Tenchu Z - Completed

Ben played this and seemed to enjoy it, when I ran out of other things to rent I thought I would give it a go. The premise is fairly simple, you’re a ninja and need to kill people or steal items. Think of a PSX version of assassin creed, which would be a fairly good interpretation of the game. Graphically the game is nothing stellar, and the environments at first are in-depth and intriguing. Then you realize that they reuse the same ones over and over, making the game extremely repetitive.

Not being much for sneaking games I assumed that I would lose interest quickly. Strangely enough I started to enjoy it more and more, not to the point where Ill go play Splinter cell or Metal gear. But for one of the first times in gaming I felt the basis for sneaking around was done very well. This could also have something to do with the environments allowing you to take many different approaches to each situation. If you die you know there is multitude of other possibilities to successfully navigate the level. The other dynamic of sneaking was how to kill. If someone spotted you the battle would ensue mimicking street fighter. But if you were able to sneak on them it would allow a single button kill.

For me the game was 6 out of 10. Though I did enjoy it, the biggest fault was the scoring system. In my opinion if I can make it in and out of the level with the single kill of my target and not alerting anyone. That should be a high level ninja ranking. But its not, you get so many points for kills and how you kill. Being extremely stealthy does not earn you points, but getting spotted detracts points. Not a balanced system in my eyes.