Tenchu: Shadow Assassins Hands-on

Earlier this year, Ubisoft released Tenchu: Shadow Assassins on the Wii, a ninja-filled stealth game developed by the original creators of the franchise. The game once again placed players in the quiet shoes of two ninja: Rikimaru and Ayame, who both serve Lord Gohda by carrying out his less-than-clean work. The entire game is played from a third-person perspective and players move around dark environments, systematically dispatching guards and carrying out Lord Gohda's will. In a few weeks, Ubisoft will be bringing Tenchu: Shadow Assassins to the PSP. As far as I can tell, Shadow Assassins will be a very straight-forward port of the Wii version with no new modes to speak of. PSP owners will simply be taking this stealth experience on the road -- ditching the motion controls along the way.

In Shadow Assassins, you control either Rikimaru or Ayame through a series of story missions that tell of their exploits under Lord Gohda's employment. Besides the story missions -- which can last an hour or more depending on how often you stumble -- players can also undertake short Assignment missions that not only let you practice certain techniques but give you a method for breaking up the pace of the longer levels. Aside from these two modes, there's really nothing else to speak of.

This guy means serious business.

Unlike the Wii version, Shadow Assassins on the PSP is obviously controlled with standard button presses and no motion control. Movement is tank-like, as pressing left or right on the analog nub will rotate your character and pressing forward and backward will move him or her in those directions. According to the default control scheme, you can strafe by holding down the L trigger and moving the analog nub left and right. Or, if you need to get from one place to another quickly, you can hold the L trigger and press up to spring forward in a dash.

The R trigger is assigned to your evasive techniques, called the Hayate, which lets the ninja dart from one hiding spot to another. The X button is used for pressing up against a wall while jumping is mapped to the Circle button. If you find yourself near an enemy, pressing the Square button while still hidden will activate an instant kill -- or Hissatsu -- and silently dispatch your opponent. Finally, holding the Triangle button will illuminate enemies and their lines of sight in bright colors, as well as highlight shadowy areas in which you can hide.

Speaking of these shadowy areas, Shadow Assassins' stealth system is built around pre-set sneak points/routes. If you can hide next to something, an inky mist will hover around it. In order to give yourself more shadows to sneak through, you can use water to put out torches or throw a shuriken at a candle to snuff the light. So while you can technically alter the environment and increase the amount of darkness you can traverse, those points are the only areas you can sneak through (besides hiding in bushes, barrels and ponds). There's no real-time shadow system that gives players the ability to "improvise" their stealthy actions.

Although there are certainly more violent games on the PSP, Tenchu: Shadow Assassins has a fair amount of blood in it and the Hissatsu kills do look pretty cool. Unfortunately, sneaking up behind someone only gives you so many different types of stealth kills. They get repetitive quickly, but luckily you can also perform different stealth kills if you're attacking from within a pond or hanging from the rafters overhead.

There's nothing like a kickass ninja girl.

The first few story missions revolve around navigating the feudal Japanese environments and assassinating the leaders waiting at the end. This process usually entails sliding along walls, rolling from bush to bush, creeping underneath houses and hopping between rafters. As exciting as this gameplay sounds, the actual experience worries me. The ninja control very awkwardly and platforming segments can be extremely troublesome. I can't be sure if this problem will persist throughout the entire game, but the beginning segments were frustrating.

Also frustrating is the fact that getting caught once basically means game over. Your ninja can dodge one attack but the second time you're caught, you have to start from your last checkpoint. Perhaps these frustrations will be alleviated as I learn to roll with the systems that are in place.

I loved the early Tenchu games and I'm interested to see how this one pans out, but I have my reservations -- especially considering the controls which could prove more cumbersome than ninja-like.

source: http://psp.ign.com/articles/962/962154p1.html