Ludography
78/100
Players227 ratings
82/100
Critics10 reviews
More scores
Metacritic68 critic reviews
81/100
Metacritic usersuser score
78/100
GameFAQsTough
3.6/5
Player reviews
91% positive47,053 reviews
Steam Deck
Playable
Runs on
Windows
Price
US$19.99

Where to get it

Ghostrunner cover

2020 · One More Level · Action · Adventure

Ghostrunner

Ascend humanity’s last remaining shelter, a great tower-city. The tower is torn by violence, poverty and chaos. Conquer your enemies, discover the secrets of the superstructure and your own origin and obtain the power to challenge The Keymaster.

Released
27 October 2020
Platforms
Nintendo SwitchPlayStation 4PlayStation 5WindowsXbox OneXbox Series X/S
Genres
ActionAdventureCyberpunkPlatformerPost-apocalypticScienceShooter
Developers
One More LevelSlipgate Ironworks3D Realms
Publishers
All in! Games505 Games
Series
Ghostrunner
Modes
Single-player
Perspective
First person
Themes
ActionScience fiction
Engine
Unreal Engine 4
Country
United StatesDenmarkPoland
Age ratings
ACB MA 15+CERO ZGRAC 19+PEGI 18ESRB M
Languages
Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Portuguese (Portugal), Russian and 2 more
Copies sold
2.5 million as of 2023-09-08
Entry
#1 in Ghostrunner
Time to beat
7hmain story15hcompletionist

About

Ghostrunner is a 2020 action platform video game co-developed by One more Level, Slipgate Ironworks, 3D Realms, 505 Games and All in! Games. The game was released for PlayStation 4, Windows and Xbox One in October 2020, and Nintendo Switch in November 2020, followed by a next gen release for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S in September 2021. A version for Amazon Luna was made available in April 2021. A story expansion, titled Ghostrunner: Project Hel, was released on 3 March 2022.

Ghostrunner received positive reviews from critics and has sold over 2.5 million units as of September 2023. A sequel, Ghostrunner 2, released on 26 October 2023.

›Story

Enter an intense cyberpunk world and experience fierce, dynamic combat! Conquer your enemies in the physical world and in cyberspace. Hunt for answers in humanity’s last remaining shelter.

Ascend humanity’s last remaining shelter, a great tower-city. The tower is torn by violence, poverty, and chaos. Conquer your enemies, discover the secrets of the superstructure and your own origin and obtain the power to challenge The Keymaster.

The game takes place in the future, after a global cataclysm where the remains of humanity live in a tower built by The Architect, who died mysteriously years ago. Everyone knows the truth, no one says it aloud.

The world ruled by The Keymaster is harsh. A person’s worth depends on the category of implants they have, defining their whole lives. The implants—given to them in childhood—determine which social group a person belongs to. If you weren’t lucky enough to get a good life, there is nothing you can do.

It's no surprise that a rebellion starts.

You are a cyber-warrior, the only one capable of fighting both in the physical world and in cyberspace. Lost and hunted, thrown into the middle of the conflict, you must use this bond with technology to ascend the tower.

As you climb higher, secrets are revealed. The clock starts ticking on a race to uncover the mystery behind the structure that houses humanity’s last hope. Solve the riddle or be killed—there is no other option.

Players say

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

Played from a first person perspective as Jack the Ghostrunner, the player must traverse dangerous environments by dashing, jumping, wall-running, grappling, and sliding. The player will also encounter enemies, which must be handled carefully, as both enemies and the player can be killed in one hit. Jack can use a mechanic called Sensory Boost, allowing him to slow down time and dodge and deflect bullets in midair. As the player progresses through the story, they will unlock new abilities and upgrades, which they can apply using tetromino-like pieces on a grid system.

Story

After an unspecified global cataclysm known as the Burst, mankind is housed in Dharma Tower, a vast skyscraper-like arcology sheltering the rest of humanity. The Ghostrunner awakens with no recollection, but is ordered to free the Architect, Adam's preserved consciousness who established and ruled Dharma Tower and designed the Ghostrunners, technologically enhanced super humans that served as a peacekeeping and policing force. Mara, the Architect's confidant, betrayed him in a coup that destroyed most of the Ghostrunner units, and now she is known as the Keymaster. The Ghostrunner was discovered for repairs by a group of rebels known as the Climbers, though the uprising was put down just before the Ghostrunner was reactivated. The Architect assigns the mission of defeating the Keymaster to the Ghostrunner.

The remaining Cybervoid systems, the digital network connecting Dharma Tower, and the basis upon which the Architect's intelligence is based are all accessible to the Ghostrunner. As a result, the Architect is able to repair damage to the Ghostrunner's coding. Zoe, a surviving Climber, gets contacted by the Ghostrunner when trying to call for help. She offers him assistance in his quest to defeat the Keymaster.

Development

Polish developer One More Level worked with 3D Realms to create the game. The game was made using Unreal Engine 4 and supports Nvidia's RTX technology. Ghostrunner was announced during Gamescom 2019. A demo was available 6–13 May 2020 on Steam.

The game received positive comments prior to its release. Forbes called the game a mix of Titanfall, Dishonored and Superhot. Andy Chalk from PC Gamer called the game a mix between Mirror's Edge and Dishonored. The game was released for Microsoft Windows, Xbox One and PlayStation 4 on 27 October 2020 by All In!

Reception

Ghostrunner received "generally favorable" reviews for all platforms, except for Nintendo Switch which received "mixed or average" reviews from critics, according to Metacritic. Fellow review aggregator OpenCritic assessed that the game received strong approval, being recommended by 82% of critics.

Ghostrunner had sold over 600,000 units by May 2021. The game has sold over 2.5 million units as of September 2023.

Awards

Releases by platformdates and regions as published

PlatformReleasedRegions
PlayStation 427 October 2020Worldwide
Windows27 October 2020Worldwide
Xbox One27 October 2020Worldwide
Nintendo Switch30 November 2020Worldwide · North America 9 December 2020 · Europe 25 June 2021
Xbox Series X/S28 September 2021Worldwide
PlayStation 528 September 2021Worldwide

Editions and related releases

Included in
Ghostrunner Game BundleGhostrunner: Complete Edition
Downloadable content
Ghostrunner: Project Hel
Followed by
Ghostrunner 2
Built on it
Ghostrunner: Project Hel

In the same series

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Collections7 collections

Description adapted from its source, CC BY-SA 4.0.