Most gamers who owned the original Xbox had the pleasure of playing Ninja Gaiden, a complex and mature game with some of the most challenging moments in gaming. Its successor Ninja Gaiden II was a great leap forward in combat and presentation, making it a huge success. Unfortunately, the masterful creator behind Ninja Gaiden Tomonobu Itagaki quit Tecmo, which means that the Ninja Gaiden series could be over now. As a fan of the series, I was pretty disappointed with the news, as Ninja Gaiden was a special game.Well, all hope was not lost as a new Xbox 360 exclusive series called Ninja Blade(NB) was shown to gamers a few months back and its high flying action reminded me of the famous Ryu Hayabusa, which is quite a compliment. Ninja Blade looks and feels very similar to Ninja Gaiden, but let me assure you, it is a completely different game. I got some hands-on with NB and though it was a very small preview, it did clear most of my doubts about the gameplay.When I first saw NB, I assumed that this is a highly inspired title with minimum effort put in the gameplay. My apologies to the team behind NB, as the small build that I played, belied most of my assumptions.
NB is less complex, has a different approach towards gameplay and is far more cinematic than I previously presumed. It uses a lot of quick-time events and John Woo-ish presentation to create quiet a cinematic experience, one that I am sure will be further expanded in the full release.
The game starts off with a highly stylized intro and quickly jumps into action where enemy units are readily available for slaughter. The Ninja's attacks and movements are slower but more focused, which keeps the camera steady and very controlled. This is a very important factor in a third person action game, the camera control has to be smooth and hassle-free for the best experience.Our Ninja-hero was well equipped with various swords, a separate one for a each kind of enemy, with an awesome finishing move. One can see inspiration drawn from games like Heavenly Sword in the combat, but with a more focused approach on combos and finishing moves. The brief demo had enough enemies to try out most of the combos, which included a ranged attack. Our Ninja has an ability known as Ninja vision, which basically slows down time and makes combat easier.
Ninja Vision was also useful against a giant-spider/boss, who you encounter at the end of the level. Using Ninja Vision you have to evade his incoming ranged attacks. The boss wasn't really a challenge; all that it needed was a few quick blows and a few quick time events. What really impressed me was one particular level, where you falling off a really tall building, while slaughtering enemies on your way down, something one usually comes across in a cut-scene.I liked Ninja Blade, it did have a few inspired aspects, but then so does Uncharted: Drake's Fortune (which we all know is a brilliant game). I am looking forward to Ninja Blade; it looks nice, plays smooth and offers a really stable camera while in combat. But then again, no assumption till the full game is out.
Source: TechTree