Tenchu: Return from Darkness for Xbox Reviews & Ratings by IGN

The Xbox loves ports. That's often seen as a negative thing because oftentimes games aren't optimized for the console, and sometimes turn out worse than the original. But on a brighter note, sometimes the ports feature upgraded graphics, features, etc. Such is the case with Tenchu: Return from Darkness.

Return from Darkness is essentially Tenchu: Wrath of Heaven, originally released roughly a year ago on the PS2. The game is the third in the much-loved Tenchu series, and is known for its stylized stealth kills and intriguing storyline. The good news is, the cool stuff is still in the game. The bad news is that the problems in the game, namely shoddy AI and a wild camera, have also made their way over in the porting process. But that doesn't meant Return from Darkness isn't worth your time.

Gameplay
Tenchu: Return from Darkness is at its core a stealth-based game with action and platforming elements. The game features three playable characters (the third being unlockable). The unique aspect about the multiple characters is that you won't be playing the same levels over with different people - you'll actually get the story from each character's point of view. This overlapping narrative does wonders for the story, and is reason enough to play through the game with each character.

There are a lot of little touches in the game that cool, from cats that alert guards to cool a cool cloaking, er, cloak that lets you blend in with the background. And then there are the stealth kills, a staple of the series. The way these work is by sneaking up behind an enemy and pressing attack. Your character will then pull off a super-slick kill with its own unique animation, taking out the enemy in one hit. Additionally, pulling off ten stealth kills in one level opens up new items for you to use. Very cool.

It's just too bad that Return from Darkness has a number of glaring problems that get in the way of everything good the game tries to do. Let's start with the camera. When running around, the automatic camera isn't bad at all. Pretty standard fare for a third-person game. But when you're in the stealth mode, the controls become much stiffer and the camera locks onto the x-axis, making for some really frustrating situations. You can use the white button to free-look, but when doing so, you're immobile. Ugh.

And then there's the combat. Granted, this is primarily a stealth game so the combat system is expectedly not too deep, but it shares the same stiffness and frustrations that the camera and controls do. The most irritating part is that you cannot move while blocking. When fighting more than one enemy, this can be troublesome because once you're blocking, you're frozen in that position. You can't immediately turn around and block, or so on. This results in cheap hits. So does the fact that once an enemy hits you, you're pretty much open to the rest of enemy's combo because there's not enough pause between hits for you to defend yourself.

But what has to be worst aspect in the game is the enemy AI. It's just terrible. Really terrible. It almost feels like it's become worse since the PS2 version. Being a stealth game, I expected the game to have some relatively smart AI. I know this a videogame and there needs to be compromises between smarts and fun, but the opponents in Return from Darkness are as dumb as can be. They're not so bad at noticing you; they can often see you even when you wouldn't assume they could. They're just brainless when it comes to finding you. Let's look at a couple of examples. I see guy and I want to perform a stealth kill. Rather than slowly sneaking up behind them, I run up to them perform the stealth kill, no problem. It appears they didn't hear my footsteps as I approached them. This is minor example. Later on, I was actually noticed by the enemy and fearful of my life, I stepped five feet away around a corner. All of the sudden, the enemy couldn't find me. Um, I only walked around the corner… Even ducking underneath platforms right next to an enemy will cause them to "lose" you.

This level of AI caused me discomfort for a couple of reasons. First of all, there's no tension in the game. When I'm sneaking up behind someone about to slice their throat, it should feel tense. Instead, I feel nothing. In a related manner, there's no payoff when I perform a stealth kill because it didn't take any skill. The same goes for battles, as the enemies' tactics are far from clever. Move forward, slash, move backward, slash, move forward…

A frustrating feature of the PS2 version was that no matter where in a level you died, you had to start over from the very beginning. This was annoying if you had made it close to the end, obviously. A new continue feature lets you start off closer to where you died. This is definitely one of the better additions to the game.

The big news regarding Return from Darkness was the inclusion of some online features. You can now play co-op or deathmatch against others via Xbox Live. Co-op is always a good feature in any game, so no big complaints there. The versus mode is a nice addition, too, but I don't feel the game's combat system allows for good fights. This is by no means a one-on-one fighting game, and it shows. Think of it more as a easy extra thrown in. Overall, the Xbox Live functionality, while appreciated, just isn't that special.

Big complaints aside, there's some fun to be found. There's some nice level design, the game's quite bloody, and being a ninja is never a bad thing. It's just too bad that this game had to come out after Ninja Gaiden (better action) and right before Splinter Cell Pandora Tomorrow (better stealth). It appears that in an attempt to make the game more accessible, the game just came out a bit too accessible.

Graphics
The Xbox Tenchu is definitely improved over the PS2 version graphically, but don't expect any major improvements. Textures are a bit finer, the new levels have more sophisticated geometry, lighting/weather effects are cleaner, etc, but I wouldn't say it's anything to write home about. Not taking the PS2 version into consideration, Tenchu is a decent looking. While it's nowhere near as impressive as titles like Ninja Gaiden or Splinter Cell, the game does have it's own unique look that is sure to appeal to certain people.

Tenchu is a port, so without completely remaking the game, we weren't likely to see a radical departure in the graphics department. As mentioned earlier, the game has a more polished appearance than ever before, but the average models, animations, and such look a bit dated when compared to more current titles. Still, there's some charm to the art direction that helps you look past the aging graphics. Sound
The music in Return From farkness reminds me of a mix between a Chuck Norris film and the old Sunday afternoon ninja flicks. It's not bad by any means, nor is it great. It suits the game well enough, though, and won't need to be turned down to enjoy the game. The sound effects on the other hand are much better. Even jumping produces a cool, retro jump sound that's cool because of its slightly campy nature.

The voice acting in the game ranges from strictly average to lifeless. With a reasonably cool story to be told, we hoped for real quality acting. Unfortunately, we were let down. Then again, anyone's who played the PS2 version already knew this.

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