Ghostrunner 2is a hack and slash hardcore platformer that doesn’t give the player any wiggle room to make a mistake. The main draw of the game is that it does its very best to simulate the feeling of being a badass cyborg ninja. All the enemies die within one hit, you can maneuver around the map like the environment is a part of you, and you havesome really cool abilities. The game also features six bosses that the player has to defeat as the story progresses.
Ghostrunner 2 Review - Excellence of Execution
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These bosses are not a single hit kill like the other enemies in the game, ruining a bit of the immersion for a lot of players. However, they are an important part of the game nonetheless and can add to your overall experience if you approach them with the right mindset. Not all the bosses are great, but they’re all good enough. The best ones are those that break the mold and take the player out of their comfort zone, giving them a unique challenge.
Ghostrunner 2
Barely A Boss Fight
Salient Features
Less like a boss fight and more like a long continuous fight against a swarm of enemies, the Hostiles appear after Mitra makes a surprise appearance after the first boss fight. There isn’t a lot of new information you learn about the world during or after this fight, and it’s not even that interesting of a fight. The entirety of the boss fight consists of the player dispatching waves of enemies as they stream into your base.
There are distinct phases to the fight where some new elements are introduced to keep it fresh, but they’re not enough to make it unique. At the end, it just feels like a particularly long level of normal gameplay. There are different types of enemies all around the player that you will have to kill. It’s not hard at all, but it’s fairly enjoyable to dispatch all of them. Once you clear one section, you’ve basically learned the attack patterns for all the other sections, meaning you can bulldoze through them all.
Uniqueness
Difficulty
Overall Score
A Decent Opening
The first boss fight in the game does its job well enough and challenges the player to some extent. Ahriman doesn’t have a lot of different attack types, so you don’t have to worry about getting caught off guard after you’ve died to him a couple of times. The cinematic of the fight is lore rich and an important NPC, Bakunin, is also introduced during the fight. One major downside for the Ahriman fight is the lack of maneuverability.
Ghostrunner 2: Ahriman Boss Guide
Facing difficulty in defeating Ahriman in Ghostrunner 2? Read this guide to learn the counter strategy,
Almost the entire fight takes place on a completely flat platform with no place to wall run or grapple locations. This takes away the game’s greatest draw, the fun platforming, making the fight feel dull and boring. There is a platforming section in this fight as well, but it’s very short and doesn’t feel satisfying or rewarding at all. However, this all makes sense since this is the first boss fight of the game and new players wouldn’t be familiar enough with the mechanics of the game to use them properly anyway.
An Interesting Experience
The Naga boss fight is perhaps the most unique experience in the entire game. It’s not a boss fight in the traditional sense. There isn’t a single target to whack your sword at. Instead, the fight consists of the player driving a motorcycle inside a giant metallic serpent and striking its weakpoints while avoiding swarms of enemies in the meantime. The fight comes right after a long level of driving the bike, so the player should be somewhat familiar with the controls by this point.
However, the handling of the bike is a little clunky and doesn’t feel very good, so this section of the game feels a little lackluster. That being said, it’s still pretty fun to drive a heavy bike inside a sand worm as fast as you can while avoiding obstacles in your way.
A Mid-Tier Ending
The big bad antagonist that appears at the start of the game, Mitra, is the final boss that Jack has to defeat to save the small world he lives in once and for all. The fight feels a little unfair in the sense that Mitra looks and acts just like Jack, but he doesn’t die in one hit like Jack does. The fight itself consists of a few different distinct phases, with plenty of difficult platforming in between to keep you engaged and happy. It also reveals a lot of details about the past of the world and Mitra.
Despite how much he hyped himself up, Mitra isn’t a particularly difficult boss. He is much more difficult than Ahriman, but he’s not as great as his other subordinate, the Dismantler. The fight has enough variation and unique sections to keep it interesting though.
2Rahu the Avatar
The Most Unique Fight
The second boss fight in the game occurs entirely in the cyber void where data resides and specters hide. It leans into the greatest aspect of the game, the movement and platforming. The fight introduces some pretty interesting mechanics that you don’t get to see anywhere else, making the gameplay feel much more fun than you would think it to be otherwise.
Ghostrunner 2: Can You Change Difficulty Settings?
Ghostrunner 2 doesn’t feature a difficulty option, and there’s a good reason for it. Read on to find out why.
Furthermore, Rahu is a very compelling character. His personality is likable, and his actions are quite reasonable. The constant commentary he provides is entertaining and quite educational for the player as well, helping them learn the motivations behind his actions and the other Ghostrunners.
1The Dismantler
The Hardest And Most Fun Boss
The Dismantler is Mitra’s right-hand man, but he’s much more fun to fight compared to the final boss. The Dismantler fight is quite unique due to the boss' unusual situation i.e., his three health bars. Instead of having different phases, the Dismantler switches between three different movesets he has, each corresponding to one of his health bars. To win the fight, the player needs to empty all three of the health bars.
Ultimately, this means that the fight is much more dynamic than any other fight, with the player switching their playstyle according to the changing moves of the boss. You will need to use all your accumulated skills up until this point to beat the Dismantler.
10 Best Games Like Ghostrunner 2
Ghostrunner 2’s fast-paced action can be replicated by other games as well, though the magic might not be as stunning.
