Mark of the Ninja

[CaptainFish]

Just got and finished this game. I really enjoyed the general feel and play, although i did get hung up on some contextual actions: jump and hide in vent being the same button screwed me a few times, and having several B actions in one spot with only position as the only metric to decide which one triggers and drop body becoming drop body through thin floor without any option not to. I feel like I always bump up against stuff like this in a lot of games though

After I decided on a whim to throw a guard at another and experienced the terror mechanic, I decided to split the difference and do a lethal level followed by a non lethal one through out the game. Lethal was definitely the easier of the two, but I enjoyed some of the antics you can get up to. My favourite moment with that was using the Terror themed suit to stealth kill a person in front of another, purposely timing with a lightning flash in order to terrorize the other guard. With stealth, there were a few spots where I really had to think about how to use my gear to advance, which was nice! I used the silent suit for most of my stealth levels as well, so I didn't even have the option to brute force it, which I liked.

As for the plot,

I saw it coming from a mile away! Like literally from level 2 or something like that.

Ever since Fight Club, I always get wary when there's a chance of mental shenanigans, and then a character isn't addressed at all by most of the characters. Honestly, oustide of the challenge missions, the game doesn't even try to convey Mark losing his grip on reality until the last level, where your ninja buddy disappears in a cloud of ink, and japanese art is animating strangely at you from the background. The biggest tip off that I was right was when you're running through those dilapidated catacombs with one route, and your friend finds 'another way around.'

I also didn't feel much motivation to get Azai. I get that he was the first agressor, and that he messed up the traditional tattoo stuff, but replacing that with technology seems like a good idea! It does make me feel a little bad, because maybe those mercs weren't that terrible to begin with, but neither group really strikes me as being a bastion of morality anyway.

[Tanukitsune]

I never saw Fight Club, maybe if I had I would have noticed.

Come to think of it, wouldn't a certain item that you get near the end make a non-lethal game much easier?

[darthbator]

Yeah Nels (their lead designer) talked about how they had to go through and make sure that all the levels still worked with that particular item and that it didn't cause any crazy game breaks or allow you to skip through critical paths.

I loved this game. It's easily one of the most fun titles I played this year. Phenomenal art, some of the best 2d animation I have ever seen, amazing systems and level design. I really think that Mark is the most fun accessible stealth game I have ever played. I would probably call it my personal GoTY if XCOM didn't come out this year!

As for the story...

I liked it well enough. I saw that twist coming too, cause it's common these days. However I think they presented it well. The penultimate sequences where all very well done and I think the way in which the choice of who to kill is presented is perfect.

I ended up killing myself. In what way does the ending differ if you choose to kill Azai?

[CaptainFish]

Yeah Nels (their lead designer) talked about how they had to go through and make sure that all the levels still worked with that particular item and that it didn't cause any crazy game breaks or allow you to skip through critical paths.

I loved this game. It's easily one of the most fun titles I played this year. Phenomenal art, some of the best 2d animation I have ever seen, amazing systems and level design. I really think that Mark is the most fun accessible stealth game I have ever played. I would probably call it my personal GoTY if XCOM didn't come out this year!

As for the story...

I liked it well enough. I saw that twist coming too, cause it's common these days. However I think they presented it well. The penultimate sequences where all very well done and I think the way in which the choice of who to kill is presented is perfect.

I ended up killing myself. In what way does the ending differ if you choose to kill Azai?

You stab him and stand over his body, and the art transitions to the earlier depictions (black and white) of the tattoo ninja and bearded clan leader from the 'let me tell you about the ink' cutscene. Then you leap away.

[ysbreker]

Anyway, I just beat it and I love the gameplay. Can you really get enough points by simply evading all enemies? You only get 200 if they pass in front of you and didn't get seen. You get 250 points just by hiding their body. And how on Earth do you get by some of the laser systems without dragging a body?

After hearing Chirs talk about the game on the podcast I bought the game and played through it whilst trying to not make any kill and did so without any problems except for maybe one or two points where I could'nt find a way around a cluster of guards. I never had to drag a body to get pas any laser beam. They're all avoidable by either disabling them, circumventing them or by timing your moves right.

[shammack]

There was only one point (apart from the guys you have to kill to finish the level) where I couldn't figure out how to get through without killing anyone. That was in the last level, where there's a small room with two stalkers or whatever they call them (the ladies with the robot suits), and a lever on the ground that opens the door you need to go through, but it also causes darts to shoot out from the wall. It's easy to get through by just using the lever to make the darts kill them, but the room is so small that I couldn't find any way to get them out of harm's way so I could pull the lever.

[Tanukitsune]

Are they immune to smoke grenades? By then I switched to flesh eating bugs and poison gas. Or maybe the flash bang would blind them?

[shammack]

I had only brought smoke bombs and a cardboard box into the level. I might have been better off with a noisemaker of some sort. The closest I ever got was by standing near the lever, throwing my darts at them to get their attention, then waiting for them to get near the lever and throwing a smoke bomb directly in front of it so they couldn't see me pull the lever. I managed to not kill one of them that way, but she still ended up seeing me and raising an alarm as the smoke cleared, and the other one still died anyway.

[CaptainFish]

The easiest way to avoid them is to

mark of serenity onto the roof and bypass that room,

but that's generally a less interesting way to play the game in my opinion.

I think when I originally did it I made noise in the vent under them by running.

[melmer]

This game is so good, it just gets better and better. I've still got three levels left

 

Wish i had more friends who've played it for the ninja leaderboards, add me if you are a budding xbox ninja

 

Also, its half price on xbox right now so go buy it