Game Review: Mark of the Ninja Hits the Mark

I do believe I have a love-affair with stealth games. Something that doesn't seem quite like me, given that I spend most of my times in bright, colorful action games racing through waves of dudes or robots in the least subtle ways possible. But there's something intriguingly beautiful about a game you have to slowly pace your way through to find the least circuitous path to your goal without being caught or engaging in fights. So, today, we review a game I meant to get to a LONG time ago, but only just recently picked back up and played.

Mark of the Ninja (available on Steam and XBLA)

What is Mark of the Ninja (MotN) about? You play a ninja who, during an attack on his clan's home, rises to action to fight off the intruders, save his clan and master, and everyone looks to him now as the savior of his clan. He is then given tattoos that imbue him with special powers to help seek revenge on those who attempted to wipe out his clan. The story is rather inconsequential and simple, but it basically evolves into more tattoos being applied, but the tattoos also mess with your head and create illusions of enemies that aren't there. This leads to a rather interesting ending I didn't expect until we actually got to it. I won't spoil, but there is a “moral choice” that needs to be made and its more based on how you feel the game should end.

The selling point of MotN is not the plot, however. It's actually the amazing level of detail put into the mechanics of this game and, in that regard, to the design of the game as well. We've seen stealth-games or games with stealth elements before, but this is the first game in a long time where stealthing through a level is really your only option. You cannot win in straight up fights without a little luck. And the best rewards and points aren't given unless you go through without triggering alarms, and bonus points if you can do so without killing.

The aforementioned mechanics that are hand-in-hand with design include how lighting and sound play into your ability to be stealthy. Any actions you take can make noise as well as things you interact with, which can draw attention. Additionally, its very easy to tell when you are hidden in shadow and when you are not. This allows stealth to be something that works almost perfectly. You know when a sound has alerted a guard and can also tell when a sound MIGHT alert a guard, allowing you to gauge your actions in just the right way.

You are also given an assortment of tools and upgrades to make your infiltrations easier. None of them are all that necessary, and some of which are just useless. But I found loads of fun abusing the smoke bomb and the cardboard box upgrades as they add to your stealth game to bypass enemies that just do not provide a good opening to sneak by. Some of the upgrades are also pretty helpful like being able to stealth kill from vents and in hiding places or to hang dead bodies to scare enemies or hide corpses.

Visually, everything is very crisp and clear. Like I said, design goes hand-in-hand with this and it leads me to conclude that the best stealth game will have the best visual design because you need to make your elements as crisp and clear as possible so players know what their options are for stealth. If you fill a place with dark rooms but they're actually lit and the lighting in the game is just bad, your game will be buggy and broken. If a certain location looks like it could be a hiding place, but it really isn't, there's another issue that your players will have. And this is something that MotN excels in perfectly.

Let's be fair, there are some criticisms and I wouldn't be a critic if I didn't point out the few things that don't sit well.

First, the difficulty curve does spike up a bit at about the halfway point, but kind of plateaus rather than a gradual climb throughout the whole game. This means you'll have a few frustrating encounters in the middle, but they're all still doable. Though it is fun to go back with all of your upgrades to just blow through the level with your mastery of stealth skills and tools. Though I think a sequel would want to correct this skewed difficulty curve just a bit so that players who aren't accustomed to stealth will at least have a chance to see more of the game. But perhaps I'm just underestimating those players.

The hallucination-enemies near the end never really felt like a threat, and, thus, I never fought them. But the game (and it's achievement system) imply that there is a way to fight them. I feel they should have been more front and center if this was to be the case, or at least make one of them more front and center so we see that they can be killed and can figure a way to deal with the new threat.

The options for hiding and stealth do get repetitive after a while, which I suppose isn't terrible, considering the brevity of the game. But that's another complaint is the fact the game is incredibly short. It makes it hard to gauge whether I want more variety and time or if I just want the game to be a little shorter so it doesn't feel as repetitive. I suppose if more variety could be made to make the gameplay more varied, I'd be fine with that. But if not, then, yes, probably cut down a few levels so that running the same tired gimmicks don't get old after a while.

Lastly, the plot could be more engaging. But, as I have already attested to, it isn't the main point of the game. If anything, this feels more like a demonstration of solid stealth-mechanics. And, if taken on just that, I would consider this game an amazing success. It has certainly cemented itself as one of the best games in a dying (or at least comatose) genre of games. If games like this and Dishonored get more attention, that would be pretty damn amazing because more stealth games are a necessity. Hell, more stealth and horror would be great and we're seeing a resurgence of horror games. Let's bring back some quality stealth games!

Would I recommend Mark of the Ninja? If you have patience, enjoy stealth-based gameplay, and aren't looking for a large time commitment, yes, Mark of the Ninja is probably perfect for you. If you want something with a little more meat, Dishonored or the older Thief games will probably be able to give you what you're looking for. See ya next time for more game and movie reviews, discussions, and shenanigans.