Mark of the Ninja Review


I'm a fan of stealth games, but no stealth game has ever completely pulled off the act of sneaking in the shadows without problems—like poor AI, excessive trial-and-error, or general wonky mechanics. Mark of the Ninja is one of the closest any game has ever come to successfully pulling off stealth gameplay. Much of the reason belongs to the game's 2D art, which makes knowing whether you're hidden or not simple and straightforward. But Mark of the Ninja is not just a great stealth game, it is a great game, period.
Mark of the Ninja is the newest game from Klei Entertainment—the studio behind Shank and Eets—and, like all of their games, Mark of the Ninja features beautiful 2D art and great cutscenes quite similar in style to Shank. As impressive as the art is visually, it's also important in terms of gameplay. The art is crisp and clean, and it's always easy to see where an enemy is, where a hiding place is—like a vent, a doorway, or a light post—or where light ends and shadow begins. There's no guessing when it comes to whether you'll be seen and the 2D art also allows for on-screen cues—like rings depicting where a sound will be heard—that are much more easily visualized than if the game was in 3D. The game is pretty dark visually and you will probably have to adjust the gamma settings, but a few seconds worth of adjusting left me with perfect visual clarity.