I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the story though.
Given how the characters and environments are so lovingly-crafted, I’m not sure why more camera options were not included. To make matters worse, having the camera positioned incorrectly can lead to your clicks being misinterpreted, sending a character stumbling right out in front of a guard instead of hiding behind the low wall like you wanted them to. Shadow Tactics spins a tale of honor, family, duty, betrayal, and redemption in Japan's Edo period.Īnd the only options for controlling this rotation are pressing Q and E for a fixed angle, clumsy, 45 degree swing in either direction, or holding alt and using the mouse, which is so over-sensitive that I activated sniper mode on my gaming mouse just to get the kind of fine control I needed. Since many of the levels feature sheer, vertical cliffs and tall buildings, and there’s no system for turning foreground objects translucent to see behind them, frequent repositioning of the camera is necessary to see what you’re doing. Shadow Tactics uses a top-down isometric camera that can be zoomed or rotated horizontally, but vertically to get a better view of the ground or look around corners if the foreground is obstructed.
The fiddly camera controls didn’t help either. These difficulty spikes were few, but their memory really stuck with me. I eventually resorted to cheesy exploitation tactics, skirting the level geometry in a way that just barely blocked line of sight for some enemies who should have seen me, which probably wasn’t the intended solution. Lessons learned earlier in the game seemed to not apply, and no arrangement of coordination and skill combos allowed me to make headway. On one of the later missions, I ran into a castle gate that defied every angle and strategy I threw at it for the better part of three hours. That said, there were times when an area was so heavily guarded that it became frustrating. I never felt like I was doing the exact same thing with the exact same tools. I never felt like I was doing the exact same thing with the exact same tools and obstacles in any two levels. Missions that take place at night reduce enemy sight distance, but also feature torches that can allow enemies to spot you from very far away if you pass into their radius. Some missions feature snow, for instance, which leaves footprints that guards can spot and follow to your hiding spot…or the trap you set deliberately at the end of the trail. There are also varied objectives and unique mechanics for each. Chopping Down a Brick WallĮach level generally gives you a different roster of characters (until some of the later ones, where you control all five), which encourages you to think through all the possible ability combinations. The clever level design encourages looking at the entire map as one, big logic puzzle to be chipped away at little by little. I usually really enjoyed analyzing heavily-defended areas to find where some combination of skills could spark a domino effect to wipe out an entire garrison. Queueing up actions for multiple characters, then executing them all at once, I often cleared entire areas of enemies before they had time to react.
Other times, using them both in tandem allowed me to achieve what neither could alone, which created some great “Eureka!” moments. There were clearly times that called for Mugen, a samurai who can take out a cluster of enemies in a katana flurry, and times when it was a job for Yuki, a young thief who can lure solo enemies into traps. But its needle-sharp stealth systems, cast of memorable characters with diverse abilities and personalities, and an uncommonly grounded saga set in a stylized feudal Japan left me with a sense of true accomplishment and a role in a well-told story.Įach of Shadow Tactics’ five characters has a particular set of skills that make them suited to different sneaky deeds, like hunkering down in bushes, isolating and executing enemies, and hiding the evidence before anyone notices. It has its share of blemishes, most prominent of which being camera controls that made me want to flip an entire hibachi table. It’s rare to find a game that excels in the pillars of mechanics, storytelling, and art as consistently as Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun.
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