Are you ready for some more cyberpunk? No, not that one, I'm talking about cyberpunk action-parkour game Ghostrunner, which is now getting a sequel.

Publisher 505 Games and lead developer One More Level have announced that Ghostrunner 2 is currently in development, and will release on PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S. As of yet there's no release date for the sequel, so we may be waiting a while to slide around its neon-lit streets.

In the short term there's still plenty to come for the original game, with a launch on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S later this year, and a lot more DLC content. We're currently mid-way through the roadmap for 2021, which has already seen the release of additional game modes like Hardcore and Kill Run, and there further game modes and a mysterious "Ultimate DLC" on the horizon. You can check out the full roadmap over here.

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Ghostrunner is a game about the joy of movement, and I love how it never loses sight of that. You're a cyborg ninja and your weapons are speed and agility; everything you do, and everything the game throws at you, revolves around it. There are many enemies and boss encounters and special abilities, but they all centre on the fundamental idea of momentum.

It's a relief. I worried Ghostrunner would do a Mirror's Edge and get bogged down in combat, but it doesn't. Polish developer One More Level understood why the Ghostrunner demo worked earlier this year, and stuck with it. Do one thing and do it well.

Ghostrunner is a game about acrobatic routines, about devising them and performing them. It's what everything boils down to. You're an incredibly agile character who can wall-run, slide around, swing around, dash around and even slow time. But you're also an incredibly fragile character who will die in one blow from anything. The challenge of Ghostrunner, therefore, is a kind of elegance: not getting hit while simultaneously getting close enough to hit and slice apart others.

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I'm a big fan of Apex Legends-style parkour mechanics - particularly any satisfying sliding - so it's just as well that someone has decided to make a game where slashing and dashing is the main focus. And in a cyberpunk world, too.

As announced in a preorder trailer released this afternoon, Ghostrunner is set to release on 27th October for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC (via GOG, Epic Games Store and Steam). There's already been a demo version for the latter, in fact, and it's due to be given a new update on 29th September. Those taster levels are definitely worth flying through, but be warned - it's not a complete walk in the park.

When Ghostrunner launches in full, it'll set you back £24.99, but if you can't wait until October you can always sign up for the closed beta by submitting an application.

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Ray traced cyberpunk ninjas - four words that sum up Ghostrunner, a new Unreal Engine 4-powered speed running assassination game that melds the kind of 3D traversal we saw in Mirror's Edge with an aesthetic heavily inspired by Blade Runner. It's all night time, glass, metal and rain - the perfect scenario to get the most out of hardware accelerated ray tracing - and the perfect setting to look into the RT features delivered by the Epic middleware. First impressions? It's very promising, but also in its early days, with lots of tuning and optimisation required.

The Ghostrunner demo itself is essentially an extended tutorial that guides you through the play mechanics before settings you loose on some 'content'. You'll learn to run, jump, wall-run, boost and to laser-lasso to grapple points. You'll also learn focus: a Matrix-inspired bullet time mechanic that allows you to dodge incoming fire before unleashing katana justice on anyone who crosses your path. It's fast, it's brutal, it's relentless - and it's fun.

In terms of play, what sets Ghostrunner apart from Mirror's Edge is that the mechanics are set up to incorporate kills into your speed run, as opposed to breaking the flow and slowing you down. It's also a game that encourages experimentation through the use of a rapid restart mechanic. Death is an ever-present companion in Ghostrunner but with one button press you're instantly back in the action with no loading.

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Imagine Mirror's Edge but you're Genji from Overwatch and you're escaping - or perhaps breaking into - a prison in a cyberpunk world, and voila! You've got Ghostrunner.

You run, wall-run, slide, climb, jump, grapple and dash. And when you get to your enemies you slash your sword to chop them in two. But getting to them is hard. They shoot quickly and accurately, and one bullet kills. Therefore, Ghostrunner is a game that's not so much about combat, or about killing people in flashy ways, but about dodging. A game about trial-and-erroring your way through a level until you can string it altogether in one successful go.

And it's all about that dash. The dash both bursts you a short distance forward and slows time while you hold the button down. It's in this way you're able to dodge bullets. How you're able to slow time in mid-air, strafe around an incoming projectile, and close the distance to an enemy so you can slice them in half.

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