Highlights
- Ghostrunner 2 , a cyberpunk action-platformer, promises to improve on its predecessor in various ways, offering bigger boss fights, more enemy variety, and new skills and abilities.
- However, the release of Ghostrunner 2 in October 2023 may be a major mistake due to heavy competition from other highly-anticipated games like Marvel's Spider-Man 2 and Super Mario Bros. Wonder .
- Ghostrunner 2 is a niche title with challenging mechanics, and the intense competition might put off newcomers. Its originality and quality will need to stand out to attract fans away from other games.
The indie video game market has no shortage of addictive FPS games with a cyberpunk aesthetic, but Ghostrunner is by far one of the best out there. Released back in 2020, Ghostrunner didn't have the best launch on consoles, with countless bugs and performance issues rendering the game nearly unplayable. But after a big patch fixed everything, console players finally got to see what Ghostrunner truly was: an excellent cyberpunk action-platformer with a great sense of style and some compelling arcade-like mechanics. Just two years later, Ghostrunner 2 is getting ready to knock it out of the park once again.
Announced back in May of this year, Ghostrunner 2 looks to improve upon its predecessor's already-excellent framework in just about every way. Bigger and better boss fights, larger arenas, more enemy variety, more complex skills and abilities, new traversal options, and new game modes are all coming in Ghostrunner 2, making it a sequel definitely worth watching. Fans won't be watching for too long, as Ghostrunner 2 is set to launch this October. While this news is exciting for fans, this release date could end up being a major mistake on Ghostrunner 2's part.
Ghostrunner 2 Faces Some Serious Competition This October
2023 has been one of the greatest years in video game history. 2007 is often considered the greatest year for gaming, with titles like Halo 3, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Mass Effect, Portal, and many more all releasing in the same year, but 2023 may have already surpassed it. Hogwarts Legacy, Resident Evil 4, Dead Space, Diablo 4, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, Street Fighter 6, Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, and most recently Baldur's Gate 3 have all already released this year, and the onslaught of excellent titles is far from over.
September 2023 is right around the corner, and it brings with it another monumental month for gaming. Starfield, Mortal Kombat 1, Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty, and Lies of P are all just some of the games releasing next month, and they're just the start of an incredibly busy Fall season. October 2023 is set to be one of the busiest months of the year for the gaming industry, kicking things off with Detective Pikachu Returns, Forza Motorsport, and Assassin's Creed Mirage in the first half of the month.
Then things start to really ramp up. On October 20, 2023, both Marvel's Spider-Man 2 and Super Mario Bros. Wonder are set to release, which are both monumental releases that have a great deal of hype behind them. As if that all wasn't enough already, Alan Wake 2 is set to release on October 27. Ghostrunner 2 has just announced that it's launching on October 26, less than a week after Spider-Man 2 and Super Mario Bros. Wonder, and just a day before Alan Wake 2.
Ghostrunner 2 is an incredibly unique game, offering a hardcore first-person experience that isn't often available in the video game market. But while Ghostrunner 2 has practically no similarities with any of the titles surrounding its release, this extreme level of competition might still spell disaster for the indie game. At the end of the day, even despite the audience built up from the first game, Ghostrunner 2 is still a fairly niche title with some difficult mechanics that already have the potential to put off newcomers. The last thing Ghostrunner 2 needed was heavy competition, and now it's set to go up against juggernauts like Mario and Spider-Man. Hopefully Ghostrunner 2's quality and originality will be enough to pull fans away from other titles when it releases this October.
Ghostrunner 2 releases on October 26, 2023 for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S.
