The cyberpunk genre is often marked by gritty stories where decaying dystopian cities serve as a mirror to the harms of modern capitalism. Other times, it’s about cyber ninjas fighting bad guys with laser guns. Ghostrunner 2, a frantic high-speed cyberpunk action game from 2023, falls firmly into the latter type, and for a week from September 11, it’s available for free on Epic Games Store.
The first thing to know about Ghostrunner 2 is that it’s intense. From start to finish, it offers hardly a moment of reprieve from its fast-paced parkour and swordplay. That can be a lot to handle, and it’s certainly not my preferred mode in most games, but the total focus that it demands becomes so absorbing it’s hard not to find some appeal in it. Getting into the flow of Ghostrunner 2 means letting everything else slip out of mind so you can better concentrate on what’s in front of you, almost like the feeling of meditation, but with more swords.
