The Ghostrunner demo is beautiful - and ray tracing adds to the spectacle

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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