With the unfortunate delay of CD Project Red’s Cyberpunk 2077, players will be happy to know that there is a game that will serve as a proper alternative until the highly anticipated RPG releases December 10.

Ghostrunner, developed by One More Level and Slipgate Ironworks with help from All In! Games and 505 Games to publish the game, is an action hack-and-slash title with parkour, cyberpunk and cyber ninjas.

The story takes place in an unknown futuristic cyber city, where the main area of the game is Dharma Tower.

The cyber assassin known as the Ghostrunner, later named Jack, was assigned to assassinate the corrupt Mara, also known as the Keymaster.

Mara defeated the Ghostrunner in combat, leaving him severely weakened and almost destroyed, and threw him into the slums of the tower.

The Ghostrunner was rescued by members of a rebellion against Mara known as the Climbers, who repaired him to working function again. 

After being revived, the Ghostrunner came across an artificial intelligence known as The Architect, formerly known as Adam when he was still alive.

Before becoming The Architect, Adam once used to work with Mara and was the original creator of Dharma Tower with the purpose of preserving humanity after the world became almost inhospitable. 

Adam was also the creator of the Ghostrunners but was betrayed by Mara, leaving his consciousness in the form of The Architect and destroying almost all of the Ghostrunners he created, leaving Jack as the last of his kind.

With the tower in peril of its downfall due to Mara’s corrupt rule, The Ghostrunner and The Architect must traverse through the dangers and challenges of the tower in order to reach Mara and stop her once and for all.

As a Ghostrunner, players are able to traverse the world with finesse, being able to move fast, run on walls, slide through small areas, and take out enemies quickly with their sword.

Each level has players traveling to different areas and floors of the tower as they play through the game, where they either have to take out enemies, traverse the hazards through parkour or solve puzzles in order to progress.

When it comes to combat, the game has a unique “one hit, one kill” mechanic, where all enemies can be taken out by the player in just one hit; however, the same goes for the player if they are not careful.

Players can also use an ability called sensory boost to give them a quick dash and holding the button down while in the air will slow everything down around the player to give them enough time to make their next move.

In levels of combat, the player must avoid enemy fire by constantly being on the move by dodging enemy fire, wallrunning and using the sensory boost while in the air to dodge attacks or to get to a nearby wall.

Avoiding enough contact to get close enough to enemies will leave them open for attack, and defeating all of them will allow the player to progress to the next area.

If the player gets hit however, it is an insta-kill and the player will have to revert back to the previous checkpoint.

When wallrunning, the player must build enough momentum while running before jumping, then once the player jumps to a nearby wall, they will automatically start wall running and continue to do so either until the momentum runs out or they jump.

Players can continuously jump from wall to wall to chain wallruns, which can be essential for travel across the level or to strategically attack enemies.

With it’s fast paced gameplay, players will have to learn to quickly adapt to properly play through the game, as it requires quick reflexes

Whether on console or PC, increasing the camera sensitivity is recommended.

Players can also unlock sword cosmetics and obtain skills and abilities such as one that can quickly defeat multiple enemies in one hit, having the boost meter decrease slower than before or even an ability to deflect an enemy’s projectile attack if the attack button is pressed at the right moment.

The game’s soundtrack also delivers that of techno and synthwave, fitting to a game of this genre and theme.

With a simplistic combat system with a proper learning curve, easy to traverse parkour mechanics and amazing music, Ghostrunner is a hidden gem of a game that deserves more recognition than what it’s worth and the perfect game for Cyberpunk 2077 withdrawal.