Within the Hack and Slash genre you generally have two options, either you can Hack, or you can Slash. The choice is you
Game play: I've played Spartan: Total Warrior, Gauntlet Legends, Dynasty Warriors, and a slew of other Hack and Slash Games. They all have extremely repetitive game play, being that the entire point of the game is to kill wave after wave of enemies. If killing as many enemies as you can is not something you would find interesting I have no idea why you would be looking into this genre.
Pros: In N3 you get to cut away at thousands of baddies per level and look exceedingly cool while you're at it. The controls for each character are easy enough to learn, the combos get more elaborate and more powerful as you advance in level, and they are really not hard to pull off at all. If you can't easily pull off more than beginner combos for the entire length of the game, then frankly you are just bad at it. The boss battles are no different from boss battles in other games, you dodge around a while, wait for them to expose themselves, and then mercilessly exploit their weak point.
You also have access to several equipable items and weapons that will aid you in your quest, raising your defensive or offensive power, or just helping you in another way. Think of these as the accessories you would be able to equip on a character in any RPG, because they are exactly the same.
Cons: Ok, I love the game, but the story? Ugh. While the main characters are all quite likeable, at first I was turned off immediately by horrible scripting. It was as if they looked at the finished game, decided it was awesome, and then when they remembered that someone had to write English dialogue they said "To hell with it." and let the Pizza delivery guy write it. Yes, in some places it is frankly that bad. What makes it worse is that the story was original "enough" to be quite good, but it's like the creators didn't care. If you're lucky, you'll be drawn into the story the way I was. If you aren't, well there is still the great action and you can just skip the cut scenes.
Who Cares: About the AI? Really, it's a Hack and Slash, you're supposed to be using your guards as a distraction for bosses and a buffer between yourself and a thousand enemies that want to kill you. As far as the enemies go they aren't the smartest in the genre (probably Spartan TW), but they aren't the dumbest either (Gauntlet Legends hands down). All they really need to do is attack you and not run around in small circles doing nothing. Saving? The levels are really not long or difficult enough to warrant any sort of check point, which would make the game ridiculously easy. I had a hard time using the female lead during a level where I had to fight two bosses and a slew of enemies back to back, but I beat it the third time through with clever use of my accessories and skills. How you attack and what you equip in certain situations is where the actual strategy takes place.
Scoring: 9, because, despite its failings in the story, the game lets you do exactly what you bought it for, kick serious behind.
Graphics:
Pros: The playable characters just speak for themselves, you can see a demo on this sight, and they are gorgeous. On that note, all the characters look very nice, including the enemies. The special attacks are also top notch, you've got great visuals happening every few minutes.
Cons: In the biggest fights, when you have literally hundreds on screen at once, you are almost guaranteed to slow the game down a bit if you use a special move. The slow-down generally lasts between 2 and 5 seconds, but it really doesn't take away from the game.
What do you mean: Attack of the Clones? Have you ever played a Hack and Slash? If you have you will know that there are a handful of enemy types and that everyone in that type is a carbon copy of everyone else. Were some people expecting a thousand variations in each enemy type? Did they buy the game expecting God to descend from the Heavens and say "Wow that game is sweet! I have next"? I don't know what they expected, but I know they wouldn't find it in a H & S.
And the backgrounds? They aren't anything to write home about, Picasso didn't paint any masterpieces in this one, but they're still good. Not fantastic by any stretch, but not bad in any way.
Score: 9, Lag is negligible as it is extremely infrequent, and this game is just so pretty.
Sound:
Pros: The music in N3 plays whenever you fight enemies, adjusting the volume automatically in direct proportion to how much action is going on. The quality of the tracks is entirely based on your opinion. Here you have epic sounding Orchestra pieces, which are think are amazing especially since they match the "feel" of the level extremely well. But if you were expecting, I don't know, intense Rock music instead, you're going to be horribly disappointed. But hey, you do have that custom soundtrack.
Cons: In the really big fights, when your every swing is hitting between 10 and 20 enemies, the impact sounds for some of these enemies will be slightly off, a bit under a second it seems. Now in the heat of battle, I don't personally care if the sound of me killing nameless enemy number 746 is minutely off from what it should be, but it is a flaw and I'm obligated to point it out.
Score: 9, wonderful sound and music, minus one point for a minor flaw.
Value:
Definitely worth the money for any fan of the genre. The game caters exclusively to genre fans though. So if H&S isn't your kind of thing rent this before you buy, so you don't wind up $50 poorer with a game that you hate with the burning fire of a thousand suns.
Plenty of replay value whether you want to relive your favorite levels with your favorite characters, test your skills by shooting for S rankings across the board, or if you just want to show off by attaining all the awards.
As an aside: N3 stole its map directly from Tenchu. The entire way it is set up. They even have a sharp object pointing out your destination (in Tenchu it was a Kunai, in N3 it is a sword). If you look very closely at the N3 map you can see where they crossed out the old names and just wrote new ones.
Score: 10, the game is hours stacked on hours of fun.
Overall Score: 9.5, partly due to a reviewer tilt of 10, since I personally like the game a great deal.