GHOSTRUNNER
Are you ready for some heavy metal?
What do you get if you take the parkour of Mirror’s Edge, throw in just a smidge of Superhot, and set it all somewhere not unlike Blade Runner’s grimy cyberpunk vision of LA? Something that’s got a lot of literal running with blades and few opportunities for pacifism.
Half-man and half-machine, you find yourself navigating the last refuge of humanity – a giant tower that’s a city in itself – in a world devastated by climate change. But while things are bad beyond the tower, they may be worse on the inside. Poverty, scarcity, and violence are all exacerbated by the tower’s closed loop environment… and you’ve got to rise to the top of it all.
Why? You wake up with a voice in your head. As you admire your mechanical limbs, a whisper in your ear says that there’s something wrong with your software and, unless you want to be thrown on the scrap heap, you should find them so they can repair you. Naturally, Whisper’s not going to do this out of the kindness of whatever he calls a heart: in exchange for saving you from the junkyard, you’ll have to bust your mysterious benefactor out of prison.
SPARE PARTS
Of course, your task is nowhere near as easy as simply scrambling up the side of the metal monster. The planet may be wrecked and humankind on its knees, but the tower’s AI is still able to rustle up enough security to make your ascent anything but a pleasant stroll. The voice in your ear suggests a route that has you scurrying through air ducts, dashing between propeller blades, and wallrunning into the sights of laser-blasting enemies. Did we mention that you die if you take a single hit? You’ve got to wonder whether Whisper really has your best interests in mind...
After being walked through the basic capabilities of your cybernetic bod by your dubious ally, you’re put to the test. Before you are two paths, both lined with enemies. Your options are either to slide down a ramp or to wallrun, soaring high before closing in with vengeance. The latter route drops you down a little too close to the business end of a laser blaster for our liking, and even if you take out this first goon there’s another camping out around the corner right behind him, so it’s down the slide for us.
We’re faster than a laser bullet thanks to our sensory boost tech. This is where the Superhot comparison comes in, as time slows to a crawl and we’re able to strafe in mid-air out of harm’s way. The challenge is in activating this time-dilation tech before you meet an unfortunate end. That said, in Ghostrunner death is an unceremonious event and you’ll be brought back from the grave quicker than you can say ‘Painkiller.’ Let ’em taste the chromium-plated boiling metal of your blade!
KNIFE TO MEET YOU
In our hands-on, our exit from the ‘Dome Zone’ is heralded by a rain of blood, gushing from the last guard left in the area. We’ve wormed our way into the prison sector proper. All that stands between us and the source of the voice in our cyberbrain are electrified walls, grapple points, and a few more guards. This might as well be a walk in the park.
A pleasant stroll behind us, we’ve gained access to the prison sector’s inner sanctum. The AI speaker half-heartedly says, “Prisoner threat level: Extremely high” in a last-ditch attempt to get us to turn back, to give up and go home. Scanning our metallic palm, we loose Whisper’s chains… and realise too late that this is something we can’t take back. Our hand has magnetically fused to the scanner, and Whisper has us right where he wants us. We’ll find out more about who we are, the tower-city’s secrets, and what exactly Whisper intends to do with us later this year.
End transmission. Bzzzt!
“BUST YOUR MYSTERIOUS BENEFACTOR OUT OF PRISON.”