![]() ![]() In ST:BotS-AC you play as Aiko and 4 of her shogun friends. The other thing that ST:BotS-AC is (yes, that’s what I’m calling it from now on, this review needs to have a statistically significant portion that isn’t the name of the game) is my proposal for the new dictionary definition of save-scumming for when that phrase is added to the next edition of the Oxford English Dictionary, something I’m sure they’re working on as we speak. I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if it turned out this is all still part of the title. If you have a sufficient lifespan to type out the title into google and then still have the energy to read a description of the game, it’s hard to see where the title stops and the description begins. Firstly it’s the worst named video game I’ve ever seen – it has a title, a subtitle and a sub-subtitle. Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun – Aiko’s Choice is two things. An act often deplored by the gaming community due to a perception of removing consequence and difficulty from the game in question. It just didn’t fully click for me.Save-Scumming ( Verb, Informal) – The act of saving a video game after every small amount of progress so any mistakes can be undone with minimal lost progress. When things click though, you truly feel like a badass shinobi. I hated the feeling that I was constantly on the verge of fully resetting my run from scratch. I enjoyed parts of it, but some of the mechanics felt too finicky for my tastes. Overall, seems challenging to get into for newcomers, but I’m sure veterans of the series will feel right at home. ![]() I think I’ll end up still giving the game the seal because I feel bad, and I think it comes down to personal preference. Perhaps if I forced myself to play on a lower difficulty, I would have had a better experience, but I suppose rage quitting means something. I enjoyed the full voice acting and the characterization of Aiko is great as a compassionate, yet relentless assassin. I think it’s just the salt, but honestly most interactions felt entirely contrived in that way. “Oh hey, you did the same thing three milliseconds sooner? OK, the AI will be a complete dumbass for no reason and let you go”. Just when I thought I understood the rules, the game would say “nope this action actually reveals your position, fuck you, try again”. However, compared to other stealth games, I felt like the game kept dinging me on technicalities every fucking second. Honestly, part of me wishes the levels didn’t feel so sprawling because I never felt safe, and yeah I get it you’re not supposed to. ![]() It showed a lot of promise with multiple solutions and approaches to each encounter. I honestly lost patience with this one and wasn’t really willing to complete the game. I enjoyed how each set piece is strung together, and how the objectives feel interwoven as you are taught new maneuvers. I understand to a certain degree rewarding prudency and quickly moving from position to position, but when you’re juggling the viewpoints of three separate characters, I feel like it’s already enough pressure without that. The game is nice enough to give you several quicksave points to access in case your most recent one goes tits up for whatever reason. I think it might just be a matter of my novice exposure to the series. There are times where the vision cones feel a tad too wide, but at the same time, you are able to quickly run past them to safety for a quick escape at times. Although there are times where the AI feels TOO diligent, to the point that your save file can be rendered nigh obsolete when the game suddenly goes on high alert and the position you THOUGHT was safe is suddenly not. Admittedly, there were many times where I lost my patience, but the availability to quick save at all points really alleviates the feel of losing progress. You will likely need to wait a good amount of time to find your moments to strike or sneak on by. Sometimes it seems incredibly incompetent other times I was baffled at the range of detection and how rigorous their patrols could be. ![]()
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