Ninja Gaiden 3 – Game Review for Xbox 360 and Playstation 3
Do not fix what is not broken. While the phrase does not always stand true, it definitely hit the bulls-eye when it came to the Ninja Gaiden franchise. The experiment in the third title in the series did not go too well.
Ninja Gaiden 3 is a departure from the norm. It tries to change the way you play Ryu Hayabusa while humanising the process. Sometimes the experiments fail, sometimes the pieces are not in the right order or maybe they are the wrong pieces. In the case of
Ninja Gaiden 3, everything that could have gone wrong did.
Presentation
Ninja Gaiden 3 aims to address the moral implications of killing for a more personal story. The problem is that this story is gibberish. Ryu’s arm becomes infected with the blood of everyone he has ever killed or something, which leaves him a week to live.
Ninja Gaiden 3 could have been a dark character study, if Ryu did not just slaughter 100 of men after every annoying cinematic.
The writing is so poor that it is really tough to follow what is happening and why? The voice acting is so bad that the climatic moments become awkward comic routines. The narratives, characters and confusing events here are actively unlikeable. They are
harmful to the rest of Ninja Gaiden experience.
It does not help that the dated visual frame-rate stutter, something that definitely goes against the tradition.
Gameplay
Ninja Gaiden has always been about skilful combat and just barely making it into the next room. All the careful deliberation just to take down one guy is gone. Even on hard difficulty, mashing buttons is all it takes to win fights. Ryu also has two techniques
that make the clearing groups and making it even easier. Charging his soul gives him clearance to kill four or more enemies, while flashy fiery magic allow him to wipe out everyone who is unfortunate to be around him in that moment.
Nothing that defined the series is present in Ninja Gaiden 3. When it is not automatic, it is just mundane where the action just gets caught in locking you up in an arena and then throwing dozens of enemies at you. Ryu slides, jumps, shoots arrows and juggles
his way to success, then moves to the next room and does it all over again against pretty much the same guys. The repetition becomes exhausting even before the first level ends and the game stays the same for the next eight hours.
To make matters even worse, the gameplay is often incomprehensible. The camera is sloppier here than it has ever been. Ryu gets caught behind environment effects, objects and gets lost off screen. In the thick of a fight, the perspective zooms and swoops
continuously to try and give you a good look at the vicious kills, but everything happens so quickly that it becomes difficult to understand what is going on.
Verdict
Team Ninja relies on too many of the same gimmicks to break up its under-whelming and unfamiliar action. The game is indeed a wasted opportunity to prove the team’s qualities under a new leadership. The misguided new direction directly opposes what had gotten
the fans hooked to the franchise in the first place.
I rank the game 4 out of 10 and recommend it to only those gamers who have not played the first and second game in the series.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are solely of the writer’s and do not reflect bettor.com’s official editorial policy.
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