I played a little bit of Ghostrunner when the demo went live during the Steam Game Festival. It was a short ride, but damn was it impressive. Like a first-person Hotline Miami crossed with Metal Gear Rising, Ghostrunner is all about slicing and dicing. And doing do as fast as you can while enemies assault you with their fancy-ass long-range weapons. It was great, and I wanted more. Thankfully, it looks like I won’t have to wait too long. Ghostrunner launches for PC on October 27. For those who still can’t wait, you can try your luck getting into its private beta today.
Indeed, the game has a private beta you can play, if the tide is in your favor. You have to join its Discord server and submit an application. If you’re fortunate, you might just be able to play the game before it lands on Steam, GOG, and the Epic Games Store.
There will be another demo, however, if you’re up to cooling your heels. The new demo will go live on Steam two weeks from today on September 29. I’m hoping it’s a longer demo. The one I played was excruciatingly short, and left me pining for more action. Developer All in! Games has also dropped a new trailer today, highlighting the upcoming launch.
I’m all in, baby
I’m hoping that the clumsy comparison I made earlier didn’t confuse you too much. Ghostrunner is anything but a complicated game, and it’s very much like Hotline if all you had was a katana to cut through swaths of enemies. Like any cyberpunk ninja worth your salt, in Ghostrunner you run, dash, wall run, and use a grappling device to swing across gaps. To even the odds against gun-wielding enemies, you can momentarily slow time and dash moments before their bullets find their mark. Most enemies I faced in the demo could be killed with one swing, but the reverse is also true. Without the time-slowing ability, I can imagine this being a much more frustrating game.
Ghostrunner will include some nice features. The game will have an option for ray tracing, which I’m sure will make its dystopian world pop. Its synthwave soundtrack (which I loved, naturally) is coming to us from Daniel Deluxe, a composer who’s no stranger to dark, synth beats. Deluxe has a single from the game live at their Bandcamp if you want to check it out.
Ghostrunner launches for PC on October 27 via Steam, GOG, and the Epic Games Store.
