Hands-onTenchu: Wrath of Heaven

We recently received a new build of Tenchu: Wrath of Heaven, the third game in Activision's Tenchu series, which is nearing the end of its development cycle at K2. Previous builds of Tenchu featured Rikimaru, the ninja from the original Tenchu game, and Ayame, his female ninja counterpart, but the latest build includes the new third playable character, Tesshu Fujioka. Tesshu isn't a ninja in the traditional sense, but rather a doctor who agrees to perform assassinations if he feels as though some form of justice will ultimately be served by taking on such tasks. In addition, with his intimate knowledge of the human body, Tesshu relies mostly on his bare hands to perform stealth kills. He'll reach into unsuspecting enemy bodies with his fingers, ripping their hearts from their chest, snapping individual vertebrae, or breaking multiple limbs and the neck. For added effect, each style of kill is dramatically displayed through a quick X-ray shot of an enemy's skeleton or chest cavity being mangled.

Like Rikimaru and Ayame, Tesshu will have access to secondary items and weapons throughout the game. Before the start of each mission, Tesshu can purchase a variety of items, including a blow gun, smoke bombs (which can temporarily disorient enemies), grenades, and throwing needles, which only Tesshu can use. There are also some supplementary items, such as healing potions and poison antidotes, that can be used when his health reaches dangerously low levels. Secondary weapons can be equipped by defeating bowmen or spearmen, who will drop their weapons after dying, though you'll probably find that these weapons aren't as effective as the characters' default weapons--especially the bow and arrow, which can alert nearby guards when it makes contact.

Tesshu also has a wealth of secondary skills that he can use in combat or while lurking through the shadows. One such skill lets him make an animal call that fools guards into thinking that the sound they heard merely came from a chicken, wolf, or some other creature. He can also temporarily increase his strength and even cling to ceilings to enhance his stealth abilities.

Indeed, stealth is the always the preferred method of attack, but oftentimes, it's not quite as simple as just sneaking up behind an enemy. Enemy placement in Tenchu: Wrath of Heaven has been specifically designed to make you think before jumping down from the rooftops or leaping from behind a wall onto an unsuspecting foe. For example, in the first level, there are a quite a few enemies in higher positions, which enables them to detect you much faster than a guard on the ground, so it's always wiser to sneak past the guards on the lower ground, take out the enemies in the elevated positions, and then take care of any remaining enemies. Of course, this strategy applies mainly to the outdoor environments, where you'll rely heavily on the grappling hook and your character's ability to cling to ledges. In the indoor environments, you'll need to learn how to use the wall walk (where a character presses his or her back up against a wall) in conjunction with the manually operated camera.

Unfortunately, this can be a little tricky in the current build of the game. The camera often jumps into positions that make it difficult to see enemies or get a good view of the immediate area. In addition, during battles, the camera can get a little hectic when your character is running around buildings or other large objects. There's an option to center the camera by pressing R1 on the PlayStation 2 controller, which can be quite helpful at times, but you'll have to work at it to get it just right.

The enemy AI can act strange at times as well. At one point, we saw one guard repeatedly trying to jump on top of a roof, even though the ledge was well out of his reach. But the camera and AI are the only aspects of the game that need a little more work at this point. The graphics look pretty good for a PlayStation 2 game--especially the character models, which are quite detailed and animate well. Most of the areas in the game have a great deal of environmental detail, as well as some nice weather effects such as wind and rain.

Tenchu: Wrath of Heaven is currently scheduled for release in early March.