Ninja Gaiden? … God of War? … Shadow of the Colossus? … NINJA BLADE!
What happens when Ninja Gaiden, God of War, Dark Sector and Shadow of the Colossus find themselves in an over sized action adventure blender on a one way death mincing trip to becoming…something else. Something that has the combined gaming goodness of wholemeal AND tastes like sweet, sweet chocolate. A game that features all the best bits from these games would surely be a good thing yes? Well … kind of, and now, with the possible death of the Ninja Gaiden franchise after the retirement of Tomonobu Itagaki from Tecmo, Ninja fans are craving a new action adventure that quenches their thirst for fast paced, over the top, cinematic action.
There is not much time left until the end of Tokyo. A virus is on the loose and over running the East. This virus happened once before, a new breed of larva codenamed “Alpha Worm” was found under the skin of its victims. This worm would shut down the human anatomy from the inside, yet the worm was not fatal. Many of the victims survived, but also became stronger and faster and eventually turned them into abominable creations. The Government sterilised the site and covered it up as a nuclear test gone wrong, but now the virus is back, again turning the everyday civilians into maggot infested creatures. A team of highly skilled ninja assassins are sent to destroy the viral carriers and prevent Tokyo’s annihilation. Entrusted with the legendary Oni slayer: the Ninja Blade, Tokyo rests on the shoulders of one man. Ken Ogawa.
We have way too many Q.T.E’s here than we need.
Right from the get go, it is clear to see that inspiration has been lent from such games as Ninja Gaiden and God of War as you may have guessed from above. Ninja Blade kicks off with a spectacular Q.T.E (Quick Time Event) to ease you into the action, and gives you a tantalising glimpse into what’s to be expected of the game. After the massively over the top open Q.T.E, things settle down for just long enough for you to realise this has a heavier dose of Ninja Gaiden and God of War in it than first thought. Not at all a bad thing as both of these games are modern day classics and highly respectable in the games industry. It’s not until you are towards the end of the first chapter that you start to realise how repetitive the gameplay is. The Quick Time Events, while trying to keep you in control and entertained, come too often and are too much most of the time. You’ll be fighting through a small action section where you kill enemies on screen, only to be followed by another Q.T.E making things very repetitive, very quickly. You do get the chance to perform some very nice finishing manoeuvres, although this does slow down the pace slightly, but just enough to let you catch a breather before the action kicks off again and you are destroying more abominations. The foundations for Ninja Blade are of a grand scale, while the areas you get to explore are fairly limited and smaller in scale. Elements of Dark Sector can be seen in the form of your ninjutsu and can be upgraded with elements like fire and wind; these elements add very little to the gameplay and can become a hindrance. Given this minor niggle the action never lets up and does provide you with an entertaining, adrenaline filled ride.
Given this scale the visuals are fairly impressive. Character animation is fluid with some nice detailing on costumes and environments, yet everything seems to have a flatness about it. The environments remain repetitive and dull, but given its scale, still manages to remain small in comparison to the bigger picture. Ninja Blade fails to provide a descent atmosphere. Sound effects are good, the general hack and slash effects are all present but that’s about as far as it goes. The camera angles are occasionally sluggish, making it difficult to see the action or enemies in the vicinity.
Enemy A.I is both good and bad, and this could be the decisive moment for Ninja Blade players. The normal sentries will surround you making you back up to avoid being overcome by the creatures. Having said that, this will not happen all of the time and there are times when they will just stand idly in the background for you to get closer to them before they begin their REPETETIVE ATTACK SEQUENCE! And yes, repetitive is the ideal word here, all of the enemies follow a set attack pattern. In fact most of the enemies do. Most other games have at least two types of attack sequence, Ninja Blade does not. Add this to the flat, repetitiveness of everything and you are left with a rather shallow issue. Boss design is highly imaginative and again of a huge scale. However, these boss battles are mostly fought as a Q.T.E, with a small hack and slash section before the big Q.T.E finale. It is safe to say that not much effort has gone into creating these boss battles. Simply find the weak spot and slash away until you are left with a prompted button pressing sequence to defeat said boss, leaving you feeling a little pushed away by the action on screen.
When it comes to additional game modes, Ninja Blade fails to provide anything in the way of multiplayer, making this a strict single player affair. However, given the style of the game I could not imagine what ‘From Software’ could have put in here to support multiplayer. A “Quick Time Event Challenge” where the quickest character to complete a Q.T.E sequence is declared the winner by another Q.T.E perhaps? Err NO is the short answer. We have way too many Q.T.E’s here than we need. When it comes to additional features, Ninja Blade does have an upgrade weapon system that we have seen all before and a rather nice character customisation menu whereby you can essentially create your perfect ninja. While you can’t change his flat dull look, you can make him run around slaughtering enemies in a bright pink heart patterned costume which adds some entertainment to the mix. The whole game will take you around 8-10 hours to complete dependant on your skill level but when all is said and done, you probably won’t want to play through again.
When push comes to shove, Ninja Blade does lend inspiration from such big name videogames as Ninja Gaiden, God of War, and Shadow of the Colossus, and while not managing to be as good as any of these titles, it does manage to throw the best bits into a fairly decent action adventure, full of over the top sequences. The upgradable weapon system won’t win you over, the character customisation system can provide some laughs, the story is not particularly interesting but all that does not seem to matter when you are hurtling towards a skyscraper without a parachute to aid your fall. A pretty good look at the action adventure genre from a different stand point. This one tastes like Marmite. You either love it or hate it.
The Bad: Not Good Enough Visuals, Small in comparison to The Grand Scale, Not Very Atmospheric
Bronze Y Award