Tenchu: Fatal Shadows

"Rikimaru stole the multiplayer and disappeared, but the game is still great!"

First off: If you are a Tenchu fan then don't listen to all the bad reviews it seems to be getting from websites and some magazines.

When I first bought this game, I was unsure of whether it was money well spent. Many sources had given this game a low score. However, after buying it, I discovered that I had made a wise choice in buying the game.

Gameplay
The controls are identical to Wrath of Heaven, so if you've played that then you can just skip the tutorials and jump right in. The gameplay itself is also very similar, but it has been improved over Wrath of Heaven. There are many more abilities to learn and you can now stealth kill two enemies at once if they are standing next to each other.

The AI for the enemies as also been improved. If you escape their sight, they will still just wait then start their patrol again, but they've smartened up a little. If you are seen, enemies will sometimes shout "Here she is!" and call other enemies to the area, which can suck for you. Also, if you are seen and you jump up on a ledge, you can't just sit and wait for them to let their guard down. They will actually look up at you now instead of just looking at the level they are on.

Scoring is also different. Instead of just being based on stealth kills and number of times spotted, there are other elements such as how much time total you were seen which affect your score. It's much more difficult to get higher rankings, but if you like being challenged (I do), then you won't mind.

Another interesting addition is the enemies ability to stealth kill YOU. Now, the enemy isn't prowling around the rooftops and leaping from the shadows like you are, they are just walking around, which makes it pretty hard to sneak up on people. The player getting stealth killed is extremely rare, and the only time it has happened to me is when I missed an aerial stealth kill and landed right infront of the enemy, pretty much handing them my own head on a silver platter. If this sounds unpleasant to you, then just be careful when jumping onto the enemy and you should be fine.

Graphics
This game looks a bit better than Wrath of Heaven. Not much else to say about that. There are few other nice effects like the characters hair movement looking more realistic.

Sound
The voice acting is just fine and the music is a still generally the same style but sometimes has a bit if a different feel to it. The opening music isn't quite as cool as in Wrath of Heaven, but the rest of the background music is very good. It helps make the levels more interesting in addition to setting the mood and it never gets old or irritating.

Story
The story is very good. It keeps you interested and makes you want to continue playing the game in addition to doing a good job of making you feel the emotions of the characters. One aspect of the story actually reminded me very slightly of Tenchu 2, but apart from that single instance, everything was original or at least felt fresh and new.

Replay Value
On top of all the stages, there are three different difficulties which affect many things including number of enemies, and three different layout which have different enemy placements as well. So there are probably a couple hundred different level variations and two characters. There are also 18 abilities to learn on top of that! Trying to get the highest ranking on all of these is something you can do after you complete all of those. So, if that's not enough replayability for you, then I don't know what will be.

Summary
Tenchu: Fatal Shadows is a great stealth game. It's got good graphics and graphics and great gameplay, story and replay value. The only thing that kept if from a 10 was that the extra was just a boss survival instead of a level editor like in Tenchu 2 or multiplayer in Wrath of Heaven. If you've never played the Tenchu series, you should rent this at least. If you are a big fan of the series, you can just buy the game and you probably won't be disappointed.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 02/19/05