Ghostrunner

Not many games have gripped me like Ghostrunner, despite being a "hardcore" game, a casual player such as myself was able to finish it without any assist mode or guides. The movement and combat is unmatched. This game is a must have for anyone in love with parkour, the cyberpunk aesthetic and honest-to-god gritty sword based combat.

Ghostrunner uses its insanely smooth movement with a simple yet fun combat system to take advantage of the amazing level design. The story is very basic but the setting of the game makes up for it by being stylish as hell. This game takes the "easy to learn, hard to master" idea to the top with its very simple and addictive gameplay loop.

It's a really fun game and runs great.

Ghostrunner. Ah, a veritable gore-filled-cyberpunk-fueled medley of ideas that, in my opinion, lack a degree of execution I expected from the respective developer(s). To start, the world in which it takes place in is absolutely awesome. You really feel like an insignificant and trying to scale an insurmountable tower of abstract, yet fluid and cohesive architecture. I do very much appreciate the level layouts and utilizing tools and abilities to go from scene to scene, place to place. It reminds me very much of the BLAME! Manga. Very cool. Dystopian, gritty, and futuristic, yet retro-wave in a way, if that makes sense. You can feel the oppression in the game, and that is a quality I admire very much. Your character itself has super-human abilities, of course. Much more agile and capable than the vast majority of foes you face, as well as the dangers inherent in the level design as well. I enjoyed the relative freedom in which I could run and scale walls an leap over and through large spaces as well as the claustrophobic machinations designed to hinder your progress and kill you. You MUST be able to think very quickly on your feet to survive. When you do, it feels great; when you don't, it can get a bit frustrating and feel tedious. This COULD be due to me not being as capable as other gamers, however I feel most people would struggle quite a bit with figuring out where to go and how to get there at times. The combat is intense. Satisfyingly so. It is also frustrating and tedious at times as well. Generally, I found combat to be a trial and error kind of affair. I didn't see a whole lot of diverse or dynamic options when confronting opponents, but again, maybe this is just my own limitations as a gamer. I did(and do) keep trying until I succeed to the next checkpoint, but I do(and did) get tired of dying for the 20th time. Your mileage will probably vary with this game and depend on your reflexes and pattern recognition. It's pretty fun, nonetheless.

It's the perfect mix between the gameplay of Hotline Miami and the (even more) limitless parkour of Mirror's Edge, with a great agility extra dose. Some might say it's not for everyone and they may be right, but most of the people feeling a slight attraction for this game will surely love it. It's also worth mentioning that the respawning time (less than half a second) makes it frustration-proof. For me, dying 40-50 times on a level feels like regular gameplay, and I'm easily frustrated.