3.5/5 ★ – TheyAccount's review of Ghostrunner II.

A game with plenty of great points and fun levels. Building off the excellent one-shot-kill, one-shot-death formula of GR1 is a recipe for a good time. Where this sequel excels is by not just adding new levels and essentially being released as overpriced DLC, but actually adding new mechanics and a more fleshed out story. Unfortunately, despite the fun I had with the game, there are far too many major issues to warrant me rating it any higher than I have. The first major hurdle I ran into was the controls. To be clear, this is likely not an issue on PC but it certainly is on a console. With all the added mechanics and moves, there is simply not enough room on a controller to fit them all in. This means that by default, controls that were once mapped to the triggers in GR1 are now mapped to the face buttons, making movement difficult and clunky. A huge part of why both of these games are successful and enjoyable is the quick movement and parkour, meaning that it will not do to have to press jump and move the camera with one thumb. I eventually custom mapped the controls to a more suitable, easier to navigate scheme. However, this took constant tinkering throughout the first few levels, particularly as more and more mechanics were added. Despite the option to custom map, the controls never felt perfect. Another problem that is immediately noticeable is the graphics. Somehow, the graphics here are significantly worse than in GR1, which had a fantastic metallic sheen. Everything in GR2 is low resolution and very flat and pale in colour. Unlike the first game too, there is no way to adjust visual settings or change HDR modes to assist with visual issues. Something that is hit or miss depending on one's playstyle is the speed of the movement. I definitely noted a slower movement pace here and this has much to do with all the additional controls and mechanics. There is less quick slide-dash-jumping and more grappling (both onto walls and enemies), using shurikens to unlock doors, or using tempest to push the environment around. With a few levels excepted, the parkour is overall more basic which is a shame as this is my favourite aspect of GR1. This change of pace is not necessarily a negative thing but rather a change in how the game plays that might work against what players enjoyed about GR1. The pace of the game is slowed down further quite drastically when after a couple of levels you are introduced to the hub area, where you walk around slowly and chat to your companions with optional dialogue. This was extremely jarring at first. The entire premise of the first game is quick movement, quick respawns, and no slowing down. Here, the speed grinds to a complete hault. However, this is something that one gets used to overtime, especially when combined with the overall slower-paced movement within the levels. Something that is bad about the movement that causes slow-down is how often things do not work properly. There were countless instances of me trying to wallrun and Jack simply not catching on the wall, or trying to gap jam and getting caught on the environment instead. Even sliding sometimes did not work for me, once again catching somehow on the ground and slowing me down. This all really affected the movement and caused numerous deaths. Once you get used to some of the dodgy aspects of the controls, visuals, and movement, the game ramps up and starts becoming a lot more enjoyable. There is a good deal of variety in the levels that you do not really see in GR1, concluding in the acquisition of the motorbike. Using the motorbike, you have greatly increased freedom to explore and ride where you please in an "open world" segment. The motorbike controls are simple but fun and rewarding to use. At this point I thought much more highly of the game overall, having played some great levels leading up to the motorbike, and thoroughly enjoying the motorbike levels that followed. Once I got back into Dharma Tower and no longer had the bike however, the game started becoming sluggish and a bit more unenjoyable to play. The later levels of the game feel uninspired both in the parkour and the combat sections. The parkour in particular began to feel regurgitated, even slower, and very simple to do. It feels like at least the two levels of the game before the final boss could have been completely cut. By the time I unlocked the wingsuit, I struggled to really care that much for a new mechanic and was ready for the game to end. In a baffling move, the wingsuit is introduced in the very last level so it is hardly even used to traverse areas or assist in combat. It failed to reignite any excitement or originality. One element that is significantly improved here is the story. The cast of villains are great with all their different philosophies and approaches to their situation. In both games, the story is very much sidelined in favour of the gameplay which is completely fine due to the nature of the games. GR1's story is very simple but effective in getting the player from A to B in style. The story here is more complex and fleshed out, becoming a larger part of the experience than in GR1. The Cybervoid sections are also significantly improved. Cybervoid in GR1 was used to deliver exposition through dialogue while letting the player carry out simple parkour so as to not get bored. They are fine enough sections but become tiresome on replays of the game. Here, Cybervoid is used for basically the same purpose most of the time, but with a lot more variety and more complex parkour. Another great aspect of the game to note is the music. The thumping, cyberpunk-style electronic music is hugely successful in both games for adding another layer of slick and coolness to the running, jumping, dashing, and slicing. GR2 focuses a lot more on boss fights than GR1. There is a larger quantity of them for one, but also a greater complexity in how they pay out. The first game has three simple boss fights, two of which are short and involve dodging attacks and then hitting back a single time in phases, and one of which is a long parkour section. Here, boss fights are much more typical of other action games. You run around an arena and try to nail hits on the boss while dodging its various attacks. There are two exceptions to this formula, one of which involves the motorbike and another, my favourite of the boss fights, which takes place in Cybervoid and is mostly parkour-based. The quality of parkour here is at its absolute peak and it trumps the parkour-based boss fight in GR1 easily. The final boss fight on the other hand was a huge disappointment. It is fine in concept, with some run-of-the-mill attacks you must dodge before getting hits on the boss. Unfortunately though, I ran into huge issues here. The final phase of the fight involves added lasers that move around on the ground. Without any system of locking on to the boss, it becomes extremely difficult to even see where the boss is as he dashes around the area while also having to look around all 360 degrees to avoid the lasers. When the lasers go off, they take up so much of the screen that it is near impossible to see what kind of ranged attack the boss is currently doing. Worst of all though is the straight up broken, compulsory parry moments. No matter what I tried and searched up online, the parry only worked about 50% of the time. The other 50% of the time, I would hit the parry at the right moment and watched as Jack did nothing at all, leading to my death. This seems like a common issue with other players. It makes the conclusion of the game based on chance. It felt like the icing on the cake of a game with so many issues surrounding clunkiness and controls not working. There is some truly great stuff in GR2 but it is so unpolished that it could never live up to the heights of GR1.