A lot of recent conversation in the gaming space has revolved around how we name certain genres. Metroidvania is a term that makes sense to people with tons of gaming experience but explains absolutely nothing about the games within it. La-Mulana, for example, is a Metroidvania, but it shares next to nothing in common with Metroid or Castlevania.
Ever since Hotline Miami came out, a similar thing has happened to certain action games. If they share elements of Dennaton Games’ indie hit, then they are often described as “Hotline Miami-like.” If you’ve never played that game, then that genre doesn’t make a lot of sense. It also boils each game down to a very specific take on action gaming that might not necessarily be true of this new game.
That’s very much what could be said for Ghostrunner. A new FPS from publisher All In! Games and developer One More Level, a brief summary to explain the general flow of this game would be “Hotline Miami-like.” From everything to look, feel, and even level design, Ghostrunner is anything but Hotline Miami, though.
The setting for Ghostrunner is that of a cyberpunk dystopia. Set in the distant future, the story follows a cyber assassin as he ascends humanity’s last tower and tries to discover the truth behind some mega-corporations dominance of society. In your journey to find these answers, you’ll cut down enemies, dodge a ton of gunfire, run along walls, and generally look like a badass.
Where the Hotline Miami comparison comes in is with how combat plays out. You’ll only be able to suffer a single hit in Ghostrunner before dying. That goes the same for your enemies: they basically separate in whatever direction you swing your sword with very little resistance. Being played from a first-person perspective, you don’t have the same kind of peripheral vision that Hotline Miami employs. You’re also given a lot more in the way of traversal options, so the comparison is mostly superficial.
Still, it’s hard not to fall into the same kind of rhythm that Dennaton Games’ classic has. You’ll encounter small combat arenas and constantly be restarting to figure out the most efficient path. Ghostrunner’s most unique mechanic happens to be a kind of bullet-time slow-motion system. As you run and jump, you can make quick dashes with a press of the shift key. Hold shift for more than a second and time will slow, allowing you to completely sidestep enemy fire and dash toward them.
This element is crucial in surmounting the combat challenges of Ghostrunner. It takes about 10 minutes to get into the rhythm of it all, but then you’ll be running straight at dudes, waiting for their guns to start charging, then popping slow-mo and flowing around them. You end up feeling like Neo in The Matrix more than anything.
The demo at PAX East was from the beginning of the game, but it did showcase one other ability that Ghostrunner has: a grappling hook. One More Level is making sure that players will constantly be challenged, so the idea is that you’ll gain new upgrades and abilities to help make combat and traversal more interesting. Enemies will also start to gain different weapons, which will test your mastery of Ghostrunner’s movement at every turn.
It’s basically set up to follow the mold of classic FPS titles, just with a more modern flair. This isn’t a simple game, but it’s not exactly complex either. It is very skill-based, which is exactly what 3D Realms’ history is all about: games that challenge your understanding of their mechanics.
There are certainly other games and themes you can draw comparisons to, but Ghostrunner feels like a wholly original version of those ideas. Whether or not the campaign can sustain its pace remains to be seen, but the beginning is very promising for Ghostrunner.
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