Ghostrunner

Been a while since I completed this game and its solid expansion. It is not for everyone, sure, and I for one was really pushing my skills, but I managed to 100% even if I sometimes had to die hundreds of times (per single mission). I had the greatest time and haven’t stopped thinking about it since. It sets the perfect tone and atmosphere to tell its story (it is simple, but it does the job), has a kick-ass soundtrack, and the abilities and upgrades make your life easier. Keep on pushing! After 100% completing DLC the base game becomes significantly more manageable, you can turn off assist mode and play as intended, you can even complete the first chapter without dying, it is really doable. I await for Ghostrunner 2 with equal amounts of anticipation and fear (for my mediocre skills to be tested again).

90% of the time you're just fighting the lack of polish, rather than the actual enemies you're supposed to be fighting. HEL boss fight is absolute trash

As an avid Dishonored and Parkour game fan I find the game's Level Design way too boring and repetitive. The Artwork is fine, most of what you would want to see from a Cyberpunk themed game is there sure, but still missing. The levels are not smooth enough and they force you to kill the enemies before you go to the other puzzle which takes too much time with not enough stimulation for my fast-paced playstyle loving brain. The parkour part of the game is not embedded with the map but most things are there just for you conveniently just jump one them. The game forces you to play in their playstyle not yours, it's not flexible enough to capture a wide amount players' interests I think when they first buy/get the game. The puzzle part is OK however, dying on a single hit makes you strategize around the weaknesses of the units, that sounds nice doesn't it? However most of them only have weaknesses around timing and that makes the levels just fill me with apathy and anger because some random guy just shoots me from the other side of the map when I was jumping around/moving around the map to find the correct time interval to slash them. On the other hand however, the kill run game mode is in my opinion fantastic and really goes well with the actual idea of a cyberpunk assassin(not a juggernaut mind you since you get oneshot) just flying through enemies and getting the job done. Some levels are designed in a way so that they test your mechanics some are still just stuck at the timing part. What I would want from a game like this has been so much different than what the game had offered to me. I would want to be tested for smooth movement, smart killing strategies not just strafing around to wait for the kill time interval. I run the game on a 3060 and still have fps issues with the lowest graphics which shouldn't actually be a thing because how the not pleases the eye at all times. Story is meh. The game overall gets a very generous 3/5 from me.

The main problem I'm having with this game is the wallrunning and jumping towards the next wallrunning platform. Sometimes character completely stops in air and falls to his death. I have tried every way to make wallrunning feel smooth but it seems that most of the time I get meaningless deaths because lack of control. Overall its a solid game with parkour, action with cyberpunk theme but it could have used some more polishing.

...If not for some baffling enemy design late-game (and some other minor issues). I was having a lot of fun with this game, despite my many...many deaths. Because in every single encounter I was able to figure out what I was doing wrong, and how to overcome the obstacles. And the generous checkpoint system mixed with quick respawning made repeated attempts very enjoyable, even though, as I said, I was getting my ass kicked A LOT. Slight Spoilers incoming for some of the late-game enemies But the expolding enemies that the game introduces in the final chapter are complete nonsense. They force you to constantly run away and you don't have too many ways of dealing with them, except your special abilities. I really don't understand why they had to include them, it's like almost every game does this for the final level, introducing enemies and obstacles that are frustrating, not challenging. I get it (if you are a developer) it's the final level, you want something climactic, but you are running out of ideas...but...I don't know...this final stretch really frustrated me and left a black mark on an otherwise great experience. Other small issues include enemy AI not always behaving consistently (this doen't occur all that often though) and the game not telling you that you will lose your progress for the entire level if you quit before finishing it. It's not the loss of progress that is the problem, but the fact that the game does not warn you about it. If you are a speedrunner, you will love this game. If you love synthwave and cyberpunk you will also love this game. And if you are an action game fan, well...you will like this game despite many of its issues..the same way I like it ^^