Ghostrunner

Too bad the name 'bladerunner' had been taken; it would have described Ghostrunner even better than its actual name: a cyberpunk first person katana-action platformer. I wishlisted it immediately upon the first opportunity because it had seemed like a game I would enjoy -- and I did. However, it was less of a power fantasy than I had thought it would be from watching someone else play the game. But I'll get to that in a bit.

Literal bladerunner

There's an oddly large number of developers and publishers listed for Ghostrunner, but I think Poland-based One More Level is the main maker here. The game's composer should also be noted: Daniel Deluxe's beats fit perfectly the cyberpunk setting and the action parkour gameplay.

Music and gameplay really are the game. There is a story but I almost feel it was added after the fact: just some background noise while you cut and run your way through the linear levels. I don't know if it would matter much if there was no story at all. It's not like you can affect it. I guess having some context is a good thing for immersion purposes though.

The action is paced by interlude levels during which you get more story as well as new upgrades and abilities. I do wonder though if the game would suffer in any way if the interludes weren't there; sometimes the puzzles and mazes presented started to feel annoying -- I would've rather continued the action right away.

Ghostrunner incorporates 1-hit-point model for combat, meaning that you and enemies die from one hit (excluding bosses that have multiple phases instead). That sounds potentially very frustrating but since restarting from a checkpoint is instantaneous (from the beginning of every section, encounter, and boss phase), it's not that bad at all in practice -- the game runs well and smooth on Unreal Engine 4.

There were few bigger encounters that took me a fair number of attempts but even they never felt frustrating. I knew that soon enough I would perfect my route. Or if my approach just didn't seem to work, I would try another. Ability charge persists through restarts and gives you eventually bit of an edge to start with. Boss phases have fewer different moving parts and randomness and thus tend to be more about perfecting your timings than finding alternative approaches.

The extensive amount of trial and error it sometimes takes to be successful does definitely reduce the coolness factor from playing a katana-wielding cyber ninja. Finishing an encounter on your 10th attempt doesn't result in you feeling powerful rather than just being relieved you were finally able to dodge everything thrown at you.

Interestingly enough Ghostrunner continues after the final boss fight to end in an extended platforming section. It was during that I finally learned to execute air-dash jump properly -- out of necessity more than anything. Instead of perfecting the move before, I had bypassed difficult parts by finding alternative routes. You can at times do some very creative wallrunning to progress.