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Hide their bodies when you’re done and you’ll net more. If you knife every fool, you’ll earn some points. While many stealth games claim you can play them how you want (read: lethally or non-lethally), this one actually rewards you with medal-earning XP either way. More seriously laudable is Ninja’s scoring system. Seeing your black-clad hero reach out from underneath the simple disguise, grab a victim, and drag him back under the box while his buddies ignorantly walk by is as sadistically rewarding as it is hilarious. Or the not-so-subtle nod to Metal Gear Solid: the cardboard box. For instance, there’s a taunt that lets you string-up your kills in order to terrorize the other guards, a la Batman. You begin with only these most basic of moves, but as you finish levels and secondary objectives within each mission (such as completing an area without raising an alarm), you’ll earn medals redeemable for new moves that significantly liven up the game and open up your options. You’ll jump and grapple-hook your way around mostly linear levels (though occasional path choices and backtracking occur), clinging to walls and ceilings, hiding in floor grates, and pressing B to duck behind potted plants or in doorways – all in the name of avoiding detection. In a move that’s simultaneously refreshing and familiar, Mark of the Ninja is a 2D stealth adventure that, at first glance, looks a bit Metroidvania-esque.
#MARK OF THE NINJA GAMES SERIES#
You’ll be forgiven if you mistake what you’re watching for an M-rated animated series on Adult Swim.īut gameplay is most important. Anytime you make an undetected kill, the camera zooms in and darkens the background, highlighting you and your victim as you plunge your blade into him and then toss his body aside or through a grate. The look is gorgeous thanks to the same talented artists and animators responsible for developer Klei Entertainment’s other downloadable game series, Shank. Instead, it takes the best ingredients from both new and old examples of the stealth genre and mixes them into a potent knockout brew. Laudably, there isn’t just one trick in Ninja’s bag. And not often enough, it comes in its purest shape, in which you face near-certain death – or at least, extremely long odds – if you’re spotted.
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In other instances, it blends with an action title, like the Sam “Panther” Fisher version of Splinter Cell Conviction.
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Sometimes it slips in under the guise of a role-playing game, such as a no-kill play-through of Deus Ex: Human Revolution. Even more useful, however, is the game's visual design.Stealth, befitting of its very definition, sneaks into our games in many forms. It's a game unafraid to be empowering: hold Ctrl (or the right trigger if you're using a gamepad), and time will stop indefinitely: giving you as much peace and quiet as you need to aim that noisemaking firecracker or plan your next move. You solve them through creative employment of your ninja's bursting utility belt and selection of moves.
#MARK OF THE NINJA GAMES FULL#
Its linear but multi-route levels are really just collections of puzzles – here's the room with two guards standing above the vent you enter from, here's the room full of dogs who sniff you out of your hiding spot. Mark of the Ninja is an intelligent, unpatronising game, built on exploitable systems and consistent rules. Of course, if I was feeling merciful I'd just chuck a smoke bomb at his feet and use the visibility-limiting fumes to sneak by unseen. If I threw one of those on the ground, then threw a dart to smash the lightbulb above it, the guard would come to over to investigate, trigger the mine, and find himself a pair of legs short of a fully-functioning bipedal frame. A more creative approach involves a spike mine – a wicked, bear-trap kind of snare that instantly kills anyone who walks across it.