Are they going to try to sneak past? Try to lure a guy away? Try to kill them all before the alarm? Coming to the next room, canyon, hallway, and so on, the player has to sit back, watch for a minute or two and decide what to do when presented with enemies. There is very little real-time strategy going on, other than that it does indeed play in real time. This realisation cramps down on the fun, where the ninja guy hops up on the houses, but can't actually go anywhere and has to get back down in the same hallway he started. Despite the huge maps, there is only one way to go, and that means encountering each and every puzzle that has been design. The characters are pretty forgettable in how they look on the screen, but the backgrounds are really well drawn through a type of cel-shading, with the Japanese houses and the bamboo forests looking surprisingly realistic.Īt its root, this is a puzzle game through and through. One of the better aspects comes in the form of the graphics. The game starts off pretty cool, as we are given a ninja guy that is climbing a cliff, taking a few guards out and sneaking by, leaving a positive first impression and excitement at what is to come. The goals are always very far away, consisting of things like opening a gate, stopping something, or killing someone. Gameplay is viewed from a high third-person angle, as the player orders their units around the map. 'Stealth puzzle game' might be a better fit for its description. The closest parallel is Metal Gear Solid, since the characters have to go around sneaking through very long levels. It is styled as a real-time strategy title, and, quite frankly, it is nothing close to it.

A fair bit is done right with Shadow Tactics, but the reality is that the demographic that this type of game is marketed towards will likely find little enjoyment in it.

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