The Most Relentless First-Person Action Game Is Free This Week On PC

The cyberpunk genre is often marked by gritty stories where decaying dystopian cities serve as a mirror to the harms of modern capitalism. Other times, it’s about cyber ninjas fighting bad guys with laser guns. Ghostrunner 2, a frantic high-speed cyberpunk action game from 2023, falls firmly into the latter type, and for a week from September 11, it’s available for free on Epic Games Store.

The first thing to know about Ghostrunner 2 is that it’s intense. From start to finish, it offers hardly a moment of reprieve from its fast-paced parkour and swordplay. That can be a lot to handle, and it’s certainly not my preferred mode in most games, but the total focus that it demands becomes so absorbing it’s hard not to find some appeal in it. Getting into the flow of Ghostrunner 2 means letting everything else slip out of mind so you can better concentrate on what’s in front of you, almost like the feeling of meditation, but with more swords.

Like the original game in the series, Ghostrunner 2 presents you with a series of neon-soaked levels full of traps and enemies and tells you to carve your way through them as fast as humanly possible. The cityscape of the game is cluttered and hostile, full of massive skyscrapers connected by teetering walkways and obstacles from speeding trains to crackling laser beams to avoid.

Getting around those environments takes a combination of acrobatics and aggression, as along with their inanimate obstacles, they’re also packed with enemies. One of your most important skills is a grappling hook, which lets you leap from one platform to the next, jump to dodge projectiles fired at you, and close distance on your foes to counterattack. More basic abilities lets you dash, slide, and wall-run across every inch of the game’s levels, and getting to the point where you can chain all of those actions almost unconsciously is a requirement for your survival.

In Ghostrunner 2, just about everything except for bosses goes down in one hit, including you, so perfection is a necessity. That can make it an exceptionally frustrating game if you’re not locked in, but the thrill of executing that perfect no-hit run to end every level never fades. Despite their frenzied speed, every stage eventually starts to feel like a puzzle to unpack as you figure out the combination of dashes and attacks that will get you to the end unscathed — all while moving so fast you can hardly process all the moves you’re making along the way. Even more than in Soulslike games, where you expect to fail many, many times before you succeed, Ghostrunner 2 forces you to confront defeat a lot before you find even the possibility of success.

The moment-to-moment action of Ghostrunner 2’s combat and platforming never get old, but the game still ends up a bit uneven. The only real breaks in the action come from the sequel’s much larger emphasis on story, which does make the experience feel less like a nonstop parade of action, but isn’t really anything the game needs. Its story is about as standard as a cyberpunk revenge tale can be, so any moment when the game pulls you away from combat to explain why the evil ninjas you’re fighting are so bad just grinds the part you’re actually here for to a halt. The introduction of a new motorcycle for some sections also adds some unevenness, as they do include some astounding escape sequences but also add a lot of what feels like filler between levels.

Despite those issues, Ghostrunner 2 is mostly a heart-pounding action game that’s well worth checking out. Its difficulty lies in speed and precision over careful planning, and rewards quick thinking above all else. It’s a game that usually seems best suited to short sessions, since longer ones might make it feel like your brain is overheating, but it’s a thrill while it lasts.

Ghostrunner 2 is available now on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. It’s free on the Epic Games Store until September 18.