesign, music etc.) - Collectables and perfecting your skills encourage replaying the levels Neutral/Bad: - Generic story (nothing special/new about it, but to me that's not an issue in this genre)

You're gonna play this game. It's gonna punish you. You're gonna rage quit. Later, after you've calmed down, you're gonna try again. Then you realize how far apart the saves are... and you write this review.