While most modern stealth games are more about encouraging you to play in a stealthy manner while still giving you options when things go wrong, Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun demands that you strike from the shadows or die. Played in an isometric view, you’ll be controlling multiple characters as you make your way across treacherous enemy territory and complete objectives. It’s very much in the vein of older tactical games like Commandos, but with a lot more depth to the gameplay and a really interesting story.
The game is based in Japan around the Edo period, and your role is to infiltrate, sabotage and assassinate as you are ordered. The story is well told and the five characters you play as are personable and have their own motivations. While you start off controlling just one character, later stages give you control over more and eventually all of them, and thus opening up more possibilities along the way. One of the characters would be adept at taking out multiple enemies in one lethal strike, while another is skilled at getting to rooftops and avoiding them, while yet another could lay down deadly traps and lure enemies into them. The characters have a ton of depth to them both in terms of the narrative and gameplay, and figuring out how to make the best use of them is immensely satisfying.
You can give commands individually in real time, or choose to pause the game and queue up actions. Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun lays out challenges that can feel impossible at times, but probing and prodding often reveals weaknesses that can be used to your advantage, and more often than not leads you to discovering solutions that makes you feel like a tactician.
The level design is excellent, with a lot of variety to them. There are bridges to cross, rooftops to scale and open grounds to sneak across. Enemies follow set patrols, but will rush towards a scene of alarm or disturbance. They are ruthless and will often kill you near instantly. Getting caught is never a good idea, instead staying hidden and avoiding them or killing them without being spotted is the way to success. Some missions will allow you take to the roofs and stay hidden, while others demand a more direct approach by taking out multiple targets. There are explosives you can rig to clear out larger groups of enemies, but bringing it all together can be a daunting task.
Some snowy areas can reveal your footsteps to the patrolling guards, who then come in search. You can take advantage of that and set traps along the way, or find a different path and avoid them entirely. Each of the different levels presented their own challenges and objectives, and I enjoyed almost every single one of them. The levels also look fantastic, specially thanks to the great art design. Everything is visible clearly and you can move the camera about as needed, and zoom in and out properly. But since the game does give a lot of choices for controls, it can get a bit overwhelming to grasp everything. The good thing is that you can save at the press of a button, both on PC and consoles, and this allows you to take things slow at the pace you want.
Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun is easily one of the best games I have played this year, and one of the best stealth games I have played ever. A few control issues aside, the gameplay gives you a lot of stealth-based choices and makes every victory feel immensely satisfying. And the strong narrative and art style add to the overall joy of playing the game.
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