Ghostrunner
Like the human body, Ghostrunner can’t tell the difference between anxiety and excitement. A first-person parkour game, you play as the last in a line of murder cyborgs. Every person in the game’s cyberpunk setting, including you, dies in one hit. Your goal is to figure out how to traverse levels without taking a single hit, using your toolkit—which comprises time-dilation abilities and a kickass sword—to do so. Sure, levels can be frustrating. (Players report death counts in the hundreds or thousands by the time they hit the credits.) But split-second respawns belay any impulse to bang your head against the nearest desk. And the sheer exhilaration you feel upon completing a level is like nothing else in video games.
Rough Average Playtime: 8 hours
