You Gotta Love The Stealth Kills
The Bad: Out dated graphics, Completing missions online doesnt count towards achievements, fighting styles between the men and women are the same, pointless addition of a partner, maps repeat themselves, AI is pretty poor (very short attention span and not extra alert after being detected), fighting straight up su.cks
This is my first Tenchu game so i am unable tio compare it to the first games, but this game is about you creating a ninja then taking out missions and gaining abilities and experience, whilst unlocking extra clothing and items.
One of the best things about this game is the customisation, theres a great amount of clothes and accessories to put on your ninja and your able to change almost everything about them except their weight and height. There is a whopping 50 missions in this game, some missions can be over quite quickly and completed in about 5 minutes if you know the map, but the game has a decent length. There is a good mission variety in the game, from assination, crossing checkpoints, stealing blueprints, collecting bombs and tailing suspects, this adds to the gameplay and makes the game alot more fun to play through.
Another cool thing about the game is the online co-op, this is great fun with friends, it can be lame with some people who just go ahead and complete the mission before you can have any fun, but in general, its a great addition to the game, sadly however, you do not get achievements for completing missions online, but you do get them for stealth kills which is cool.
The stealth kills totally rule on this game, nothing feels better than jumping off a roof and driving your sword through a guys spinal chord then watch the blood gush from his neck - awesome, however, there are only a few different types of stealth kills (depending on how your standing and what part of the enemy you are facing so they do start to repeat themselves, but they still cool, even after 1000 stealth kills!
There are a few good ideas for stealth games in this game, the main one is the smelling system, sometimes this is blown out of proportion, for example, you walk through a bush and a guy half way down the street can smell you, but generally this is a cool addition and if better developed could be a great thing.
There is a massive amount of items to use in this game, from hooks to cling to walls and ceilings, to grenades and balls that explode into swarms of bee's, this really adds to the gameplay but sadly it is very rare you need to use the items and its just more fun to stealth kill them.
Sadly the graphics on this game are a letdown, they are better than xbox graphics but dont look next gen which is a shame, but they do the job and theres very few animation glitches.
The addition of a partner is kinda pointless, they only appear in cutscenes and you never play as them, but they play a part in the storyline so their is some use to them.
After a while the maps begin to repeat themselves, however, the objectives are different and/or you approach the map at a different angle which actually does make it feel like a new map, so this isnt a huge disadvantage but it would have been nice to see a couple more maps.
The AI in this game is pretty poor, they are unpredictable (by this i mean you can do something with out being seen one time, then the next they will full on spot and call for back-up), whats a real letdown is that after being detected they go back to normal, they arent more alert and its as if nothing ever happened, which is a shame as it does take away the challenge.
The worst thing about the game is the sword fights, you can buy upgarde special moves where you do a spinning bomb on your enemy but it doesnt kill them and only damages them which takes away the fun, its basically button bashing on the X button, most of the time its more fun just to run away, hide then go for the kill again. The problem is that there are 3 boss fights in the game and these fights are just plain annoying with the fighting system and not fun at all, because of the poor combat this game has lost a point in my opinion.
So in conclusion, it isnt the best stealth game out there, but anyone whose looking for a great ninja game that can be played with friends and has a decent length story mode this is the game for you.