Tenchu Z Review

By Dan Whitehead Published 26 June, 2007

Let's do the time warp again.

Version tested: Xbox 360

I crouch atop a moonlit wall, stalking my prey as the crane stalks the koi. Choosing my moment, I drop silently to the ground and begin to creep across open ground. Disaster! A wandering guard sees me, and runs to intercept. I sprint back to the wall, vault onto the top, and prepare for the worst. Several guards are now heading in my direction but...what's this? Upon arriving at the base of the wall, on top of which I am very obviously sitting, they decide to give up the chase, apparently bamboozled by my ability to perch slightly above eye level.

A different place, a different time, but a very similar situation. I am squatting low against the top of a wall, hoping to evade another curious guard. This one is more tenacious. He actually climbs the wall and draws his sword. Standing mere inches away from me, he flaps his arms, turns around on the spot and falls off the wall. Then he forgets that he was pursuing a black-clad assassin and just wanders off. I dutifully follow him and gut him like a rabbit.

Later still. Inside an enemy stronghold, in search of secret plans. I have aroused the attention of a rival master of ninjitsu and, rather than engage in open combat, I retreat into a nearby room in the hope of finding a more stealthy solution to the situation. In the middle of the floor is a trap door. The enemy ninja runs straight towards me, jogs on the spot in front of the gaping hole for a good ten seconds, then falls through it. I continue on my way.

'Tenchu Z' Screenshot 1

Use your hard-earned points to buy hilarious masks. Oh, my aching sides.

Honestly, I've got a notebook full of similar stories from my time spent in next-gen ninja land courtesy of Tenchu Z, and could easily fill the rest of the review with examples of the bone-headed foes I found there. Suffice to say, for a series now on its eighth incarnation, Tenchu is still pretty much the same game that debuted on the original PlayStation: outdated graphics, basic AI, clunky controls and all.

There are some new developments, but they're mostly cosmetic in nature and do little to compensate for the game's fundamental shortcomings. You can now design your own ninja, for example, using a selection of horribly rendered faces and assorted clothing (hint: black is this season's colour) as well as assigning some basic attributes - health, power and agility. Regardless of what you choose, you'll be hard pushed to notice the effects in-game. You can also trade in your points to buy new abilities and moves, though these are so complicated to execute - and so utterly unnecessary for most of the game - that, again, you can safely ignore this feature without it impacting your gameplay one jot.

Online play returns, and Tenchu followers will still enjoy the prospect of creeping around together. For those who aren't married to the brand (and, really, if you're still devoted to a series this stylistically retarded after ten years you're no longer a fan - you're an apologist) the sparse nature of the Live play will fail to impress. It's nothing more than the most simplistic co-op mode possible, allowing you to replay levels with up to four players but with no added objectives or incentives. Even though it's supposedly co-operative you're still competing for the most kills, yet the deathmatch mode from the last Xbox version has, unbelievably, been removed. Offering less gameplay than was available on older hardware, this lazy attempt at multiplayer is deserving of only the faintest praise.

'Tenchu Z' Screenshot 2

It’s OK. In a few seconds, this man will turn around and stare pointlessly in the opposite direction so you can kill him.

Meanwhile, the laughably titled "Ninja Village" game hub is simply a tiny location where you can buy and equip items and abilities, or select your next mission. It's a menu screen, basically, but dressed up as a RPG style hub, where even just starting a new mission (handed to you by Rikimaru, the grey-haired hero of Tenchus past) is a long-winded affair.

Are you ready to accept a mission? Yes.

Are ready to go on a mission? Well, yes.

Select your mission. Alright then.

Do you accept this mission? For the love of Mifune, YES. I just selected it.

Do you want to depart now? OH PLEASE JUST LET ME START THE SODDING MISSION.

Seriously, that's the process you have to go through before each mission - confirming that, yes, you really would like to start the level a staggering five times before it finally lets you begin. Then you've just got the scrolling text introduction, a ponderous loading time and a short cut-scene to get through. And here's the kicker - fail a mission, and you're dumped back at the Ninja Village. Not only do you have to go through that whole process again (which takes a good two minutes, even when you skip the intro and cut-scene) but you also have to reequip whatever items you'd selected to take with you.

Once you're in the game, it's like 1998 all over again. The graphics wouldn't trouble the PS2, filled as they are with jagged polygons, flat textures and weird glitches. Walk up a sloped roof and marvel at how your feet and legs vanish into the tiles. Run up some stairs and gasp at the way your feet don't even seem to touch the floor. Walk over a table or similar low obstacle, and boggle at how you suddenly flicker and appear on top of it. Shadows are cast through solid objects. Sprays of blood are made up of jagged black and red lines. After such displays of visual prehistory it barely comes as a surprise that the same few character and building models recur throughout, and that many of the 50 levels try to pass off repeated maps as new locations.

'Tenchu Z' Screenshot 3

The most powerful move in the ninja arsenal - climbing on top of walls.

Combine this with the absolutely embarrassing enemy AI and you've got a game still fatally tethered to the hardware generation before last. Because of their genetic stupidity, it feels positively cruel to slaughter the blundering automatons stiffly roaming the levels in fixed linear patterns. They're so easy to confuse, often simply by running around a corner or jumping in a bush, that it feels more like you're being asked to invade an old folk's home and murder the addled residents as they wander the halls muttering about the price of eggs.

(Cut to Rockstar head office, where an eager young producer suddenly has a great idea...)

And I haven't even mentioned some of the smaller annoyances I found along the way. Such as the way it's possible to completely ace a level, killing your target without ever being spotted, only to be awarded a low rank because you didn't kill enough mindless minions along the way. Since when did ninjas go out of their way to kill as many people as possible? Or that the loading screens boast such priceless advice as "Use items to deal with difficult situations" or, my personal favourite, "Change clothes for a change of pace". Who knew ninjas enjoy retail therapy almost as much as Colleen and Posh? Or that the end of Mission 17 suddenly throws you into a daylight boss fight which requires you to use all the melee combat skills you've spent the rest of the game dutifully avoiding. Yeah, that's always fun.

'Tenchu Z' Screenshot 4

One of the only cool bits of the game - the ability to kill people through their silly paper doors.

The sad thing is, when you manage to align the clunky pieces in the right way, the game can still be sort of entertaining. There's a thrill to the perfectly executed stealth kill that all the half-assed development decisions can't entirely erase. Yet even in those moments, you're uncomfortably aware that you're not being challenged. Stealth games, perhaps even moreso than first-person shooters, rely on the sensation that you're outwitting dangerous and intelligent foes but here you're left feeling like you're taking advantage of the game's idiotic coding. There's little pleasure, and no honour, in such a victory.

As Tenchu Z is already outclassed in every area by last generation stealth games like Metal Gear Solid 2, it fails almost completely when stacked up against Hitman: Blood Money, Splinter Cell: Double Agent or upcoming treats like Assassin's Creed. There are those die hards who'll still pick it up, and make half-hearted excuses for its shambolic nature, but, come on, it's time to let it go. The time is long overdue for Tenchu to follow Darwin's advice and evolve into something that deserves to survive or just lie down and die like the dinosaur it clearly is.

3 / 10

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Picture of Dan.

About Dan Whitehead

Dan has been writing for Eurogamer since 2006 and specialises in RPGs, shooters and games for children. His bestest game ever is Julian Gollop's Chaos.

Read more articles from Dan by visiting the Dan Whitehead archive page.

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Comments (118) Latest comment 4 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • repairmanjack #1 5 years ago

    FFS

  • kissthestick #2 5 years ago

    the hardcore fanbase will pick this up no matter the score.

  • Der_tolle_Emil #3 5 years ago

    Now I know why I could not get along with the demo. The game is indeed pretty bad.

  • OnlyMe #4 5 years ago

    Worse than Shrek the Third???

  • repairmanjack #5 5 years ago

    I'm not the hardcore fanbase. Haven't enjoyed Tenchu since the first one. Twenty-five hours of this has made me very happy. If you like the first one (I'm guessing the reviewer didn't) you'll like this. That is all.

  • espadachin #6 5 years ago

    christ thats a little harsh, shrek gets a 5 and this gets a 3?

  • IAmBatman #7 5 years ago

    > If you like the first one (I'm guessing the reviewer didn't) you'll like this.

    I liked the first one. 10 years ago. Games have moved on. The demo of this was shocking.

  • Hamflank #8 5 years ago

    'One of the only cool bits of the game - the ability to kill people through their silly paper doors.'

    How can something be 'one of the only'? If it's only, there can't be more of it. Madness.

  • repairmanjack #9 5 years ago

    "The demo of this was shocking."

    And year old code. I hated the demo, but I'd already ordered the game from play-asia. I really like it.

  • souljacker2000 #10 5 years ago

    I loved the first one.. played the demo of this n it was worse than having to endure a bb eviction, forced upon u
    die Tenchu Z die

  • afghan_jones #11 5 years ago

    What a shame. Should have been so good.

  • TripSkyway #12 5 years ago

    I liked the first Tenchu and enjoyed this.

  • Big-Swiss #13 5 years ago

    PS3 Version?

  • kangarootoo #14 5 years ago

    I played the demo, for about 2 mins.

    I really can't understand how such fundamentally bad mechanics can make it into a game when so many other examples exist out there of how things should be done.

    I'm not trying to be negative about this just for spite. I am genuinely but continually disappointed by the Tenchu series. The first one was easily one of my all time favourite PS1 games. But the series has just got worse and worse since then. Certainly it has stood still compared to the other stealth games around, but I swear I have repeatedly found myself looking at Tenchu games over the years and thinking "You have changed this, AND ITS FAR WORSE. Does no-one involved know how to do their job? Do any of you actually play other games AT ALL?".

    I don't normally bag on devs, as I know how tough it can be, but Tenchu just makes a vein twitch in my neck. Somehow the child in me is shouting "Just stop it. You are spoiling it for everyone else." I really do wonder how the franchise still manages to get investment these days.

  • RexRunti #15 5 years ago

    Arghh why do I still want this game? The demo was borked every review has been somewhere between pretty crap and very crap and you no longer automatically ace a mission if your not spotted. Yet I still want it. I feel like one of those women who's husbands continuly cheat on them, hit them and don't let them out of the house but stay with them anyway.

    Thank god for The Darkness and Overlord coming out the same day.

  • absolutezero #16 5 years ago

    Im piss fed-up of this being compared to the PS2 titles. It makes me think that those that make the comparison have never played a previous Tenchu.

    The controls have completely changed, you can do a hell of alot more than you used to be able to do. The levels are larger more detailed and good enough to sit on the 360 just fine. Not every developer has the cash to pump into projects like these you know, games cost millions to produce. So what would you rather have 1 Gears of War every 6 months or a multitude of less polished niche games that are just as fun, if a bit archaic?

    The animation has been greatly improved, this time it actualy feels as if your a ninja and not just some old man stuttering about. Each level has multiple ways of going about everything, take Mission 4 I think, I passed that without being seen by anyone and stealth killing no one. Its like Crackdown, its going to be shit if you have no imagination and if you go in expecting it to be shit.

    About the A.I., where was the bitching about A.I. in Dead Rising? In Lost Planet? Crackdown (again). So what if the blundering idiots forget about you after 5 minutes, it would ruin the game if they chased you over the entire level.

    Then theres the nice addition of the RPG-lite style customization options. and the online. and the co-op.

    This is'nt old Tenchu, it is'nt startlingly new in structure but why is that automatically bad?

  • BillyBrush #17 5 years ago

    Well it's better than wrath of heavan which got an 8 here...

    in fact it actually plays better than any of the pervious tenchu's...and has 4 player co op over live

    maybe i just have odd tastes but i found Flatout to be a big ass pile of shit (check the trade in bins - they will be heaving in a week!), and this rather good (and the euro version has been tarted up - not sure how)...3/10 is just making a point...audio better than most games...visuals - not as shabby as you say (it does dusty samurai villages pretty well)...and it does actually play better than any previous tenchu game...(multi kills and jumping from a roof straight to kill works better)

    Gamebrink review here - totally contradictory to this one but different opinions and all that

    [link url=http://www.gamebrink.com/xbox-360/1818-Tenchu_S enran-reviews.html
    ]http://ww w.gamebrink.com/xbox-360/1818-T...[/link]

    All in all overly harsh methinks...esp when bolting a shitload of physics into a shoddy stuntman/starsky and hutch style racer can get you an 8 (if you're a UK dev of course)

    Different strokes for different folks....this is not a full on shoddy game like Hour of Victory playing in the banner opposite - it's actually an improved version of a game some people hate, but others rather like..






  • Brodie #18 5 years ago

    I love it - got it a few weeks back and it's been my most played 360 game since then. Forza has hardly had a look in, neither has Guitar Hero 2, both of which I got around the same time.

    Totally agree with repairmanjack's comments.

    The demo did suck it's true, but I found the game proper to be a fine return to form for the series. Sure it's not got next-gen graphics or AI, but it's still great fun. And that's enough for me :D

  • Donny #19 5 years ago

    LOL

  • Penguinzoot #20 5 years ago

    Oh dear. As bad as that, eh?

  • absolutezero #21 5 years ago

    Re-reading the review it seems I was correct with my comment about going in with the intention of disliking the game.

    Take the comment on the screen-shot with the masked ninjas, just like in Dead Rising you wear the mask all through the cut-scenes and in obviously in gameplay. However, in Dead Rising that was hilarious right? Not in Tenchu though, don't be fucking stupid.

  • Darren #22 5 years ago

    The Japanese Tenchu Z demo I played months ago was absolutely dreadful so it's no surprise that the game itself only got 3/10. If anything, I'd say that was generous...

  • Feet #23 5 years ago

    Bad AI is bad AI. Doesn't matter whether you like the series or not. I trust that it deserves 3.

  • Garibaldi #24 5 years ago

    "Re-reading the review it seems I was correct with my comment about going in with the intention of disliking the game.

    Take the comment on the screen-shot with the masked ninjas, just like in Dead Rising you wear the mask all through the cut-scenes and in obviously in gameplay. However, in Dead Rising that was hilarious right? Not in Tenchu though, don't be fucking stupid."

    I think you're grasping at straws here to prove the reviewer had an agenda and Tenchu Z isn't just a very poor game, since when is comparing a stealth ninja game to a comedy zombie slaughter game applicable?

  • kangarootoo #25 5 years ago

    @absolutezero

    This may compare favourably with some of the other Tenchu games gone past (perhaps it is just a cloudy memory and rose tinted specs), but does it genuinely compare favourably with the other stealth games out there?

    I played the demo, I genuinely found the controls to be bloody awful. Its that simple. If I recall correctly I couldn't even strafe properly. Are you telling me a "real ninja" can't walk sideways if he/she needs to?

    "Its like Crackdown, its going to be shit if you have no imagination and if you go in expecting it to be shit."

    This is sooooo far from being like Crackdown in so many ways. And since when were we allowed to demand a "good imagination" of a player in order to provide a decent playing experience? The player pays the money, its OUR job to entertain THEM.

    If you enjoyed this, thats great. I can't say you are wrong. I can only communicate my own experience.

    I personally got bored, then annoyed, then switched off. There is nothing wrong with my imagination, nor my hand eye co-ordination. I simply think there are much better games out there for the same money. Perhaps co-op play saves the day? I very much hope so.

  • kangarootoo #26 5 years ago

    @absolutezero

    "Re-reading the review it seems I was correct with my comment about going in with the intention of disliking the game. "

    I don't think it so much a case of the reviewer setting out to dis the title. More a case of when you are playing a game and the experience sucks, you tend to be a little harsh in your overall analysis.

    In other words, the little things that wouldn't otherwise bother you become big pains in the ass when they occur one after another.

    The standard phrase would be "the straw that broke the camel's back", but in game design circles they are known as "frequent dissatisfiers". Each in isolation is no big deal, but in combination they multiply in effect.
    Edited by 1 at 26/06/07 @ 13:23

  • Rirekon #27 5 years ago

    Demo was awful, really felt like a poor Splinter-Cell knock-off (even though this series came first)

  • Azazel #28 5 years ago

    Tried demo. Was crap. Back to Forza.

  • Totoriko #29 5 years ago

    Bring back The Last Ninja

  • glaeken #30 5 years ago

    Do they hand out leaflets with the Eurogamer URL on it at day care centers?

  • RexRunti #31 5 years ago

    People need to remember that the full game isn't indentical to the demo. The demo was quite clearly broken as you couldn't even use the rope or hug walls (or invert the sodding y axis). Not saying this game is good, in fact most reviews seem to point to the contary, just don't judge a game buy it's demo any more than you would a book by it's cover.

  • Azazel #32 5 years ago

    They print it at the bottom of polystyrene kebab cartons.

  • DanWhitehead #33 5 years ago

    Quite simply, for a next-gen stealth game to have AI this shockingly poor is more than enough to knock the score down to below five. It's simply not "stealth" if you can outwit every enemy in the game by running around the nearest corner. The game fails at its primary goal.

    All the other annoyances - the glitchy graphics, the clumsy menu system, the repetition - conspire to knock it down to three. It's demonstrably below average. It's really that simple. That it can be favourably compared to the original Tenchu - a game I really enjoyed, nine years ago - says it all. Put this up against its current competitors and it's absolutely embarassing. No agenda required. It's an incredibly slipshod piece of franchise-milking.

    And, for the record, I didn't find the masks "hilarious" in Dead Rising either.

  • Azazel #34 5 years ago

    I find it perfectly reasonable to judge a game by its demo. That's what it's there for, and I don't have unlimited supplies of cash.

  • spookyzombie #35 5 years ago

    It's Tenchu and regardless of the score, diehards will buy it. I certainly will be buying it on Friday. I love the style of Tenchu titles, from the music to the way you can approach missions differently each time. There's also nothing else like this for the 360, so it'll be good to have a title like this in my collection.

    I also hear that it'll be £34.99 RRP - so that's even better.

  • RexRunti #36 5 years ago

    Don't get me wrong I think a demo helps in deciding whether or not you should buy the game in the first place (likewise your not going to buy a book if it doesn't seem that interesting from reading the back cover). But decidng that game is shit or excellent from a year old demo alone is quite frankly niave at best. Leave it to the people who have played the full version, like reviewers (who incidently seem to hate it).

  • absolutezero #37 5 years ago

    The comparison was in the fact that wearing a mask during cut-scenes and in play was thought of as clever and funny, as soon as Tenchu does something along the same lines its now lame and un-funny.

    Kanga :

    Read the rest of the comments from people that actually own the game, they nearly all say the demo was pish. Thats because it is and you really should'nt base your entire opinion of the game on it.

    and yes as someone that owns all the previous Tenchu titles and Shinobido I can admit when they are poor (Fatal Shadows). This is'nt a bad Tenchu title and yes they added in alot of stuff and corrected others, the camera is actually workable now.

    Plus I never actually thought up that point about Crackdown its used alot in its defence when people claim its dull and boring. Its only dull and boring because you can't think of things to do in the World.

    In comparison to other Stealth games its going to come of worse, why? Mainly because there are'nt any other ninja stealth titles, the rest are hi-tech infiltration style titles with lots of gadgets and radar. Even then take the 360 version of Splinter Cell Double Agent, the A.I. threw regular fits all the way through that game, seeing you through walls, turning randomly for no reason. Whats worse is you were'nt even offered the chance to escape, its be seen - back to the start.

    I don't really know where im going with this but basically I think the games been given the short end of the straw for no real reason. Most of the faults mentioned are present in other well thought of titles and then they were'nt used as a scape-goat.

    Also the comments section of EG is never the best place to have a half decent discussions about games and reviews. Especially not with people piling in with "A 3 must be pish lol durr hurr"
    Edited by 1 at 26/06/07 @ 13:49

  • kangarootoo #38 5 years ago

    @absolutezero

    Ooooh, now that is interesting.

    Now you have mentioned Shinobido I am getting severe case of the "I definitely DID play T:Z, but am I perhaps remembering Shinobido instead, which I have also played".

    Now I think on it, I can't remember which is which in great detail. I genuinely remember not really enjoying either, but I can't seperate one gripe from another, which puts me on shaky ground somewhat

    Oops, sorry about that :)

    Edit: I take point about not basing my entire opinion on the demo in any event. My bad on that one. I admit my thought process was carrying the baggage of years of disappointing Tenchu games.
    Edited by 1 at 26/06/07 @ 13:41

  • MrBiggles #39 5 years ago

    Who cares about this shit, give me Ninja Gaiden 2.

  • asphaltcowboy #40 5 years ago

    "Combine this with the absolutely embarrassing enemy AI and you've got a game still fatally tethered to the hardware generation before last. Because of their genetic stupidity, it feels positively cruel to slaughter the blundering automatons stiffly roaming the levels in fixed linear patterns. They're so easy to confuse, often simply by running around a corner or jumping in a bush, that it feels more like you're being asked to invade an old folk's home and murder the addled residents as they wander the halls muttering about the price of eggs.

    (Cut to Rockstar head office, where an eager young producer suddenly has a great idea...)

    And I haven't even mentioned some of the smaller annoyances I found along the way. Such as the way it's possible to completely ace a level, killing your target without ever being spotted, only to be awarded a low rank because you didn't kill enough mindless minions along the way. Since when did ninjas go out of their way to kill as many people as possible? Or that the loading screens boast such priceless advice as "Use items to deal with difficult situations" or, my personal favourite, "Change clothes for a change of pace". Who knew ninjas enjoy retail therapy almost as much as Colleen and Posh? Or that the end of Mission 17 suddenly throws you into a daylight boss fight which requires you to use all the melee combat skills you've spent the rest of the game dutifully avoiding. Yeah, that's always fun."

    That entire section of review is absolutely hilarious! Good work!

    My brother (who is not a big gamer) is a big Tenchu fan, I'm just this minute attempting to contact him in every single way I can think of to make sure he does not buy this game.

  • decibel #41 5 years ago

    This isn't even made by the original Tenchu team, so fans can chill out and stop being so protective.

    Where's Shinobido 360? Clearly Shinobido (PS2) is the superior game. Would loved to have seen that in high res.

  • DanWhitehead #42 5 years ago

    The comparison was in the fact that wearing a mask during cut-scenes and in play was thought of as clever and funny, as soon as Tenchu does something along the same lines its now lame and un-funny.

    But as I've never expressed any opinion on the hilarity or otherwise of in-game comedy masks, how does my throwaway comment (in a caption, no less), prove my sinister "agenda"?

  • absolutezero #43 5 years ago

    "But as I've never expressed any opinion on the hilarity or otherwise of in-game comedy masks, how does my throwaway comment (in a caption, no less), prove my sinister "agenda"?"

    frequent dissatisfiers

  • sonsonate #44 5 years ago

    DAMN.....!!


    No change in all these years? Well, I guess I do feel old since I remember buying this game with a friend and going home all excited and thinking that MGS might have a competitor. I was wrong, but it was pretty enjoyable. To hear that it hasn't change for the better is kinda disappointing.


    I really enjoyed the review. Great job. Gotta wonder if the developer even tried to make a game.

  • BadBoyBonner #45 5 years ago

    Got on the boat in the demo by just jumping in the water and swimming along the shore lines to it - which is exactly the type of thing you can not do in a splinter cell game; hell in Splinter cell games they even tell you which walls ya can jump over and which you can't.

    That said, this game plays badly, looks worse and has very little to recommend. The "one year old" demo - looks much like the game to me - and find it hard to believe it was not representative of 85%-90% of the finished product.

    While 10% could make all the difference - it seems not to have done - shame.

    Do not buy this ^ game buy Flat Out 360 - which I bought yesterday and is awesome. Best fun in ages on live last night, even with none of my friends on it, as the servers are full of Brits. As a massive Forza fan, it was like breath of fresh air crashing and laughing instead of crying! lol
    Edited by 2 at 26/06/07 @ 13:58

  • gizmo #46 5 years ago

    In this thread, I smell vested interests..

  • BillyBrush #47 5 years ago

    Put this up against its current competitors and it's absolutely embarassing. No agenda required. It's an incredibly slipshod piece of franchise-milking.


    By it's current compettitors you mean Splinter Cell DA right?...now there's a good example of releasing the worst game in a series (with nice graphics) and getting away with it. Personally i find hunting down Sam Fishaaarrs friends from the bayou quite different to Tenchu which in my opinion is going for a more traditional Japanese feel (y'know Yojimbo, Zaitochi)..

    You can separate games based on tone as well as mechanics you know...i'd say the closest feel to this thematically is maybe Ninja Gaiden, which is obviously quite different but both are about feeling like a badass Ninja...and yknow Tenchu does feeling like a Ninja a little better, weirdly your character does feel like he may have been spleeping rough for the last month...whether that's pure luck or my mind playing tricks...i thought it was pretty good...then there's the music, which isn't too shabby in setting the tone either

    If you played this game like splinter cell then i imagine you would find it utter crap...but it's not about slowly creeping up behind someone...in this game you just need to pounce...hard and fast so to speak (ideal cut and paste for jokesters alert!)...myself i find spotting all the guards from a roof, leaping somewhere near them and being able to charge up and off them even if they turn around quite liberating

    it's decent ideas carried off on a budget...not that different to EDF in some ways...apart from the ideas are indeed nine years old..

    probably no one will say this is their fave game or anything....but for anyone who is a Tench fan it might be worth acknowledging that it is the best Tenchu there has been....giving this a 3 when Wrath scored 8? seems weird...sure there have been a few years in between those but you make something better and inbetween PS2 and 360 it's become one of the most pants games of the year? whilst the splinter cell series has been getting worse (the original is better than DA - fancythat!)

    I do realise most people hated the demo of this so don't buy it on my advice...trust the reviewer i s'pose

  • The-Bodybuilder #48 5 years ago

    This game should be on the wii.


    ;-)

  • brooza #49 5 years ago

    I downloaded the japanese demo, and, not having a clue how do draw my weapon, got into a fight with one of them and managed to avoid being killed by repeatedly running at him

  • urban #50 5 years ago

    good.

  • kangarootoo #51 5 years ago

    good?

  • Entity #52 5 years ago

    My 360 grew a middle finger after I finished playing the demo, now i'm just waiting for the coffin to arrive.
    Must be self-aware or something, last time it did this was after downloading a Namco game off Arcade (Go figure...)

  • darc #53 5 years ago

    LOL I'm convinced that reading cranky reviews of bad games is actually more fun than PLAYING good ones. Always interested to see a 9 or a 10, but a 2 or 3 is guaranteed good reading. :)

    That said, I actually think the screen shots look pretty good - especially considering the thrashing the graphics get in the review.

    One thing's for sure - EU readers get way too worked up over the numbers at the end. (As per the running "better than Halo" joke...) There's only so much you can get across by picking a number from 1 to 10. And different strengths/ weakness affect different consumers differently. Just read the review and take whatever info you can gather from that, and draw your own conclusions.

    Hamflank: "How can something be 'one of the only'? If it's only, there can't be more of it. Madness."

    You're over-thinking this one. The word "only" certainly can and frequently is applied to pluralities.
    Edited by 1 at 26/06/07 @ 16:39

  • Der_tolle_Emil #54 5 years ago

    Wartech and satisfactory dumbness? Wartech is close to a masterpiece of design work. At least there is nothing else of that kind.

    EDF is dumbed down at best. It's simple yet fun. Technu however tries not to be dumb but fails miserably. It's a broken game design compared to EDF's simple but very functional gameplay.

    So, no, nothing utterly bizarre here from where I am standing.

    Of course you are still entitled in enjoying Tenchu, it's just that I find that comparison a bit odd.

  • bit_mite #55 5 years ago

    Monster Madness, Shrek the Third and this all get full reviews, but C&C 3 doesn't?

    /continues to grind axe.

  • smelly #56 5 years ago

    Ive not played tenchu since the original on the ps1.. because it was shite.

    Cant believe it's lasted this long.
    Edited by 1 at 26/06/07 @ 17:14

  • decibel #57 5 years ago

    seamonsterneil: "i find eurogamers scoring utterly bizare... they loved EDF2017 and senko no ronde (both of which i own and love)...yet HATE tenchu which is as rubbishly fun as both of them..."

    err, Tenchu Z's supposed 'rubbish fun' doesn't even come CLOSE to the intense, 'next gen' (sorry) feel of EDF. Please, they dont even deserve to be mentioned in the same sentence together. EDF is miles ahead of Tenchu Z, both in terms of entertainment and scope.

  • BillyBrush #58 5 years ago

    poor old Tench *sniff*

    hard done by....

    Ninjas and Vampries are cool...expect to see a Vampire rain 2 here shortly (it's undoubtedly worse than Tench and people will be able to compare with Splinter cell - however it also is way better than double flippin agent, and features hard as nails vampires...like they is supposed to be)



  • BillyBrush #59 5 years ago

    congrats...

    enjoy playing sweet FA for a few months

  • darc #60 5 years ago

    Did he just say "miles of..." Oh never mind.

    Maybe I do need a next-console after all. ;)

  • Xerx3s #61 5 years ago

    Better than all previous versions combined then.

  • WrongShui #62 5 years ago

    Well if no one else is going to do it.....

    Tenchu ZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.....

    The first two were good, ah well.

  • smelly #63 5 years ago

    >The first two were good, ah well.

    The first 2 were spoiled by a shitty camera.

    Hard to be stealthy when you cant see wtf is going on and the camera is pointing at a tree.

    Subsequently they sucked.

  • Der_tolle_Emil #64 5 years ago

    Ninja Gaiden had a shitty camera too!

    /runs

  • bleeptest #65 5 years ago

    shame after they made such a nice ad to promote it

    [link url=http://www.xbox.com/ en-gb/master
    ]http://www.xbox.com/ en-gb/master
    [/link]

    link is pretty tenuous mind you
    Edited by 2 at 26/06/07 @ 23:19

  • spookyzombie #66 5 years ago

    Quote: Tenchu Z's supposed 'rubbish fun' doesn't even come CLOSE to the intense, 'next gen' (sorry) feel of EDF. Please, they dont even deserve to be mentioned in the same sentence together. EDF is miles ahead of Tenchu Z, both in terms of entertainment and scope. e:

    lol - EDF next gen!

  • Red-Moose #67 5 years ago

    Fuck! 3 is pretty poor!

  • MAX99 #68 5 years ago

    this reviewer needs to spend the rest of his days wiping people's asses because that's the only activity he has the capacity to comment on.

    at least understand the series before attempting a review. tenchu z is a refinement of the original and a highly accomplished one at that. i'm 8 missions in and absolutely loving it.

    even if the reviewer dislikes the core gameplay he could acknowledge some of the obvious positives like the excellent music score. he dosent because hes clearly a biased idiot with an axe to grind.

    eurogamer, get yourself some decent reviewers.

  • JYM60 #69 5 years ago

    Knew this would be shite.

    hehe

  • Steroyd #70 5 years ago

    MAX99 that's the problem it's a refinement of the original.

    Pit it against other Tenchu's and it's probably the best in the series, pit it against other stealth games and it's dire.

    Damn I was going to make a comparison of how people would bitch if a dev made new next gen FPS without a Y-axis like Doom, but Doom got a 9.

  • 3william56 #71 5 years ago

    @MAX - if the best you can say is that it's got good music, then damn, mate, you're stretching.

    @Yellow: Saying nice things about a terrible 360 game doesn't make you balanced, it just makes you a slightly more subtle troll than usual. Admit how good Crackdown or Gears are, and how you'd like to see them on the PS3, and you'll be making progress.

  • DanWhitehead #72 5 years ago

    All the "refinements" in the world don't help when the core gameplay is as broken as this. When you can squat six feet in front of a guard, next to the bleeding corpse of his comrade, without him batting an eyelid then the game doesn't work. When you're actually penalised for being good at evading enemies, rather than killing them, the game doesn't work. When you can complete pretty much every mission by simply running from one end to the other, the game doesn't work.

    Good AI in a stealth game is tough. I don't think any game has got it 100% right. But at least the leaders of the genre - Hitman, Splinter Cell and MGS - get it right most of the time, with the occasional hiccup where an enemy detects you through a brick wall or something similar. But in Tenchu, it's nothing but hiccups. Every single enemy in the game can be killed using the exact same method - run out in front of him, hide, wait for him to wander off his path to find you, wait for him to give up five seconds later, then run up and stab him. It's embarassing. Any reasonably coordinated player could romp through this game, on Hard, without breaking a sweat.

    As an evolution of Tenchu, its advancements are miniscule. As a stealth action title released in 2007, it's way way way below average.

  • Azazel #73 5 years ago

    For people who enjoy stealth: just play the Thief series and get it over with.

  • Der_tolle_Emil #74 5 years ago

    Good AI in a stealth game is tough. I don't think any game has got it 100% right.

    I think that the original Commandos games are pretty good regarding that. Although they are a different kind of genre.

  • kangarootoo #75 5 years ago

    @MAX99

    "even if the reviewer dislikes the core gameplay he could acknowledge some of the obvious positives like the excellent music score. he dosent because hes clearly a biased idiot with an axe to grind."

    Yeah, because if the core gameplay sucks ass and isn't worth the money, gamers are still interested in supporting trivia such as the quality of the soundtrack, right?

    A quality soundtrack (for example) can absolutely heighten the overall experience when coupled with quality core mechanics, but if the core gameplay is bobbins I'm not sure the soundtrack is really relevant anymore is it?

    I agree that someone here has an axe to grind, but I'm not sure it is the reviewer.

  • kangarootoo #76 5 years ago

    @Azazel

    +1

  • MAX99 #77 5 years ago

    strikes me the majority of people commenting here in agreement with this sorry excuse for a review haven't even played the game are are basing their view on the demo. go away and play the full game before spamming this thread

    couple of things...tenchu has always had what i'd describe as forgiving ai. it's a fast paced game and would not flow the same is the ai were as tight as say splinter cell or metal gear. i'm not knocking those other stealth games but pointing out the ai is designed this way to complement the pace of tenchu. tenchu series has always made the player feel empowered and therefore smarter, quicker and stronger than the ai. the point is not to sneak about the whole level ad yawn-ium...rather avoid detection while slaying the enemy guards with ellaborate stealth kills.

    one other point i'd like to address....so what if you can run through the level and complete it in 10 seconds??? that's a retarded criticism and a bit like saying you can set a 10 hour 35 minute lap time in suzuka time trial in forza 2 and don't get penalized for it! so what??? most games can be broken like that if you try. the question is, why would anyone barring a cynical reviewer want to do that and miss the essence of the game?

    in tenchu you're encouraged to set your own goals and go for the ninja 5 rank where you progress through the levels without detection racking up as many stealth kills as possible. forgive me if i find this immensely fun, but i do.

  • kangarootoo #78 5 years ago

    @MAX99

    Good points. I agree on the "run through the level " critisism. People would level a similar critism at the Hitman games by saying you could just gun everyone down instead of being careful. Personally that was never an issue for me, as I chose NOT to gun everyone down, instead working on getting a decent rating.

    Sorry for my previous sarcasm btw, which I now regret as it was a bit childish. Its just the way I'm made :)

  • DanWhitehead #79 5 years ago

    couple of things...tenchu has always had what i'd describe as forgiving ai. it's a fast paced game and would not flow the same is the ai were as tight as say splinter cell or metal gear. i'm not knocking those other stealth games but pointing out the ai is designed this way to complement the pace of tenchu. tenchu series has always made the player feel empowered and therefore smarter, quicker and stronger than the ai. the point is not to sneak about the whole level ad yawn-ium...rather avoid detection while slaying the enemy guards with ellaborate stealth kills.

    The point is to sneak about the whole level. Every bit of advice in the game is about not being seen. Every item is to help you avoid detection. The whole game, the whole point of being a ninja, is that you sneak about. This fast-paced game you're describing is Ninja Gaiden. Tenchu absolutely, categorically, is about not being seen by the guards. And when the guards are short-sighted idiots with zero attention span, that task is rendered so easy as to be pointless. The fact that being able to slice your way through their ranks makes you feel cool isn't a defence of a laughably underdeveloped gameplay mechanic.

    one other point i'd like to address....so what if you can run through the level and complete it in 10 seconds??? that's a retarded criticism and a bit like saying you can set a 10 hour 35 minute lap time in suzuka time trial in forza 2 and don't get penalized for it! so what??? most games can be broken like that if you try. the question is, why would anyone barring a cynical reviewer want to do that and miss the essence of the game?

    Setting a 10 hour lap time wouldn't help you win in Forza though. That you can sprint through a stealth game without worrying whether or not you get spotted suggests that it fails as a stealth game. If a game's core rules can be so completely and easily circumnavigated, it suggests a game that has been sloppily constructed.

    I completed several levels without encountering any guards, and was given a Ninja 2 rank for my trouble. In other words, I was given a low rank for being too good at the game. An equivalent comparison would be winning a race in Forza but being ranked last because you stayed in the lead all the way around and didn't overtake enough cars.

    in tenchu you're encouraged to set your own goals and go for the ninja 5 rank where you progress through the levels without detection racking up as many stealth kills as possible.

    And this task is ridiculously easy.

    forgive me if i find this immensely fun, but i do.

    A review can't - and shouldn't - dictate whether or not you, as an individual, will have fun. People have fun for all kinds of reasons, in all kinds of ways. I already covered this in the review - people who are still fans of Tenchu after nine years of almost no technical or stylistic evolution are obviously predisposed to enjoy this. Reviewing for that audience, and trotting out the old "If you like Tenchu, you'll like this, 7/10" routine is a futile and dishonest exercise. But that doesn't make it a good game for the average consumer, nor does it make it a worthy addition to the modern stealth genre.

  • kangarootoo #80 5 years ago

    "That you can sprint through a stealth game without worrying whether or not you get spotted suggests that it fails as a stealth game."

    Ah, so if you run through the level you don't get penalised for it? That does make it somewhat different to my Hitman comparison (where gunning everyone down did result in a shit rating at the end).

  • RexRunti #81 5 years ago

    With previous Tenchu games I always considered the mission failed unless I got the top "grand master" rating. If you don't care about perfecting your play you'll never get the most out of Tenchu.

    If this really is the best Tenchu to date I'll have to get it as one of those guilty pleasures like Blood Rayne or Urban Chaos.

  • DanWhitehead #82 5 years ago

    Well, the point is that you don't even need to "gun everyone down". Shooting your way through a level of Hitman is still a challenge. It takes skill. In Tenchu you can literally run across the (small) map to the location of the goal/target and not care if you get spotted. By the time the guards have noticed you, you're out of their line of sight and they forget about you. It's not a deliberate and viable alternate approach to fulfilling your objective, it's just a way of exploiting the awful game design to reach the end quicker.

  • RexRunti #83 5 years ago

    That said...

    DanWhitehead+1

    The review should rate it compared with modern stealth games people who like Tenchu will like it whatever even if they have to invent particular play styles to enjoy it.

  • DanWhitehead #84 5 years ago

    If you don't care about perfecting your play you'll never get the most out of Tenchu.

    You don't have to perfect your play though. You can get the Ninja 5 rank even if you raise ten alerts. That's the problem. The sloppy AI makes it insultingly easy to win without ever needing to get better at the game, learn any new combos or use any of the items. Every single enemy can be outsmarted by running around a corner. It's like Schrödinger's cat. If they can't see you, then it's as if you've ceased to exist and they blindly return to their station, completely forgetting they just saw a ninja assassin six feet away, and stepping over the corpses of five other guards as they go. That's just stupid.

  • MAX99 #85 5 years ago

    just to get a few points straight...

    1) if you (for whatever mongish reason) decide to run blindly to the level goal in tenchu z you'll receive a low rank and little cash to buy extra equipment and skills. given allot of the game is built upon upgrading your ninja that's deterrent enough.

    2) the point of tenchu series isnt JUST to avoid detection....it's to unleash beautifully animated SK kills on your enemies while avoiding harm to innocent villagers. the score system at the end of each mission makes this patently clear.

    i think we'll have to leave this dispute down to personal tastes but i just feel a 3/10 score is utterly taking the piss. i encourage people to give the game a spin..i think you'll be pleasently surprised. the full game is allot more fun than the demo indicates or this review indicates.

  • DanWhitehead #86 5 years ago

    1) if you (for whatever mongish reason) decide to run blindly to the level goal in tenchu z you'll receive a low rank and little cash to buy extra equipment and skills. given allot of the game is built upon upgrading your ninja that's deterrent enough.

    I'm not saying that people should run to the end of the level, but the fact that they can illustrates just how poor the game is. Look at GTA. You can go nuts, blow the crap out of everything you see. But doing so makes completing the game harder. The cops get aggressive. They call in SWAT. They call in the Army. Eventually, success is impossible. So while you can play the game the easy way, there are consequences for your actions. The extra abilities and items in Tenchu are worthless. You don't need them. There's no incentive to earn them.

    That you can run through an enemy village, killing with impugnity, often in full view of other people, and yet have everything return to normal within ten seconds is ridiculous. Raising alerts doesn't make your life harder. It just means you have to squat behind a wall for a short time. Then everyone completely forgets that there's a ninja quite clearly running around killing people. Dress it up how you like, that's not a gameplay option, it's a gameplay flaw. A major, game-breaking flaw.

    the point of tenchu series isnt JUST to avoid detection....it's to unleash beautifully animated SK kills on your enemies while avoiding harm to innocent villagers. the score system at the end of each mission makes this patently clear.

    But these stealth kills rely on...stealth. You know, getting close to the target without being seen? The part of the game that is made pathetically simple because your enemies have the memory of a fish and the peripheral vision of a brick.

    Actually "unleashing" the stealth kills just involves pressing the X button. Avoiding harm to innocent villagers is even easier - you don't go near them and you don't press X. Are you really saying that the point of the Tenchu series is to just press X to watch "beautifully animated" kills?

  • MAX99 #87 5 years ago

    reviewer, you keep saying avoiding detection is stupidly easy. i challenge you to play through a level and gain maximum SK kills without getting detected once. yes, a lone guard is easy to thwart (as in most stealth games) but things get interesting when multiple guards sweep one area. that's when the myriad stealth items and decoys come into play.

    watching beautifully animated kills isnt the whole game but a considerable portion of tenchu's atmosphere comes from the visceral nature of the finishing moves. in fact the animation is a huge strong point in tenchu z...your ninja moves with poised grace and the death animations are works of art.

    also, you can't get detected 10 times and still get a ninja 5. maybe 5 times but then you'd need to have racked up loads of SK kills in the process.

  • spookyzombie #88 5 years ago

    At the end of the day DW has a right to score the game however he feels based on his experiences with it. However, if you look on Gamespot and find Tenchu Z you'll see that it gets an average magazine/site score of 6.4 (based on the mean of 16 reviews). This would suggest that DW is in a minority as a reviewer. Maybe he's eaten too many poison rice balls??

  • Der_tolle_Emil #89 5 years ago

    I agree with Dan. A good stealth game gets harder if you think you can run through a level or blast everything down. Look at Splinter Cell. You can shoot down enemies and it will not only give you a bad rating but it actually gets harder. Once you get to the point where one alarm gets raised it's much, much more difficult to complete the level. You can probably run through the first third of the level but it will be so incredibly hard at the end that it's nearly impossible to finish a level.

  • repairmanjack #90 5 years ago

    Dan, did you play 100% finished code for the review? Because no way are the enemies that blind. Forgetful, yes, but not blind. What difficulty did you play on? Because that also makes a difference to their awareness and tenacity.

  • kangarootoo #91 5 years ago

    "It's not a deliberate and viable alternate approach to fulfilling your objective, it's just a way of exploiting the awful game design to reach the end quicker"

    Fair enough.

  • DanWhitehead #92 5 years ago

    I played boxed, finished code on all levels of difficulty and completed several levels with absolutely no detection, killing all the guards. When I'm playing it properly (ie not getting things wrong to test the game's responses) I usually get one or two detections if I'm unlucky. Not that it matters, I've had Ninja 5 ranks with at least eight detections. As long as you have enough stealth kills to counteract the loss of points from the detections, it's simple.

    As for their blind spots, unless you run at a guard head-on, it's incredibly easy to run up from the side - where normal peripheral vision would make you visible - and strike.

    Just this morning, I had the situation I mentioned earlier. I was crouched in the middle of a corridor in the mine level. A guard was stood, facing me, not ten feet away. In between us was the body of another guard. He didn't even react. The game is full of incidents like that - where you can clearly see that you're in someone's line of sight, but they just don't see you.

  • kangarootoo #93 5 years ago

    @spookyzombie

    "This would suggest that DW is in a minority as a reviewer."

    Being in the minority has never been proof that someone is wrong, off the mark or otherwise out of touch. ESPECIALLY on the internet.


    @MAX99

    "in fact the animation is a huge strong point in tenchu z...your ninja moves with poised grace and the death animations are works of art"

    I hear what you are saying, but if the gameplay involved in reaching these animations is flawed, are they sufficient reward to undo the damage already done? I haven't played the full game, as previously mentioned, but I think I can still ask the question.

    Sounds tbh like it is in the same ballpark as the soundtrack you mentioned earlier, where a cosmetic detail is apparently having to make up for poor core mechanics. That in turn makes it feel like we could be hoving toward an acusation of "style over content"?

  • DanWhitehead #94 5 years ago

    The thing with judging a game based on aggregate review scores is that it completely misses the actual words written by the reviewer. Which is obviously great for people who insist on clinging to the notion that a numerical score out of ten places a game in some kind of hierarchy along with every game ever made, from bad to good, but it's a fairly blunt instrument for dissecting whether or not a game actually works.

    If you actually read the majority of Tenchu Z reviews, most of them bring up exactly the same complaints as I did, but then fall back on the old lazy reviewing gambit of saying "But it's sort of fun and if you like this sort of thing then you'll like this sort of thing - 6/10". At the risk of coming over all Stuart Campbell (now there's an image) it's part of the mentality where scores get compressed between 6 and 9 because nobody wants to use the full spread of scoring. Even the highest score on Metacritic says the game is too easy, the AI is weak and the game is limited - but goes on to give it 89 because "it's the best Tenchu yet". Which is lovely for Tenchu fans, who've already made up their minds, but useless for everyone else.

  • spookyzombie #95 5 years ago

    @ Kangarootoo 'Being in the minority has never been proof that someone is wrong'

    I never said he was wrong. I actually said he was entitled to score it based on his experiences.

  • MAX99 #96 5 years ago

    i think allot of reviewers take the classification of tenchu as a "stealth" game too literally, and therefore judge it solely on those parameters.

    in essence it's a sandbox assasination game. you have a map full of grunts and civilians. you have a sword, some items and a rough goal to achive. the game then invites you to toy with the guards and kill them in a variety of satisfying ways.

    to illustrate here's some examples of stuff i did when playing last night:

    1. as i hid in some bushes a guard patrolled back and forth. i waited till he passed, sneaked out and dropped some caltrops. i waited. the guard stepped on the caltrops and as he danced a jig of pain i stabbed him in the chest!

    2. high on a roof i surveyed a narrow road i had to pass through. it was patrolled by a guard in a tight circle and a female villager pottered about underneath me spoiling my chance for an undetected SK kill. i therefore leant over the edge and dropped a paralysis cake in front of the girl. she walked over to it, picked it up and ate it. as he reeled in a choking fit i rolled behing the guard and knifed him in the back.

    3. in the courtyard of a temple i hid underneath the foundations of a small outbuilding. the courtyard was patrolled by about 5 guards, criss crossing each others paths making sneaking or stealth kills impossible without detection. i then pulled out a set of fireworks, set them and rolled into cover. as the guards stood distracted by the launching fireworks i sprinted through the courtyard into safety.

    this is just an example of how the gameplay can unfold in tenchu z. did i need to do any of the above to acomplish my goal? no, but the game tempts you into such actions because the atmosphere is good enough to draw you in and make you want to behave like a ninja. you are effectively setting your own agenda.

    it's a bit like the first tekken for playstation. there was an exploit that allowed you to crouch punch your way through the entire roster of ai fighters and unclock every character. it didnt punish you for such tactics but the point was you felt dirty for playing that way. tenchu is no different.
    Edited by 2 at 27/06/07 @ 13:57

  • repairmanjack #97 5 years ago

    "Just this morning, I had the situation I mentioned earlier."

    It's a 3/10 game. You've finished it and reviewed it. Why are you still playing it?

  • Azazel #98 5 years ago

    in fact the animation is a huge strong point in tenchu z...your ninja moves with poised grace and the death animations are works of art.

    o_0

  • spookyzombie #99 5 years ago

    "Just this morning, I had the situation I mentioned earlier."

    It's a 3/10 game. You've finished it and reviewed it. Why are you still playing it?

    Lol - I was thinking that too. Surely a 3/10 would be bansihed from the 360 after the review is done?

    I'll rephrase that, - surely a poor game such as this would have been banished? (I don't want to get hung up over the scoring system).
    Edited by 1 at 27/06/07 @ 14:37

  • DanWhitehead #100 5 years ago

    Of course, if I hadn't touched it since reviewing it it'd be "You obviously didn't play it enough". Simple answer: I played it again because of this very thread.

  • repairmanjack #101 5 years ago

    I'd put it away, Dan. The review reads like you didn't like it before you took it out of the box.

  • Venatio Verified Expo Community & Gaming Manager, Eurogamer Network #102 5 years ago

    Good review, cheers.

  • darc #103 5 years ago

    Note I haven't played the game (I don't even have a 360, actually) but:

    "scores get compressed between 6 and 9 because nobody wants to use the full spread of scoring."

    THANK YOU for making this point. I'm so tired of reading reviews that detail major problems that I know would prevent me from ever playing more than 30 minutes of a game, then close up with "78% - Good".

  • DanWhitehead #104 5 years ago

    The review reads like you didn't like it before you took it out of the box.

    How so?

  • DanWhitehead #105 5 years ago

    in essence it's a sandbox assasination game. you have a map full of grunts and civilians. you have a sword, some items and a rough goal to achive. the game then invites you to toy with the guards and kill them in a variety of satisfying ways.

    If you were talking about Hitman then you'd be right. That's a game where there multiple ways of meeting your objective and you can find and use different environmental features and items to aid you.

    Tenchu only lets you kill people one way - by stabbing them. The animations may vary slightly, but there's no way this is a sandbox game with "rough goals". There's a specific character you have to kill (or a specific checkpoint you need to reach, or an item to find) and they're always in the same place doing the same thing: walking around in circles.

    The fact that you have to use otherwise unneccesary items to make each kill interesting isn't the hallmark of a good game.

  • decibel #106 5 years ago

    This review seems spot on after what I played of the full thing earlier today.

    The people getting all flustered and calling this 'a work of art' etc. are clearly INSANE.

    Bring on Shinobido (actually made by the original Tenchu people, unlike this) on the 360 please!

  • MAX99 #107 5 years ago

    DanWhitehead said: "Tenchu only lets you kill people one way - by stabbing them."

    lol...dan, i suggest you stop replying to this thread, go away and actually play the game. you clearly haven't as the above statement is totally false.

    for the record here's a list of ways i've already killed/ko'd guards:

    blowguns, mines, grenades, shuriken, exploding rose, comotose shells and longbows....and there's many more to add to that list, items i've yet to unlock like the rifle.

    you can also knock people out with your elbow and by ramming them up against walls.
    Edited by 1 at 27/06/07 @ 16:50

  • afghan_jones #108 5 years ago

    I guess the bottom line is this:

    If you bought it and you are enjoying it, fine, good for you. For the rest of us, the review lets us know that in several areas the game is falling below the standards of what we can expect these days, and to take that into account before purchasing.

    I dont think ragging the reviewer or battering apologists is doing much good.

  • DanWhitehead #109 5 years ago

    lol...dan, i suggest you stop replying to this thread, go away and actually play the game. you clearly haven't as the above statement is totally false.

    Ahem...

    "The fact that you have to use otherwise unneccesary items to make each kill interesting isn't the hallmark of a good game."

    Of course, I also said: "There are those die hards who'll still pick it up, and make half-hearted excuses for its shambolic nature, but, come on, it's time to let it go."

  • spookyzombie #110 5 years ago

    @ DW - presumably nothing changed after another Tenchu session?

  • Steroyd #111 5 years ago

    Bring on Shinobido (actually made by the original Tenchu people, unlike this) on the 360 please!

    I think Sony owns them, i know they at least publish Shinobido.

    Which reminds me i better go and find myself a copy.

  • BillyBrush #112 5 years ago

    Hitman is better than this no doubt...sedativing doghnuts? it doesn't get better..


    But in Splinter cell and Hitman you can't rack up 5 slick kills in about a minute....and that's where this game comes into it's own, leaping on rooves, dropping straight down onto guards, and delivering violent finishing moves...tis enjoyable...simple as..

  • ParanoidZombie #113 5 years ago

    In previous Tenchus, completing the mission without being seen automatically got you the best rating. However, getting spotted once meant you had to stealth-kill at least 11 guys to get the best rating. I can't believe From Software messed with the ranking system, which was the glue that held the franchise together.
    I mean, I would like to like Tenchu Z, but if I can get the best rating even if i've been spotted 8 times (which is a lot by Tenchu's standards), then I don't really see the point.
    Edited by 1 at 29/06/07 @ 11:10

  • Number1Laing #114 5 years ago

    IMO the 3/10 is justified. The game may be good within the strict construction of the Tenchu series, but the Tenchu series has been stuck in neutral since the 2nd game in the series! This series could be so good if the proper work and love was put into it... instead we get this weird time warp thing where every game would be good... on the last generation hardware.

  • spookyzombie #115 5 years ago

    Well in my opinion, he's completely wrong with his score. The fact is that this is the biggest, best looking Tenchu there has been. You can use more items and customise your character (with loads of different combo's), and use your own specialist skills.

    This is a cracking game and recommended to anyone who has enjoyed any of the previous Tenchu titles. 8/10.

  • miiiguel #116 5 years ago

    This review is wrong in many aspects, it clearly shows the reviwer didn't play the game long enough, or he was biased by previous reviews.

    Then there's ppl saying the game pleases just the fans of the series, well..., this was my 1st Tenchu and I had some lovely 60 hours of ludic time. I think if the game wasn't easy I wouldn't have played for so long. As a matter of fact I think it's the opposite, the fans might think this installement is for Tenchu noobs, just like I was.

    Bragging line: did the 1000GS last mornig (yeah long night, too bad I'm on call and some stupid database decided to take a break).

  • BillyBrush #117 4 years ago

    950G's and counting on this..

    i thought i'd come back in and bash the score again due to the fact i've spent over 40hrs playing it now....now i like it more than Hitman as it's much more replayable

    Tho i have still only performed 2 hanging kills....for the hanging and wall kills you need to have the detect orb go yellow so they come to take a peek....with wall kills that's easy but hanging notsomuch

    Have to admit it also was after my 1st playthrough that i noticed you click right stick to peek through a door...and that when holding someone near a wall it's A that pushes them up against it for another beautifully animated finishing move

    - Glad the ninja 5 ranks are fairly simple to get...the reviewer did really miss that this is 50 levels and the acheivements require 50 Ninja 5's x3 if you want them all, thus if a Ninja 5 was as hard to get as Silent assasin in Hitman it'd be a nightmare..

    If you want to play a slow stealth game, hitman blood money is the way to go, tis excellent, however if waiting in a cupboard is not your thing then Tench is easily the best action stealth game..

  • DFawkes #118 4 years ago

    This game is really good. That's my opinion. I hatd the rest of the series, but this is just the best Ninja sim out.