Ghostrunner II sends Jack back into a broken tower and then, for the first time, out through the walls. One More Level built the sequel around that second move. The 2023 release runs on Xbox Series X|S, PC and PlayStation 5, and it keeps the first-person slasher frame that made the original a cult favorite while adding boss fights, motorbike sections and a wider world. The result is a sharper, more varied game that still asks a great deal of your patience.
Trailer, via XBOX.
Dharma Tower After the Architect
The setup picks up after the fall of the Architect. Dharma Tower, the megastructure that held the first game’s whole world, has slid into chaos. Rival factions fight over what little is left. Jack, the cyber-ninja, is mysteriously reactivated and rebuilt by a rebel group called the Climbers. They want him to help forge a new governing order out of the ruins.
That is a more political frame than the original carried. The tower is no longer just a vertical obstacle course. It is a place where power is up for grabs, and the people who rebuilt Jack have an agenda. Ghostrunner II treats that agenda as a real story rather than a thin excuse for combat.
The Asura Cult
The threat arrives as a cult of rogue artificial intelligences calling themselves the Asura. They emerge from somewhere in the tower and threaten to take it apart. Jack is sent to hunt them down. That mission drives the campaign and gives the sequel a clear antagonist where the first game leaned on a single looming figure.
The Asura are the best idea in the story. A cult of rogue artificial intelligences is a natural next step for a cyberpunk setting that already asked what happens when the built world outlives its builders. Ghostrunner II does not waste the premise, though it also does not push it as far as it could.
Beyond the Tower Walls
Jack’s pursuit carries him beyond the tower’s walls into the scorched world outside. That is the sequel’s biggest structural change. The first Ghostrunner was a vertical game, all ascent through one structure. Ghostrunner II opens the map outward and gives you ground to cover.
The outside world also carries the story’s heaviest material. Jack confronts the origins of the Asura there, and he confronts the truth about his own existence. The game ties its external journey to an internal one, which is a harder trick than it sounds. It mostly works.
Boss Fights and Motorbike Levels
The sequel advertises incredible boss fights, thrilling motorbike levels, improved skills and more cyber ninja action. Those are the pillars One More Level built on top of the original’s foundation.
The boss fights are the strongest addition. The first game’s duels were memorable but few. Ghostrunner II treats them as set pieces with their own rhythms, and they break up the steady flow of hallway combat.
The motorbike levels are the riskier bet. They move fast and they demand the same precision the rest of the game does, but they change the terms of engagement. Some players will take to them. Others will find them a detour from what they came for.
Skills, Perspective and Modes
Ghostrunner II is a first-person game. It runs as a single-player experience across platform, strategy, hack and slash, beat ’em up and adventure territory, though the labels undersell how much of it is reflex and routing.
The improved skills matter more than the marketing suggests. A first-person slasher lives or dies on whether its toolkit gives you enough answers to the situations it puts you in. The sequel widens that toolkit, and the wider world outside the tower gives those skills more room to matter.
| Element | Ghostrunner (2021) | Ghostrunner II (2023) |
|---|---|---|
| Setting | Dharma Tower, interior | Dharma Tower and the scorched world outside |
| Antagonist | The Architect | The Asura, a cult of rogue artificial intelligences |
| Jack’s state | Active cyber-ninja | Reactivated and rebuilt by the Climbers |
| Boss fights | Present | Expanded, billed as a headline feature |
| Motorbike levels | Not a feature | Added |
| Skills | Base set | Improved and expanded |
What the Wider World Costs
Opening the map is the right call for a sequel, but it is not a free one. A tower is a clean design problem. Every room has a floor, a ceiling and a direction. The scorched world outside has none of that clarity, and Ghostrunner II has to work harder to keep its routes readable.
The game mostly manages it. When it does not, the fault is usually the camera and the speed rather than the level design. A first-person slasher that moves this fast will always have moments where you die to something you did not see. Ghostrunner II has fewer of those than its reputation suggests, but it has them.
The story carries a similar cost. The Asura are a strong hook and the truth about Jack is a strong payoff, but the middle of the campaign has to hold both. The Climbers and the faction fighting in the tower get less room than they deserve once Jack leaves the walls behind.
Where Ghostrunner II Lands
Ghostrunner II is a sequel that understands what it is. It does not reinvent the first-person slasher. It takes the original’s core, adds the boss fights and motorbike sections it promised, and pushes Jack out into a world that gives the series somewhere to go next.
The combat is the reason to play. It is fast, it is punishing, and it rewards the kind of routing that only comes from repetition. The improved skills give you more ways to solve a room, and the boss fights give you reasons to learn them.
The motorbike levels are the part worth arguing about. They are the sequel’s clearest attempt to be more than a retread, and they are also the part most likely to split the people who loved the first game. That is not a flaw. A sequel that only repeats itself is a worse outcome than one that takes a swing.
The story is the weaker half. Dharma Tower after the Architect is a good premise, and the Asura are a good enemy, but the game spends more energy on Jack’s combat than on the politics of the ruins he is trying to rebuild. The Climbers rebuild him and then fade into the background.
None of that undoes the core. Ghostrunner II is a hardcore first-person slasher in a post-apocalyptic cyberpunk world, and it does that job well. It is not a game for everyone. It is a game for people who want to be pushed, and it pushes.
The published critical score sits at 7.6 out of 10 across five outlets. That feels right. Ghostrunner II is a confident sequel with a clear identity and a few ideas that do not land as hard as the combat does. It improves on the original in the places that matter and stumbles in the places that are hardest to fix.
If you played the first game and wanted more, this delivers more. If you wanted the series to grow into something larger than a tower, Ghostrunner II starts that growth without finishing it. The Asura and the scorched world outside the walls are the threads to watch. The combat is already there.
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