Ghostrunner 2 is a hacking and slashing good time, but it’s also a hard time. If you’re finding a noticeable learning curve early on in the game, you aren’t alone.
There is a fine line between making a game hard enough that it is a fun challenge, and making a game so hard that it just becomes frustrating—and that is a line that all developers must decide if they even want to attempt to walk. But for a game like Ghostrunner 2, that line sort of has to be walked. It isn’t open-world, it isn’t multiplayer, and the story is linear without any RPG elements.
So what does the game have going for it? A lot of things, but most importantly—it walks that line of being challenging without being frustrating.
Can you adjust difficulty levels in Ghostrunner 2?
If you go to your settings menu, you won’t find a difficulty settings option, but you will find an option to instantly load checkpoints without even showing a death screen when you get iced. This should probably tell you everything you need to know—there is no way to change the difficulty of Ghostrunner 2.
When you think of the design of the game, it becomes pretty clear why this is the case. Enemies and Jack all die in one hit, so you can’t exactly play around with health bars to add or subtract difficulty. Adjusting AI decision-making and enemy speed/reaction time would also get muddy fast, and most likely you would just end up with a less fun game on lower difficulties, as the speed and timing of Ghostrunner 2 are so important to its design.
Does Ghostrunner 2 get easier later on?
In my experience, each level is easier than the one before it. Of course, what was really happening was that I was improving at the game. Ghostrunner 2 has a unique design that calls for a unique playstyle, so it’s not a game that a lot of players will be bringing previous experience into.
When you’re first learning this new style, you’re probably going to be pretty bad at Ghostrunner 2, and that’s okay. The game is meant to challenge you, and you’re meant to die a lot. As you play and get used to the mechanics, you will begin improving quickly, and the game will start to feel easier and much more satisfying.
In addition to the learning curve making things feel easier as you improve, there is the fact that Upgrade Chips exist, which make Jack faster and more deadly. The hardest parts of the game are the parts where you don’t have any Upgrades yet, and after you get past level one, you’ll be able to start purchasing them.
