Ghostrunner - Project_Hel

My first session with Project_Hel lasted about ninety minutes before I surfaced to check the clock, which is either high praise for the pacing or a quiet indictment of the runtime, depending on your expectations. This is paid DLC, not a sequel, and it behaves exactly like that: concentrated, unapologetic, and built almost entirely for people who already know why Ghostrunner works. The big change is the protagonist swap. You are no longer Jack. You are Hel, the boss you fought partway through the base game, and the shift in movement feel is real from the first arena. Where Jack's dash sends him forward in a straight line, Hel uses an arcing aimed leap that takes a few rooms to rewire your muscle memory around. She jumps higher and farther, which opens up traversal lines the base game's tighter corridors never allowed. The trade-off is that open combat spaces push you into more direct approaches, and the wall-running poetry that made the original campaign sing feels slightly muted here as a result. The one-hit-kill rule stays intact on both sides of every fight - one stray bullet and you restart the checkpoint, same as always. Hel also carries a Rage Meter that charges on kill streaks. Fill it halfway and you get a Deflector Shield that absorbs one hit. Fill it completely and the Surge Technique unlocks, a long-range blade projectile useful for crowds and environmental control panels alike. The upgrade grid returns in its Tetris-block format, letting you shape how rage interacts with movement and combat. It is a streamlined system compared to Jack's broader ability pool, which critics split on: some found it cleaner, others felt Hel was the less complex character to pilot. Both readings are defensible. There is also a Motor Overdrive ability that lets Hel redirect her trajectory mid-air, which sounds subtle but quietly becomes the move you build everything around once it clicks. Project_Hel's five to seven levels (sources vary slightly on count depending on how you classify the boss arenas) lean heavily into combat rooms over the base game's more deliberate platforming gauntlets. That shift tips the pacing away from the ebb-and-flow that made the original's level design memorable. The two boss encounters are the weakest part: critics largely agreed they feel repetitive and slow given how aggressive the synthwave soundtrack is asking you to feel. One optional nonlethal challenge level stands out as a clever design wrinkle that the rest of the DLC could have used more of. Six new tracks from Daniel Deluxe round out the audio, new collectibles give completionists a reason to revisit, and Hel's story fills in background on the Mara and Commander Bakunin dynamic - told over in-mission radio chatter rather than cutscenes, which keeps momentum up even if the writing rarely demands your full attention. For base-game fans this is a straightforward call: the core loop is still satisfying, Hel moves well enough once you adjust, and the combat arenas are consistently challenging in the way Ghostrunner has always been rewarding at its best. For anyone who bounced off the original's trial-and-error rhythm, Project_Hel changes nothing about that contract. It is short, focused, and honest about what it is.

Alex · Scout Team

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