Tenchu 2 Birth of the Assassins
Reviewed by Shinnokxz
Tenchu 2 was realesed in the Summer of 2000. A lot of people
were waiting for this sequel to hit, mainly because the
first Tenchu was very good. In this review, I will be
telling what is and what is not good about Tenchu 2.
Welcome, To, the Unbiased Review of Tenchu 2!
If there is one thing that has improved, it's the graphics.
Character designs and sprites look totally re-done, and very
textured. The Stealth Killing scened are also in in FMV.
This giving it more relistic feel when you shop someones
head, or break their neck. The backgrounds, sadly, still has
the annoying fog from the original. Although they did tweak
with it a little bit, I can still be very frushtrating. It
sort of just POPS! up, but blends in too. Yiu might be
looking at the Level layout (mountains, plains, etc.) But
all of a sudden, a house or a huge cliff will show up. Still
could've been worked on a little bit.
The audio in this game has decreased in honor. Instead of
having the nice Japanese tunes from the original Tenchu, you
have silence, with the occasional owl hooting. Having no
music, mkaes the game incredibly boring, hearing only the
same sound effects over and over again. The voixes and voice
acting has gotten a lot better fom the first, though.
Rikimaru sounds the same as he did in the first one (and
thats a bad thing, because Tenchu 2 takes place 10 years
before the original). Although Rikimaru's voice hasn't
changed, Ayame's has. In a bad way. Instead of looking like
a real ninja, Ayame looks, and sounds like a normal Street
girl. The boss themes are still here though, and stronger
then ever!
The control in this gme is another thing that has decreased
in score. Being like the original, it is VERY touchy. With
the added pointless moves. Out of all the moves that you can
do with the ninja, almost 4 out of 20 are useful. Another
new thing has been added to Tenchu 2 also, it had a great
idea, but was made into a load of cra*. By holding R1 and O
(while your swords are unsheathed), you can drag the
enemnies bodied out from any eye that can see them, and
suspect something fishy. This was a great idea, but was done
horribly wrong. It's nice when you are on flat ground, but
if you want to drag the body up a slope, it will just flop
around like a fish, and you cannot get a hold of it again.
So there you are, trying to grab this so-called dead enemy,
flopping around like a trout out of water, and another enemy
sees you. Great, huh?
The story in this game has increased in value though.
Instead of having a bucnh of side-stories gather up into a
mess, this game has a complete story, and sticks to it
through out the whole game. Lord Ghoda's troops are going to
be attacked by another territory of men, unknown who they
are, Rikimaru, Ayame, and Tinishmatu set off to gather up
info and kill stuff. Nothing much really to say actaully.
The gameplay in this game is where it drops, not only are
there problems in sound and control, there are so many bugs,
you can't even shake a stick at it. One of the bugs, is the
'skip Stealth Kill' one, and is probably the most annoying
one too. Say you sneak up behind a guy, ready to slice his
throat, you go, and you go shooting forward and the guy
falls down. This usually happens while you are bu cliffs
too. Mostly happens when you are doing a sgtealth kill on a
slope (like the dragging bodies on the slope thing). The
games difficulty is just plain easy now. Instead of having a
lot of places to hide, you just run and slice. Boss's are
pretty easy, and just take a few swipes from the sword and
the block. Now, we have to be positive about the game.
Although having many errors in this game, Tenchu 2 is stull
fun for the week you rent it. Another new mode, 'Mission
Creator', is the only reason you will need to buy it.
Missions are terribly easy to make, but hard enough to do.
You can also send other missions through memory card to a
friend!
GOOD POINTS ABOUT THE GAME:
1. Great Graphics
2. Somewhat great sound
3. Okay Gameplay
4. Awesome modes.
BAD POINTS ABOUT THE GAME:
1. Glitchy contorls.
2. Glithces period
While the game has a lot of noitcable flaws, it still does
great in the most needed departments! Great for a rent, and
only Tenchu fans should buy it.
Overall: 6 out of 10
