The Ninja Gaiden series has been through quite a few changes over the course of its long history. It started out as a 2D side-scroller and later turned into a brutal 3D hack-and-slash that was widely known for its difficulty and epic ninja action. Here we are in the year 2011 and the series is still going strong with a new entry coming up in the first quarter of next year.
After playing the third entry in the series on the E3 2011 show floor, I am happy to say that this game will not disappoint fans of the series or fans of hack-and-slash games in general. The game is brutal, fast paced and satisfyingly violent. When the devs said that they wanted to make each kill feel more personal, they weren’t kidding. Every kill finishes with an up close camera angle showing you cutting up your enemy and squeezing the last few seconds of life out of him. Brutal.
The demo showed off some of the new combat moves, quick time events and stealth kills that you can pull off o an unaware enemy soldier. They usually consist of neckslitting or spine stabbing moves that take your opponent out of the game of life. The demo showed off a miniboss which was a giant electrical spider. Cutting off all of its legs required timing and a good knowledge of the controls in order to dodge his attacks in between slicing up its legs. After taking out its legs, the back of the machine opened and revealed the core you needed to hit to destroy it.
This newest entry in the series is definitely looks to break away from the other games and give players a more in depth look into Ryu as a character, not just as a bad ass ninja who completely annihilates his victims with no remorse. Ryu also had some sort of infection on his arm. I don’t know how it came into the gameplay or why he has it, but I definitely look forward to finding out how this new story will play out when the game releases next year.
