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| - Ninja fans have had it good recently. Whether the fix is coming from Sega's high-action and insanely difficult Shinobi or Tecmo's high-action and insanely difficult Ninja Gaiden, there is no shortage of ninja gaming goodness for the discerning gamer. But truth be told, the current crop of ninja is a very specific type of title, one could even say they are high-action, insanely difficult titles. Tenchu has always gone down a different route. While there's certainly some high-action sections and certain sequences are definitely insanely difficult, Tenchu focuses less on chopping up enemies en masse and more on stealth. Of course this won't be a new concept for Tenchu fans as this is the third game in the series and a port of the PlayStation 2 title, Tenchu: Wrath of Heaven. But don't be fooled, despite a change of title, the Xbox version has only a few additions - the most notable being online play, both competitive and co-operative, using the Xbox Live service. This Tenchu, like those that came before it, tells the tale of two ninjas: the male archetype Rikimaru and his stereotypically fast, female counterpart Ayame. Players familiar to the series will also recognize several other familiar faces throughout the course of the twisted, convoluted story, but it's hard to get riled up about cameos when the story has never really been all that important to the series in the first place. Although this title tries to keep things a bit more coherent with well-done cutscenes and stories, the connections between missions are vague and uninteresting. Instead, know this: the bad guys are afoot and need killing. Which is something that has always bothered me about the series - I thought ninjas were bad guys. Instead, Tenchu features the Robin Hoods of the ninja world, only killing pedophiles, evil monks, and twisted automatons (I wish I was joking). Rikimaru and Ayame each have their own campaign (in addition to a third, quasi-secret unlockable campaign), although they differ only minimally: while locations remain the same from character to character, enemy | |||||
placement, mission objectives, and mission order all change. And, in addition to the missions already available in the PS2 version, several new missions have been added to the Xbox version that seamlessly blend right in with the Xbox version's flow. The basis of the gameplay is stealth with an emphasis on one-hit stealth kills. The action takes place from the third person perspective as you work your ninja-of-choice through mazelike levels, dispatching guards as you come across them. The stealth engine is fairly forgiving, as your ninja's line-of-sight is much farther than your enemy's. Furthermore, crouching makes your ninja all but invisible to enemy scouts, giving you the advantage in all sneaking and killing situations. There's a nice handy little stealth indicator that lets gamers know if they've been spotted or not. If spotted, players are unable to perform the one-hit stealth kills and instead have to either run away and hide or duke it out traditional style. To further aid your ninja comes help in the form of items. In addition to genre staples such as shurikens and health potions come more interesting items, like poison rice balls (used to distract enemies) and mind control devices. At the beginning of every level, players can choose to outfit themselves with any combination of these items. While advancing through the levels opens up new items, most items are found on downed enemies and by scavenging around the levels. One item, the grappling hook, is a fixture in your ninja's inventory, and it allows the player full mobility in a level. Going to the roofs is a tried and true strategy for any ninja and it also allows the levels to be much larger and more sprawling. The game definitely requires use of the grappling hook, and many levels have shorter, more direct routes that are accessed via an out-of-the-way rooftop somewhere. The one-hit stealth kills have long been a major point of attraction for the series. Provided your ninja can successfully sneak up on an enemy, they can kill said enemy in an extremely dramatic fashion with only a single press of the X button. Once an enemy has been alerted to your presence, however, a stealth kill is no longer an option without hiding and regaining your stealth status. Different stealth kills are triggered depending on where your ninja is upon initiating the attack. Should your ninja leap down from a rooftop, they will perform a different attack than if they simply snuck up from behind. Finding all the stealth kill animations is definitely addictive and besides, every ninja should have some diversity with their killing. Score enough stealth kills (9) in a mission, and your ninja will gain access to a special ability. Non-stealth combat is handled via the standard canned 3-hit combos we've all come to expect from 3rd person action games. And while the X button handles all attacking duties, B blocks, and the R trigger centers the camera and locks on the closest target. For the most part, combat is never that difficult as enemies telegraph their movies and have very little concept of blocking. The only problems come from being attacked by multiple opponents. Because of the game's awkward camera which tends to hug walls in tight, indoor arenas (unfortunately where most of the combat takes place) it's difficult to ascertain the positions of both enemies. Subsequently, you can expect to take a lot of damage in these multiple enemy situations. As a matter of fact, the camera routinely makes it as hard for the player as possible. It tries to do too much on its own. For example, should a player approach a ledge, the camera automatically adjusts to look down. So should your ninja be perched on a rooftop ready to strike at an unsuspecting guard below, the camera angle is great. Should your ninja be perched on a ledge, attempting to jump to another ledge, the camera angle is a crime against all that is holy. Especially when you realize that several of the levels hinge on jumping puzzles. How many games have we seen featuring a great combat system and fun gameplay, only to be flawed because of terrible platforming elements? Sheesh, figure it out already game industry. On top of all that, the camera acts very unpredictably, letting the player adjust it at some times, while at other times, the camera suddenly becomes stationary. This happens most often when trying to peek around corners. For whatever reason, the camera won't be moveable. Once you move your ninja off the wall and then back on the wall, the camera will become moveable. While this doesn't inhibit gameplay a whole lot, it is most certainly annoying. For a game that focuses on stealth, there aren't really any penalties for being found. Sure an enemy will come attack you, or at least give a half-assed search for you. But all you really need to do is go run and hide; the enemy will soon forget about you and go back to wandering his pre-determined path, waiting for a certain and quiet death. Furthermore, upon discovering you, enemies will often whistle for reinforcements…that never come. Perhaps it's a psychological attack intended to scare you away for fear of 30 armed soldiers bearing down on your location? Whatever the case, Tenchu's guards aren't winning any competency exams in the near future And then there's the multiplayer. As a co-op game, Tenchu excels, even going so far as to add additional co-op only missions and special double-team stealth kills. As a multiplayer deathmatch experience, the game just doesn't deliver. Because the stealth element is removed for online games, combat boils down to who can mash the attack button fastest. The combat system just isn't good enough for this type of game to be entertaining for any amount of time. While the designers should be commended for the inclusion of an all-to-often-excluded co-op mode, the online option feels tacked on. While Tenchu looked
pretty damn good over a year ago on the PS2, it just doesn't hold up on the Xbox.
While it hums along at an impressive framerate and the protagonist models are
extremely well-animated, the real shortcomings are in the game's atmosphere. Textures
are generic, blurry, and downright just "ugh". Buildings tend to look
the same after awhile and with a finite amount of locations across which all three
characters' take place, levels get recycled too much and tends to lend a feeling
of been there, done that. However, once you land your first stealth kill and see
blood flying like it was urine at a water park, you'll forget about the drab textures.
This is also an option to have audio in English or Japanese with accompanying
subtitles. And while enemies tend to spit the same lines out with the redundancy
of a drunken frat boy at a sorority house, the game's soundtrack is in the upper
echelon of gaming music, opting for a blend of traditional Japanese instruments
and electronic gadgetry. Overall:
7.5/10 [ top ] |
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