I'm a huge stealth fan and I heard people championing Mark of the Ninja as an amazing stealth experience from pretty much release day onward. I played the crap out of it originally on the Xbox 360 before I fully converted to a PC gamer, after which I purchased it on Steam and have played through it a few times here. I just bought Invisible, Inc. tonight, which is made by the same developer, Klei, and it made me realize I should get off my butt and write this gushing review about what an awesome damned game Mark of the Ninja is. I should have written this review years ago, but hey, I'm lazy. So here it is now.
The put it simply: Mark of the Ninja is one of the best pure stealth games ever made. Yes, ever. It's up there with the classics of the genre like Thief, Splinter Cell Chaos Theory, Tenchu, etc. It's that good. If you enjoy the stealth genre and you for some reason have yet to play this game, buy it this instant. It's easily worth full price. Don't even read the rest of my review, just thumb it up for knocking some sense into you, buy Mark of the Ninja, install it, and play it all night until you're surely screwed for class/work/whatever you have to wake up for tomorrow morning. You can thank me later.
If you need some more convincing, then feel free to read on.
Immediately noticeable are the beautiful, comic book-esque visuals and the amazing work from the animation team. The environments are vibrant, colorful, and full of atmosphere. There's not a bad one in the game. And the character models are what Klei has come to be known for: Cartoony, charming, but with a gritty edge to them. The art design in general is utterly fantastic. Seriously, I'd hang a print of some of the backgrounds in this game on my living room wall as art. And the cutscenes are beautifully animated as well. They wouldn't be out of place in any feature animated film of years past. Simply put: It's a gorgeous game. It does a lot without using many resources; it should run very well on most machines.
Another thing worth mentioning is the gameplay role that lighting takes. The art design blends into gameplay on harder difficulties when a background blur and varying directional light shift with where your player character is looking. It functions very well as a gameplay features but also looks really cool. Win-win.
The sound design of this game is another thing that stands out. Ambient sounds are engrossing and carefully crafted, the effects themselves are also phenomenal. Footsteps from running are crisp and sound like the real thing, they're also louder than you'd expect and serve to remind you that you're being a bit too noisy. Everything sounds remarkably crisp and has a solid echo and weight to it. It seems as though the volume levels of your actions have all specifically been altered to sound more jarring than they normally would have, which fits great with a stealth game since it constantly makes you feel like you're making too much noise even when you aren't. It serves to craft your mood as you're playing the game. It's brilliant.
The core stealth gameplay itself is actually remarkably simple. There are few bells and whistles here, which is good considering that the core gameplay is more than robust enough to carry the rest of the game. Level design is superb, enemies are interesting and challenging. You're given enough tools to make you feel superbly bad ass when you pull of something cool, but still vulnerable enough to require quite a bit of skill to get through unscathed.
If you need some more convincing, then feel free to read on.
Another thing worth mentioning is the gameplay role that lighting takes. The art design blends into gameplay on harder difficulties when a background blur and varying directional light shift with where your player character is looking. It functions very well as a gameplay features but also looks really cool. Win-win.
The sound design of this game is another thing that stands out. Ambient sounds are engrossing and carefully crafted, the effects themselves are also phenomenal. Footsteps from running are crisp and sound like the real thing, they're also louder than you'd expect and serve to remind you that you're being a bit too noisy. Everything sounds remarkably crisp and has a solid echo and weight to it. It seems as though the volume levels of your actions have all specifically been altered to sound more jarring than they normally would have, which fits great with a stealth game since it constantly makes you feel like you're making too much noise even when you aren't. It serves to craft your mood as you're playing the game. It's brilliant.
The core stealth gameplay itself is actually remarkably simple. There are few bells and whistles here, which is good considering that the core gameplay is more than robust enough to carry the rest of the game. Level design is superb, enemies are interesting and challenging. You're given enough tools to make you feel superbly bad ass when you pull of something cool, but still vulnerable enough to require quite a bit of skill to get through unscathed.
The replay value of this game is a huge plus. The various challenges and collectibles in each level in addition to the heightened difficulties (which are the best way to play the game in my personal opinion) left me with a feeling similar to what platforming fans must feel when they're repeating the same level of Mario in order to get the perfect score. There are also a number of different costumes you can wear that alter your abilities, there are a number of different tools you can equip to augment your favorite way of getting past guards, etc. There's a lot of modularity (is that a word?) here, and quite a few different ways to play through the levels. There are also some neat developer commentary tracks that are worth a listen as well.
I've never been a platforming fan, but this game is definitely influenced by them. There's maybe 8 hours of gameplay here if you're taking your time, but you can easily triple that with replays. I still jump back into this game from time to time and it not only does it offer significant replay value, but it also stands the test of time very well. The gameplay is so no frills that there's nothing that'll really grow old, and the animated visuals will never go out of date. Hell, Chrono Trigger still looks good, and that game released in, what, 1995? 1996? Sprites, man, how do they work?
Anyway, this is the point when I'd typically bring up some of the drawbacks of a title, but Mark of the Ninja is a game I honestly can't find anything wrong with. It's just that good. I suppose I can see how non-stealth fans might find it slow, maybe? But not really, because there's also some combat involved if you get caught, and it's totally viable to play this game in a more run-and-gun style. It is kind of short, I guess? But the price reflects that.
I don't gush very often and I tend to be a harsh reviewer in general, but this one is a masterpiece in every sense of the word and you're missing out as a stealth fan until you experience it. Buy it gladly and thank Klei on Twitter for making such an awesome video game.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Playtime: 23 hours
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