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Rating: Crappy At first glance, Tenchu: Stealth Assassins looks like a very unique and entertaining game. Unfortunately, some major problems in the most basic of gameplay mechanics prevent it from being the great game it could have been. The basic concept of the game isn't the most original in the world: You are a ninja. However, unlike most ninja games on the market (including Eidos's plainly-titled Ninja), you have to act like a real ninja in Tenchu. Jumping into the open and facing several enemies head-on will almost always lead to your death. You have to be stealthy, sneaky, and almost cowardly in order to survive. The ideal kill in Tenchu is not killing three enemies out in the open with your sword; it is sneaking up behind an unsuspecting guard and quietly slitting his throat, which results in the spurting of ungodly amounts of blood. If you've got a weak stomach or don't like violence in video games, that probably sounds pretty sick, but for the rest of us, it sounds like good fun, right? If the control, camera, and overall feel of the game weren't so pathetic, maybe it would be good fun, but it's definitely not. The camera angles often make it so that you can't even see what lies ahead of you without exposing yourself to the enemy, so all hope of know where you're going is eliminated if you want to survive for very long. The control is just plain horrible, to the point that I can't even find the words to express just how unresponsive and unintuitive the controls really are. Play the game for yourself and you'll know what I mean. Also, the game was barely translated to the English language. Japanese text abounds in the game, and the very first lines of dialogue telling you that the boss "expect much of you" pretty much sets the tone for the whole game. In addition, the voice acting ranges from terrible to should-be- illegal, and the already-blocky graphics frequently become more blocky by breaking up and forming tons of jagged edges. Tenchu is a great example of a game with a great concept, but poor execution. It could have been fun sneaking around, silently taking out enemies one by one, but instead it is just one giant pain in the butt.
© 2001 ivan@mastergamer.com