Tenchu Stealth Assassins
Developer - Activision
Publisher - Activision
Players - 1
Extras - Memory card, Dual Shock
The bit on the box
"Prowl and strike with lethal precision
as ninja assassins Rikimaru or Ayame in the shadowy world of feudal Japan.
Armed with mystical weapons and sheer cunning, you must shed blood with
discretion and move without detection. For only the unseen survive. Master
dozens of motion-captured ninja moves as you disembowel fearsome samurai,
wild beasts and evil demons. Assassinate incredibly cunning enemies before
they can see you coming and attain victory by being an invisible shadow
warrior. Wield 20 stunning death-dealing devices, including the Crimson
Blade, grappling hooks, caltrops, grenades, poison, and magic spells. Unleash
long-range attacks with a unique 1st-person targeting system. Stalk the
towns, temples, forests, caves and dungeons of 16th century Japan in 10
deadly missions. A user-controllable camera helps you climb trees, wade
through rivers and creep along rooftops to avoid detection."
Graphics
The first thing that struck me about the graphics in Tenchu
was that it has some of the best motion capture animation I have seen in
a game to date. The animation is extremely fluid and smooth, showing the
skills of motion subjects Sho and Kane Kosugi to the fullest, giving an
extremely accurate feeling of doing ninja-type movements during play. The
offset of this is that the graphics themselves have a very limited colour
palette, and the quality of the polygons (and clipping) is about par with
the first Tomb Raider game. Attention to detail on characters and
enemies is more than reasonable, with facial expressions and clothing well
drawn and imprinted nicely onto polygonal figures, and while the graphics
may not be the same high standard of Duke Nukem TTK the frame rate
stays constant throughout (helped by a relatively short horizon, caused
by the fact that all the missions are at night).
Sounds
Though I found the music accompaniment in the game didn't
always suit the ninja feeling of Tenchu, it is definitely the greatest
guitar score I have ever heard in a videogame. More than once I couldn't
help but listen to it briefly in the middle of a mission, and if I was
to present a criticism toward the music is would be because when you pause
the game the music stops! The sound effects are also superbly done, and
in many cases important to knowing how close one of your enemies is (with
the use of footsteps, yawning etc). Assassination sounds are good, with
squirty sounds of blood streaming from wounds and the brief cry of surprise
that enemies give out just before you sever their jugular. Swordplay is
few and far between, but when it happens the weapons cling nicely with
a reverberating effect.
Gameplay
For me (and I'm sure many others around the world) Tenchu
was virtually a dream come true. There has not been a game to this point
that portrayed the acts of a ninja so closely, from sneaking behind opponents
for a quick kill to throwing an assortment of weapons and protective devices
(love those caltrops) to kill and hinder the progress of enemies while
being chased. The player must show patience constantly in order to succeed,
as direct combat must be avoided whenever possible, and the only way to
accomplish this is to hide and observe the patterns of patrolling guards
before dropping in to slit their throats. It can be annoying when you put
in so much effort in a level only to fall into a pit (which causes instant
death), but thankfully these occurrences can only happen in a couple of
the missions, and can be easily avoided as long as you are careful. The
control system is well done, even better than Tomb Raider, and with
a little practice you'll be stabbing backs better than Brutus ever did.
I feel a verdict coming on
If you like ninja movies or ever wished you could be a
ninja for a day, then Tenchu Stealth Assassins is a must have. Even
if you don't have these tendencies you should still have a look at Tenchu
because it is not only well designed and fun to play, but it oozes originality
in bucketloads. This could be referred to as a "Sneak 'em up" as it does
not directly clone any of the current fighters or 3d action adventures
already available, which in some cases is a good thing (Deathtrap Dungeon
or Excalibur anyone?). If the graphics suffered less clipping and the enemy
AI was slightly better (it is good but you can lead guards into water too
easily), and the fact that there are only 10 missions Tenchu could
still have been improved upon, but believe me when I say that this game
is a brilliant title, and comes highly recommended.
Review by D.R.T.Barrett
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