Ninja Gaiden 2 Review

Balla · 05-28-2008, 02:47 AM

Quote:

Ninja Gaiden's guts were never this satisfying, and for those who thrive on such things, I won't deter you from your meal. The deep combat is as rhythmic and precise as ever, and it's visually reinvigorated with fountains of blood and endless amputations. For the rest of us, though, it's never been more evident that Ninja Gaiden is a purebred fighting series, shoehorned awkwardly into an action-adventure presentation. Ninja Gaiden 2 isn't an evolution of the game we've played for four years under various guises -- it's simply a more violent but otherwise predictable sequel.
Team Ninja again chose to focus squarely on the combat, even more so than before. Though a partially regenerating health bar helps keep things slightly less punishing most of the time, it is again necessary to play smart and make the most of the fantastically deep (but essentially) two-button combat. Gaiden's vicious enemies don't stand around waiting for their turn to attack -- they dive right in and overwhelm you whenever they get the chance. The frantic battles indulge a satisfying intimacy, and they often lend more of a feeling of dueling true enemies than simply cutting down mindless swaths of foes. Taken on its own, the combat is again the reason to play -- it isn't better than before, but it's still unmatched in its challenge and speed.

If only any other area of the game received such loving attention. It may be a game about combat, but it has more than its fair share of simple platforming and exploring. Both of those elements are done horribly, as hero Ryu Hayabusa is regularly at odds with his surroundings. It may be more focused structurally, but NG2 is the most linear action game I've played in recent memory. Invisible walls around every area maintain an awkward couple of feet between Ryu and physical interaction with the backgrounds, which -- while generally pretty -- feel artificially desolate until the bad guys appear out of nowhere. Even walking near ledges feels weird, as more invisible barriers hold you back until you jump through them. It's a world of "cans" and "can nots," and the missing gradation between them makes basic navigation feel a bit off.
The awful camera -- one of the worst I've dealt with in a 3D environment -- compounds those problems and unnecessarily complicates the combat. It drags along behind you like a wounded dog and wanders off on its own when you need it most. When fighting multiple enemies that are more than a sword's length away, it's a chore to constantly pull the right trigger (which forces the camera to face the same way as Ryu). When those enemies come armed with unblockable projectiles, it becomes damn annoying. And while you can look around from a first-person perspective, moving the camera in third-person is bizarrely locked into a binary system of viewpoints -- you can angle it up or down, but you can't focus on anything in between.

For every satisfying battle you bloodily emerge from, you'll be walloped across the face with an obtuse design decision elsewhere. NG2 is still a difficult game (even on the lowest setting), but it too often straddles the line between "rewarding challenge" and "annoyance." The unanimously hated Ghost Fish from the last Gaiden are back in action, but they're rarely deadly -- just hellaciously frustrating. To better deal with them and other underwater monsters, you're given a chain gun that can only fire underwater. Using it requires zero skill: Simply point at what you want to kill and tap the B button until the enemies stop respawning. The puzzles occupy a similar corner of time-wasting, with minimal (but still unnecessary) backtracking to, say, open a door you couldn't open 30 seconds ago. Bosses are horribly inconsistent in their difficulty -- some go down with a minute of near button-mashing slashes or two shots from the right type of Ninpo magic (on the starting difficulty level, at least) while others require stupidly specific timing and full cooperation from the belligerent camera. One in particular -- a giant armadillo made of lava, let's say -- surprises you by exploding seconds after death. If you don't know it's coming (and how would you on the first time through?), you'll most likely be starting the fight all over again.
And again, mind you, the narrative finds a convenient way to make you refight all of the bosses late in the adventure. Not that you're led to expect anything else from the story, which -- while enjoyably ridiculous at times -- is mostly just ridiculous. It's fun to pretend that NG2 doesn't take itself seriously when werewolves start throwing the torsos of other slain werewolves at you, but most of the time, it's just embarrassing to watch the parade of laughably lame fiends tear down any pretense of badassery. Once you've seen the Matrix Reloaded-style underground scene of monsters cheering and beating on drums, the unintentional hilarity comes full circle.

But chances are, you're not playing it for the story. Or the platforming. Or any of that other jazz. It's just dismaying that these elements are simply brushed aside under the assumption that the combat can support the weight of the entire experience. When things click, it most certainly does: The Airship stage is easily the best slice of the entire game -- a perfectly paced, adrenaline-packed adventure through an environment that simply works (even the camera behaves). But NG2's an otherwise inconsistent package with almost as many frustrations as satisfactions. This is a game for Ninja Gaiden fans, who will play it on the toughest difficulties and upload their best playthrough videos online. For those purposes, it excels; for less devoted action-adventure fans, it's more of a violent curiosity than something to get invested in.

Source: 1UP.com

wut, horrible camera views.. in ninja gaiden... blasphimy

Balla · 05-28-2008, 03:51 PM

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VideoGamer
</td> <td>
</td> <td>5/26/2008
</td><td>9 out of 10
</td> <td>90.0%
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GameTap
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</td> <td>5/26/2008
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GameDaily
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</td> <td>5/25/2008
</td><td>9 out of 10
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Game Informer
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</td> <td>7/1/2008
</td><td>8.75 out of 10
</td> <td>87.5%
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IGN
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</td> <td>5/26/2008
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</td> <td>5/26/2008
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1UP
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</td> <td>5/27/2008
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Eurogamer
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</td> <td>5/26/2008
</td><td>7 out of 10
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Source: GameRankings.com

Spinoff360 · 05-29-2008, 12:24 PM

Stupid reviewers complaining about slowdown when TeamXbox have revealed that all gaming media have been told it is an issue with the review build and that it would be better waiting to review the retail build like TeamXbox will be doing. But most sites are in a rush just to get some kind of review out like usual.

Slim · 05-29-2008, 12:51 PM

Balla · 05-29-2008, 01:34 PM

man.. i am so picking this up when i get my x-bawks

Ninja Gaiden 2 Review

This is a discussion on Ninja Gaiden 2 Review within the Video Games & Electronics forums, part of the Non Wrestling Forums category; Ninja Gaiden's guts were never this satisfying, and for those who thrive on such things, I won't deter you from ...