Review of Tenchu Z on 360. If I left anything glaringly obvious out, its due to this being my first review, go easy! ^^
Tenchu 2: Birth of the Stealth Assassins was, in my humble opinion :b, the best Tenchu game to date. All games since 2 have been quite the let down when it came to story and how the different characters stories intertwined. With that said though, this isn't much of a problem in Tenchu Z as there is no story worth mentioning. You see Rikimaru for a grand total of a minute or two in cgi cutscenes, Ayame doesn't appear at all and the 'story mode' is under a dozen missions.
So if you only play the Tenchu games for story, skip this one. If you're playing them for the gameplay and stealth kills (naturally!) then this is worthwhile to get to spend some hours on, though I'd suggest buying it from a bargin bin.
There are fifty levels/missions to play through (only ten or so being story 'centric' ones). The biggest gripe I have with the game after lack of story is lack of variety. Fifty missions and only a dozen different maps, some of which are dissapointingly small. If they had included a map editor/creator the game would be much better, as no doubt some die-hard fans would have recreated the entirety of Tenchu 1/2's maps.
Anyhoo. Gameplay as I mentioned is much more fluid and refined than previous games with the exception of using the grappling hook and throwing stars/blowgun/etc, which are still quite shoddy and last-gen. You can pick up and carry dead guards to hide them, or use them to lure enemies closer. You are also once again able to enter and hide under water using a reed to breath, though sadly no underwater swimming this time.
Alot of the old items make a return, smoke bombs, flash bombs, coloured rice, the blowgun, disguises and so on. You will never need to use them though, with the potential exception of a boss fight. Altogether the game is very, very easy to beat. Not only to beat but to master it.
I fondly remember playing Tenchu 2 to death, trying to get a grandmaster ranking on each level (you could only be seen once, if at all, as I recall). It was a fun challenge and let you unlock new items to play around with, items that helped with achieving grandmaster in other levels. Not so in Tenchu Z. The levels are very easy but its the ranking system that is utter rubbish. I recently started playing the game again to get my last achievement (5* all easy missions xS). So while I was relearning the controls I got spotted by enemies four or five times in the level - and still got a ninja five rating (highest rating).
So the difficulty is far too easy and the game doesn't actually change much, if at all, depending on which difficulty you play a given level on. You have easy, medium and hard but if you can ninja 5 a level on easy, you can do so on hard just as easily.
On to a good thing though, custom characters! Some people probably dislike this, wanting to play as Rikimaru or Ayame, but I personally enjoy the character customization (you can make a copy of Riki/Ayame anyway). When you start the game you get to choose male or female to play as and select a face and what your partner will look like (they will always be the gender you aren't, and only appear in cutscenes - so quite useless :b).
As you progress through the game you earn money based on what rating you get at the end of each mission and what difficulty you are playing on. You can unlock different pieces of clothing (top, bottom, gloves/arms, feet, hat) and accessories (things like a raven on your shoulder, a second (cosmetic) sword on your back, eyepatch, etc). Its quite a nice system, though the clothing for the female character is a big letdown I thought - to the point where I play the game as a male character (which I never do, if theres a choice).
Aside from cosmetic options you also have different skills, combos, 'ninja technique's' and stats to play with. Three stats, vitality (health and how many items you can carry), strength (meleé attack power and jump distance) and agility (how fast you run). I for one enjoyed this system but once you get good at the game, you can just max out agility and dash around the level really fast and slaughter all the enemies.
Combos I can't comment much on, as I never get into melee fights aside from when you are forced to for bosses. Skills however are passive abilities. One will make you immune to poison, another will make you much harder to spot, the best (imo) makes your footsteps virtually silent to the point where you can run at full speed behind someone's back and they won't hear you.
The Ninja Technique's are activated abilities, holding a certain button down to cling to ceilings or walls, a zoom fuction for first person view to scout out enemies, show enemy health when engaged in melee and my personal favorite, just because its so cool, is Ear. Hold three buttons down and the character presses his/her ear to the ground, displaying the area map and showing nearby enemies - who are moving - on it. ^^;
No Tenchu review is complete without a mention on the stealth kills of course so in a word; limited. You have the main ones, attacking an enemy from the front/back/sides/above from previous games. You also get two choke-hold (grabbing an enemy with your sword sheathed and pulling him into the shadows, etc), one where you stab him twice while standing and another where you throw him to the ground before breaking his neck. You can also knock the enemy (or civilian) out from the choke hold.
You get a few situational kills aswell, such as killing an enemy from a door, or when pressed up against a wall at the corner, you can pull off a stealth kill on enemies close enough. Theres also a ledge kill where you can sweep archers of towers and such.
So theres a fair number of them - however theres no variety unlike Tenchu 2, where each of the three characters had fully unique kills. In Z you get one set and thats it, regardless of character gender.
All in all I consider the game to be a step up from previous ones as far as customization and basic gameplay go (controls and the like). For graphics, almost non-existent story, variety of maps and objects its very much repetitive and underdeveloped.
Would I recommend it to someone who never played Tenchu games before? Probably not, I'd suggest Assassin's Creed, or the Thief or Splinter Cell games. I'd certainly recommend fans of the old games to buy it second hand/discounted though, if only for nostalgia sake and the improved gameplay. ~N. :)