#TENCHU Z ISO XBOX 360 SERIES#

For a visual flourish, you can slam enemies to the ground and snap their necks or shove them against a wall prior to disembowelment. For most, you simply need to grab a foe from behind and quickly eviscerate him (there's a handy on-screen and controller rumble prompt). Their lack of concern allows ample time to execute a variety of stealth kills. It's also possible to walk about in plain view as long as you're outside their vision cone. They also fail to notice bodies strewn across their path, fellow guards killed before their eyes (as long as they can't see you), or ninjas hiding a mere foot away in sparse shrubbery. Despite visually signaling each other when making rounds, none notice if someone is suddenly absent. When you reemerge, any alerted guards have completely forgotten the incursion. If you're sighted and an alarm is raised, a quick sprint into the nearest bush, onto a nearby roof, or under a building quickly restores calm. Set patrol paths are a staple of the stealth genre - it's the only way to let you get the drop on enemies when vastly outnumbered - but they certainly detract from your role as ninja. Perhaps that's why successful stealth kills add a bonus to your overall score, allowing you to purchase more loot. If, as a ninja would, you simply stick to rooftops, it's possible to quickly navigate and complete each level in mere minutes. But it is soon apparent that Tenchu Z requires neither skill nor its vast armory. There's a wide arsenal of stealth kills, combos, special abilities and weapons at your disposal, and more are unlocked as you grind through missions. For a time, lurking in the shadows is entertaining. Stealth, not storytelling, is Tenchu's main attraction.

It's your job to stifle the conflict - although the plot does little more than justify your breaking and entering. The general gist is that civil war has erupted between clans. These assignments are loosely strung together by a narrative that slowly unfolds via brief cut scenes and a few scattered lines of text. When not focused on killing, you'll occasionally use ninjitsu to safely escort contacts, to retrieve items or to meet with confidential sources. Some are straightforward assassinations and others demand compound-wide exterminations.

#TENCHU Z ISO XBOX 360 SERIES#

Long-time series protagonist Rikimaru now rides a floor mat and tasks younger ninjas (you) with accomplishing his various objectives. To some extent, it appears to have directly ported its predecessor's muddied textures and simple character models and its disgraceful AI routines directly to the Xbox 360. From Software's latest Tenchu does little to improve upon its last installment on the PlayStation 2. At least, as the loading screens recommend, you will get a lot of practice. Tenchu Z is about 50 slightly varied permutations of the above scene.

Tenchu z iso xbox 360