I spent my entire time with it feeling like I do if I play something with the y-axis not inverted (say what you will inverted is the proper way to play). Quite honestly, the camera is the worst part of the game. Whether this is because of all the reloads you do, or simply because you are pleased your plans panned out, it’s a fantastic feeling.Īs you move about a level, you will need to move the camera along with you, which you can zoom in and out as well as rotate. And regardless of choice, just making it past a few guards always feels like an accomplishment. Do you use the environment to make the deaths look like accidents? Do you kill every soul in your path? Do you become a ghost and manage to not hurt anyone? It’s up to you. Like any strategy game, it’s a puzzle with multiple ways of solving it, as seen with all the badges. Speaking of satisfying, that’s the case with the majority of the game. Luckily, the game offers a shadow mode that lets you set up an action per character, and lets you execute it at the perfect time with the press of the triangle button. You’ll find that certain sections of levels are seemingly impossible without a bit of teamwork that you’d find in the likes of Modern Warfare with your AI sniper taking out the left as you kill the right. These will often factor into the badges for each level, and typically have a trophy attached. The game is also sure to inform you of level specific features, such as riding in a wagon to get past guards or using the environment for kills. The levels are designed to teach you their abilities if you are so inclined, although you don’t have to. When you are first introduced to a character, there are fairly obvious places to use them. These include combat as well as distractions. This is a bit less of an issue if you’re killing everything in your path, but for those that are doing non-lethal playthroughs and only knocking characters out, the guards may come looking for you once they come to, and it doesn’t take them long to do so.Įach of the five characters you gain control of has their own abilities, adding their own flare to each level. Crouched in a hidden spot is ideal, unless you’re keen on dying. As the game is constantly moving regardless of who you are, you need to ensure the characters are in safe spots when left alone. You start off with a ninja, but are soon introduced to a samurai and sniper, all of which you’ll end up controlling. This will save you so much frustration, and keeps the game fresh as you try different tactics in each level, as loading a quick save is near immediate. It keeps your three most recent saves, because we all know that when you save in a game like this, chances are you do so at a terrible time and need to rethink a portion of the game. The game allows for quick saves by pressing the touch pad, which only takes a few seconds. The first level took me about 45 minutes, and that’s not including all the reloading I did because I messed something up. While each one has a badge for completing it within a certain amount of time, (5 minutes, 15 minutes, etc), chances are you’ll be spending a lot more time than that. There’s a lot that goes into the 13 levels you’ll be playing. Luckily, this manages to harness the best from both genres, while also having a great story and plenty of replay value. Likewise, strategy can often be unplayable thanks to the difficulty and/or a lack of actual options. If the mechanics are off just enough, it ruins the entire game. If there’s a genre that is most often either a hit or miss, it’s stealth. Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun is a game that mixes two genres that go hand-in-hand: stealth and strategy. An assassin was waiting for the perfect moment to strike, as the Shogun would surely rule this land. On his way back home for the night, the guard feels the cold steel of a katana cut across his neck, and all so suddenly tastes the copper of his own blood as he slinks to the ground and is dragged into the very bushes he kept walking past unknowingly. The walls are lined with gunmen, firing away at the invading army of the Shogun. A battle has emerged at the front gate, and it is a battle life or death for the guards of the fort. A very astute man patrols the walkway, lined with stone and shrubberies, ensuring his fellow colleagues are safe.

Shadow tactics ps4 review