Mark of the Ninja Review

Posted By Gabriel B. about 8 months, 1 week ago

Mark of the Ninja Review

Mark of the Ninja is the newest release by Klei entertainment, the makers of the Shank series. For this game, Klei brought their distinctive animation style to the stealth genre to tell the story of a nameless, tattooed ninja who must wreak vengeance on the mercenaries who attacked his village. This ninja has a number of skills and tools to accomplish his task, but has to be careful since he is very mortal.

While this may seem fairly typical for a game that has a ninja as its main protagonist, Mark of the Ninja actually goes far above expectations by excelling in its style and gameplay. To start with, the presentation is excellent. The entire game feels like a great animated feature with its excellent soundtrack, which mixes traditional Japanese music with heavy percussion during tense moments, and the use of shadows and multilayered backgrounds really make the game stand out, even compared to Klei’s past efforts. While the cutscenes do sometimes show the budgetary constraints on the title and the animation isn’t as fluid, they are still directed and implemented well enough that this flaw is barely noticeable. The crowning moment comes at the end of the game where there is a beautifully directed in-game cutscene that is poignant and powerful and left me wide-eyed at how wonderful it was.

Don't mind me guard, I'm just hanging out, enjoying the scenery.

What’s really great about the presentation is how it blends with the gameplay. For example, while lines of sight play a big role in the game, sound and even smell can tip off guards. To let you know how loud your sounds and the sounds of other actions are, you see the sound waves from your actions so you know how easy it is for enemies to detect you. You also see ripples from enemies like dogs or cyberized enemies so you can see the range they can detect. While this may seem like it would break the game’s immersion, it both fits within the game’s story (the ninja has extremely heightened senses) and blends well with the art style and smooth animation. The weather also plays a role in the game and two levels have weather effects that can hurt your vision and that of your enemies.

Luckily, your character has a number of special abilities that make the game a blast to play through. For example, youur tattoos give you special skills, like the ability to slow down time and focus so you can deploy special items or hit multiple targets with your bamboo darts (which are harmless but can be used to break lights or cause distractions). The items you have are also varied and can be used in a number of ways. For instance, you have a number of distraction items like alchemical light or smoke bombs which can either distract enemies or even make them vulnerable to attack. You also have attack items like ravenous insects or spike traps that can kill enemies by themselves or weaken stronger enemies so you can give the killing blow. Most of these items can be upgraded and you can also choose different styles for your ninja which will give him special abilities like the ability to regain health by performing stealth kills, but at the cost of another ability, like being able to use items.

You see a guarded facility, I see a canvas to paint my masterpiece on.

The game also offers a number of ways to deal with each level, including not killing any guards at all, though the game does offer an almost unfair advantage to players who want to go on a killing spree, since there is only a reward to your score for doing a pacifist run. For example, you can spend over an hour sneaking around, finding how to deactivate lasers, or you can kill a guard and drag their dead body with you since their ID badges deactivate sensors and lasers.

Additionally, you can try to not kill anything, or you can use some terror tactics, like killing a guard with a spike trap or stringing up a dead body where another guard will see it, which will make enemies lose their composure and start firing at anything, even their allies. However, not being detected at all will net you a large bonus at the end of the level and give you more scrolls, which can also be received by performing special tasks or completing challenge rooms, to buy power-ups with.

Sweet tat, bro.

The game is also a very healthy length. Even if you don’t bother finding all the power-ups and challenges, it will take about eight hours on your initial play-through and there is a New Game+ mode that you can complete afterwards that allows you to keep your upgrades while having more alert enemies and losing the ability to see sound waves. In any case, you’ll definitely get your money’s worth with this game.

In terms of flaws, there aren’t many. While I personally found there to be a unequal distribution of reward between invisible or pacifist run-throughs and violent sessions, many gamers will still find the tense and challenging task of remaining hidden to be quite enjoyable. The game does fail to really incorporate a body hiding mechanic, since you can’t stuff bodies away in anything (the only way to really hide one is to use insects to devour the body) and dead bodies are amazingly useful for getting through the game, so it’s almost worth more to leave them as a trap or even string them up to terrify guards. There are also times where the immersion is lost, especially when you have to go get keys like in any other video game, the worst of which occurs when you have to free someone who is held by an easily slice-able chain. The fact that the ninja won’t use his sword except when he can sneak up on an opponent can also be irritating and make some enemies nearly invincible. Overall though, these flaws barely detract from a great game that has a very satisfying conclusion.

I'm not giving such a good score because I'm afraid of ninjas…more than anyone else.

In the end, Mark of the Ninja is a game you should go download immediately. Its amazing presentation and gameplay easily make up for its few flaws and there is more than enough content and alternate styles of play to keep you entertained for days. I highly recommend this game and look forward to Klei’s next project.

A copy of the game was provided by the publisher for review purposes and was played to completion in around 8 hours. The title is an XBLA exclusive.

Learn more about Mark of the Ninja here.

Mark of the Ninja is AWESOME!

By Fraser

We'll sneak, we'll strike, we'll slit the throats of our enemies. Ninjas are AWESOME!

Mark of the Ninja Review

By Gabriel B.

KIei Entertainment creates another violent masterpiece.