Kill, Save, Kill, Save, Kill, Save

Stealth has long been a secular genre in the gaming industry, some of our most loved titles rely heavily on stealth, think Hitman, Splinter Cell or Dishonoured, but none have truly dedicated themselves to the dark arts like Shadow Tactics.

In Shadow Tactics we have a game that is uncompromising in it’s offering, shooting your way out of it’s 13 levels is rarely an option, you don’t have the tools to survive protracted engagements and you will quickly be overwhelmed by the innumerate enemy, this is a game that forces you to employ cunning, trickery and the patience and restraint of a Buddhist monk .

Shadow Tactics was developed by Mimimi Productions, a largely unheard of indie company founded in 2008, but with Shadow Tactics accredited to them, a now force to be reckoned with. The game was initially released in 2016 and is now available on console as well as PC, Mac and Linux (via Steam).

The first thing that has to be said about Shadow Tactics, is my god is it difficult, take that as a criticism if you will, this is not a title for casual gamers. This is a game that expects you to fail, over and over again and you need to be OK with that if you’re to get through even the opening mission.

The very first mission sees you assume control first of shinobi for hire, Hayato, as you vie to turn the tides in an otherwise failing siege of Osaka castle. It isn’t long before you take control of an additional character, Mugen, a fierce Samurai adept in combat and eager to gain glory for his Shogun. Not moments later you are given control of a third character, Takuma, a wise and wiley veteran in equal parts and an expert marksman to boot. This first mission is really the test of whether Shadow Tactics will be for you, if you get frustrated quickly and give up, well no one is here to judge, I would be lying if I said I didn’t feel the rage build up in me as I was spotted and dispatched, over and over and over again. But stick with it and you will find one of the most satisfying experiences out there, there is a rhythm to this game, a method to the madness and once you tap in to it you feel like a master of ninjitsu.

The struggle most players will face in their first hour of playing, is an incredibly steep learning curve, the tutorial, so to speak (scrolls that can be picked up throughout the level with tidbits of information) is informative, but trial and error rules king in Shadow Tactics. Enemies have cones of vision, the first half is true vision, step in to this and you will be spotted instantaneously, the latter half is partial vision, if you remain crouched or obscured you won’t be seen, but stand, sprint or attack an enemy and again you will be spotted, very quickly. It is unforgiving, you will rarely come across lone enemies, streets you need to cross will be littered with soldiers, who’s cones of vision overlap eachothers and to a certain extent keep eachother protected from your assassination attempts (something akin to mutually assured destruction!).

Luckily for us each character has a very specific set of skills (no Liam Neeson from Taken isn’t one of them), skills that allow you to distract, temporarily blind or lure your enemies to their demise, all out of sight of their unwitting allies. With Aiko, our femme fatale, you can even disguise yourself, allowing you to walk right past enemies with complete aplomb, or to engage said enemies in flirtation (they are all too happy to oblige) whilst Mugen or another of our merry band of murderers sneaks past. Each of the 13 levels will see you take control of multiple characters and using their unique skill sets is absolutely pivotal to success, their skills are very carefully balanced, making them effective alone (albeit incredibly vulnerable) but deadly in unison. Some of the stronger adversaries you face, such as enemy Samurai, can’t be assassinated, or lured or distracted, they are formidable foes and take some strategy to remove, in these situations team work is almost always the answer. Becoming accustomed to controlling separate characters in sequence is difficult, you need to manually swap between them before entering a command for them to execute, be it as simple as hide in that bush, or climb that ladder. This is a real time strategy game, there is no pausing time, so nailing this mechanic is essential.

However there are times where you can employ Shadow Tactics most inspired tool, the Shadow Strike. Shadow Strikes are incredibly useful and are used to overcome some of the most challenging obstacles in the games various levels, with this ability you can preload a series of actions across multiple characters that will be executed simultaneously upon activation. Getting these right lead to what are often the highlights of the game, watching Takuma snipe a suspicious swordsman from a distant birds nest, while Mugen bursts from cover in a flurry of strikes to fell 3 guards before they can scream in alarm, is jaw droppingly satisfying and the ways in which you can use this tool are infinite. Shadow Tactics encourages you to be creative, to take risks and play with split second windows of time.

What allows the player this freedom is the save mechanic, there is no autosave in Shadow Tactics, instead you can instantly quicksave by pressing F5, a small timer ticks away at the top of the screen, reminding the player of how long it has been since their last save. This small mercy allows us some much needed breathing room in what is an otherwise completely unforgiving game and is essential to avoid breaking point levels of frustration!

You would be forgiven for thinking a game like Shadow Tactics would be short lived, but with each level taking roughly an hour to get through, the game easily clocks in at around 15 hours, that’s before you return to previous missions to try and get a cleaner play through. Shadow Tactics constantly encourages you to be the best ninja you can be, there are 9 badges to be earned on each mission, earning these could require you to kill every guard, or not be spotted once, or even to not use otherwise essential tools like Aiko’s disguise. Although their is a fairly captivating story driving the gameplay in Shadow Tactics, it’s merely the glue that binds the missions together and gives some context for the objective and setting and missions can be picked up and revisited at the players whim.

Level design is a clear strength in Shadow Tactics, essentially each map is a mini sand box and objectives can be completed in almost any way, one mission see’s you tasked with assassinating a high ranking rival Daimyo, who is in the presumed safety of his heavily guarded fortress. You could poison his tea without being seen by a single soul, slipping in to the ether before he has his first sip, or you could position Takuma in a birds nest, before alarming his revered pet dogs, luring him in to the perfect kill shot. This flexibility in levels is fantastic and allows for infinite replay value. The levels themselves are gorgeous and painstakingly detailed. You’ll find yourself in snow swept villages, scurrying across rooftops to avoid detection, in the midst of full blown warfare, infiltrating enemy camps to sabotage their munitions or through blood soaked crop fields, wreaking vengeance on Kage Sama’s men, who have butchered the local populace. Japans Feudal Edo era serves as a perfect time period for interesting and vastly varied locales.

What’s more is that the aesthetic of each level actually impacts the gameplay. In snowy Imai Town, moving your character through the streets will leave footprints in the snow, arousing nearby soldiers suspicions and causing them to follow them to their source, this is a hindrance to your ability to go undetected, but can also be used as a tool to lure a patrolling guard away from the prying eyes of his comrades. In Saganuma Village, you have the benefit of tall crops for additional cover, but the recent sweeping rains have heavily saturated the land and in certain areas your squelching footsteps will prick the ears of nearby guards.

Of course every game has it’s flaws, some more obvious than others, some are deal breakers, Shadow Tactics is not exempt from this rule, but it’s flaws are so minuscule this segment feels like an obligation, rather than a necessity. Controlling the camera in Shadow Tactics is so intuitive, you can zoom in and out and swivel the view by holding alt and using the mouse at any time, giving you the perfect perspective to observe patrols or an enemies vision, however, on a few rare occasions it’s a little tricky to target an enemy with your cursor when they are tucked next to a wall or stood next to an interactive object (be it a door, rock, vines), this can lead to some rather heartbreaking moments where you rush out of cover just as an enemy’s view is obscured, only to find yourself subsequently spotted and shot to death standing next to him because you have input a movement command.

The voice acting is also rather cliched, which is fine, as this is not a narrative driven game where it’s essential for you to buy in to the emotions of the protagonists, but it still has to be said that the characters sound exactly like what you would get if you asked a Westerner in a pub, over a pint, to do their best impression of a big burly Samurai, or a frail and wise old Japanese man. Again, this doesn’t impact the experience of the game whatsoever due to it’s nature.

Stealth is a much loved facet of gaming, found in genres like FPS’s, RPG’s, Horror but rarely get’s the love and attention it deserves, always second fiddle, always the supporting actor. With Shadow Tactics, Stealth is the genre, it’s pure, unadulterated and hardcore. This is not for those of you who default to the easy setting, who play games to be absorbed in a deep narrative rather than be challenged, this is for those few of you who revel in the rage of failing repeatedly, knowing how sweet the inevitable elation of success is, for those of you, this is nothing short of a master piece.

9.5/10