Tenchu Z tries to save a series thats been going down hill for the last 3 games but dosnt quite do enought...
One of the best things in this game is how you move around, not giving you the hassle of terrible camera angles or unresponsive/slow movement, its simple from the beginning thanks to a nice trainning mission, the secret arts you can equip to your character gives you new movements that the older tenchu games were lacking to be that perfect ninja sim but the game play isnt all sugar and spice, it has a darkside... Direct battle is annoying, slow, boring and the controls are just strange (mainly thinking of blocking on the 360's FPS-ready pad) , i have to say that this game has some of the worst sword fighting i have ever seen in a game and its understandable that you'd rather run away intill the weak AI enemies forget about you so you can go back and 1 hit stealth kill them (though its really not necessary, getting Ninja 5 is so easy you'll be amazed), talking of stealth kills; thats what the game is about, "all the tenchu games are" i hear you say but atleast the others had boss fights at the end of each stage, Tenchu Z only has 3 for all 50 odd missions something i found terrible. During these boss fights you will no longer beable to hide forcing you to fight man to man... But like i said; sword fighting is so slow you'll find yourself flooding your foes under a rain of objects... Which brings me to...
Objects in the game are mainly classic stuff you'd have seen in the other Tenchu games, some are fun, some just useless... Well, when i say some... Because the game is so easy objects are simply not needed -why would you want to set a mine for a patrolling samurai alerting every other guard in the area and NOT killing your victim when you can just one push stealth kill him? Because thats what you'll be doing... Ok the game is about sneaking around and killing from behind but why use objects in that case?
Swiftly sneaking along i'd like to talk about the story, now the thing with the story is that there isnt much to say... its odd, Tenchu 1 had nearly no story, it was a botch-job and only really made it big because its game play was so unique. Then Tenchu 2 comes out, keeping the the same game play, but adding more including a stunning, full story with different scenarios with all 3 playable characters. So alot later comes out Tenchu 3 and oh dear, its went back to a mediocre, one scenario story like the 1st Tenchu, though it adds some new features the devs decide to remove some of the stuff that made the 2nd great, from there on the series has rolled down hill straight into a grave, each other game being a nail in the coffin. Tenchu Z just makes it thanks to new features that put abit of life back into the series and a really cool character customization system that puts most MMO's to shame but thats going off topic...
The story is about you, your a new ninja who just starts his career in ninja'ing straight out of the the ninja academy, in this game you dont play as Rikimaru or Ayame like the others but a character you name and make. With your female acolyte you pretty much do Gohda's dirty work in a massive chain of over 50 missions, some part of a main plot that isnt really of much interest and ends when it gets alittle interesting... Now, over 50 missions may sound good, but the game only has round 5 different maps that you revisit over and over again to do the the same objectives, and some missions are actually clones of others... One word: LAME.
One last thing is the online part of the game, in all honesty i have yet to try this because i dont see the point; from what i've gathered its just the campaign with co-op but the game is so damn easy i dont see why i would want to team up others to do them...
In the end Tenchu Z is ok, if your bored, go to a shop and see it for 2nd-hand and you already have everything else get it. If like me your atleast a mild Tenchu fan then you'll need this 1 because its one of the best. I cant say i'm disappointed, as i say the Tenchu series has gone down hill i wasnt expecting this 1 tobe so good considering that compared to other games out there its crappy...