Tenchu: Stealth Assassins – PlayStation review

1998 was a great year for games. Metal Gear Solid and Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time released, and became system-defining games for the PlayStation and Nintendo 64. That same year, Tenchu: Stealth Assassins became the first stealth focused game on home consoles.

Yes, Tenchu beat MGS to the punch…or slit neck might be more appropriate. However, time has spoken and Tenchu is the stealth game people remember. Metal Gear Solid firmly holds that title on consoles. Thief comes to mind on PC. Tenchu is only tossed into the conversation by older folks like myself. Does it deserve to have classic status? Let’s find out.

The main menu presents two starting options, story mode or training. It’s been twenty years since I touched the game. I’ve forgotten the controls and most of the gameplay details, so training is my first stop. Training may not be the coolest part of a game, but it feels necessary. I choose Ayame, my favorite character when I was younger, to play through the training. She is faster than Rikimaru, which is a character type I favor in action games. If you like a slower, more powerful character, choose Rikimaru.

The first thing that stands out in training is the terrible the voice acting. I don’t remember thinking it was great when the game was new, but now it is cringe worthy. The faux Asian accents most NPCs have are hard to listen too. They could be going for a b-movie vibe, but today it feels racist. Remove the offensive accents and the acting would still be terrible, but with accents they are embarrassing to have coming from my tv. I hated the voices during the training and it never got better.

Thankfully the voice acting is limited to small story segments, and doesn’t impact most of the game play. These are silent and deadly assassins, who need to complete a training course because I don’t remember how to play the game. Training, it turns out, doesn’t do much to teach you how to play the game.

You navigate a winding corridor filled with patrolling guards. There are no directions on how to avoid the guards or kill them undetected. You’re left completely alone to determine how you will attack. I went into training with modern tutorial expectations, which might be my own fault. However, why have a training mode if it doesn’t do anything to train you.

After completing the training twice, and doing poorly both times, I gave up and moved onto the game’s first story level. You’re hired to kill a local crime lord. You receive a list of basic directions, like don’t use the main gate and avoid killing innocents. It’s very little to go on, but it’s more than the training level provided.

The game drops you into an empty area next to a wall surrounding a small group of buildings. No enemies patrol the immediate area, which gives you opportunity to practice the controls. It’s space to test your attacks and the wall allows you to use the grapple hook and launch yourself to the safety of height. In less than two minutes the first level is a better training than the entire training level. If you’re going to play Tenchu, skip the training and go right to the game. Don’t waste your time.

Running along the wall surrounding the buildings, you explore the layout in small increments. The Playstation’s limitations greatly affect Tenchu’s gameplay. The entire world hides in darkness, which works thematically for the deadly ninja gameplay, but practically hurts the stealth component. Your ninja assassin cannot see more than 20 feet in any direction. The world and enemies pop into existence before your eyes.

I understand the limited hardware restricts environment size, but the distance enemies pop-in is equal to their visual range. Many times an enemy will appear and instantly see you, making for frustrating encounters. Sticking entirely to the building roofs doesn’t help much, as enemies sometimes pop-in right below you. This makes them difficult to spot with the terrible camera system.

Tenchu lacks Metal Gear Solid’s radar system or a detective mode like Batman: Arkham Asylum. Stalking your enemy requires you to visually track each enemy and learn their patterns.  Clunky tank controls and a terrible camera system complicate this process. Standing on a roof, with an enemy directly below, there’s no way to point the camera below. Ducking and turning around would force the camera to move lower, but it also risked falling off the edge. It’s a terrible system that directly impacts gameplay.

I’ll give you an example of this in action. Stalked a guard for five minutes. Followed their patrol pattern by jumping from roof to roof, trying to get a better angle with the camera. I know exactly where they will be, and when they’ll turn to face the other direction. Moving toward the edge of the roof to drop off, and the camera spins around. In the confusion I drop off facing the wrong way and the guard is now alert. Running away, I flee to the roof and try again. Second time the camera doesn’t swing around and I land perfectly. Pressing the attack button, my blade slashes through the guards throat and I get a bloody death scene. The camera swings around and another guard pops into existence. Dammit!

Once you’re caught you can either run away or fight. Melee combat is loose and awkward. Holding back blocks, and combat is a waiting game. You’ll block until there’s an opening. If the controls were better it could work, but you have to turn to face your opponent. Tank controls make getting the right angle frustrating. This wouldn’t be so bad if the game didn’t force melee combat encounters, but there are bosses you must fight face to face. If there was an option to stealth kill every enemy the game would be all the better for it. If you can run away and try again, do it. You’ll always be better off retreating and starting over.

Once I finished the first level, I stopped playing Tenchu. 90 minutes of frustration was more than enough. This isn’t a professional review, so I feel no obligation to have completed the game. I loved Tenchu when it was new, but it doesn’t hold up. There’s so much potential in the setup, but between poor design choices and hardware limitations the game can’t achieve that potential. Tenchu had sequels on the PS2, 360 and Wii. None of the reviews are stellar enough to make me consider playing them. Tenchu is best left in the past.