Gaming Target - PlayStation 2: Tenchu: Wrath of Heaven

Written by John Scalzo on October 03, 2002

First Impressions: Ninja! Ninja Rap!

There are only so many ways to open a preview. And frankly I think I've run out of them when it comes to ninja related hi-jinks. Ninjas are everywhere in the video game world it seems. There's the return of Shinobi and Ryu Hayabusa. Then there's all the Dead or Alive girls forever being thrown into new adventures coming from Team Ninja. Even gun toting ninjas have got into the act by way of Namco's upcoming Ninja Assault light gun shooter. What does all this mean? Just a stealthy few sentences to distract you with so a preview of Tenchu 3: Wrath of Heaven can sneak up on you.

Tenchu 3 opens with the greatest mystery of the original Tenchu solved, is Rikimaru dead, answered. He's very much alive and has brought his bag of tricks back with him. And the game will open with an instructional level that will allow players to get a feel for the controls. Otherwise Activision is keeping pretty tight lipped on any storyline details and really a lot of key parts of the game. Other than a partial item list and the ravings of a few playable sessions at E3 and the Tokyo Game Show, Activision is using all their ninja stealth to keep many of the details under wraps.

It's actually fairly amusing seeing every piece of information Activision has released include the qualifier "like in the first game" or "like in the second game". Like in the first game, the main goal is to work your way through each level completing the missions as stealthily as possible. Avoiding confrontation, or doing it quietly is just as important, if not more so, than outright killing a guy. Like in the first game, Rikimaru will have a wide assortment of ninja tricks at his disposal. A sword, poison rice, his grappling hook, throwing stars, grenades, "Essence of Stealth" invisibility cloaking, all of it's here again with the wonderful phrase "and many more" thrown in. Then, like in the second game, gamers will be given the opportunity to play as Rikimaru's speedy sidekick Ayame. Her half of the game will include completely separate missions and an entirely new perspective on the game. It's almost as if they're going out of their way to keep the game secret.

One thing Activision will say for sure though is that Tenchu 3 will sport an advanced AI engine with some of the smartest enemies around. This is of course corporate hyperbole and as of right now we can only go by examples. A few examples Activision has stealthily slipped out include the fact that guards will fight with different styles depending on the weapon they're using and that guards will attack you in different ways when the fight is on different surfaces. So, a guard attacking you on the ground with a sword would be an entirely different fight than a guard attacking you with a spear on a rooftop.

Activision has also let loose that Tenchu 3 will have a 2-player simultaneous mode that include six totally new missions in addition to the nine single player worlds. Not only that, but there will also be several 2 player versus modes that will allow two ninjas to see who is the stealthiest killer of them all. Graphically, the game looks sharp, nothing ground breaking, but seeing it in motion will be the real test.