free download mark of the ninja xbox one

That last one is not only messy but noisy, and sound plays a large part in Mark of the Ninja. These include spike mines, skewering enemies who step on them, poison darts that can drive enemies insane and even a swarm of beetles that devour people. Those are your weapons of mass distraction, but more entertainment is to be had with your offensive weapons. For those guys, you need to turn to firecrackers (distract them and nab 'em from behind), smoke bombs (confuse them and nab 'em from behind) or just hide in a cardboard box (and then nab 'em from behind). Of these, the most basic is throwing knives, useful for breaking lights but of no use against guards. Your arsenal consists of a sword for stealth kills, and a bulging inventory of cool toys. Avoiding them is entirely possible - every level offers a hefty points bonus for clean runs with no enemy encounters or kills - but the fun really comes from the ever-escalating ways you can toy with your foes. You never feel weightless, but are still able to navigate the levels with far more grace than the hapless guards in your path. There are echoes here of Klei's work on the XBLA version of N+ but your black clad character strikes a more realistic balance between agility and gravity. You can hide behind, or in, certain scenery objects, and press yourself up against a door to get a sense of what's on the other side. You can cling to walls, duck into grates and ducts and peek out again without revealing your presence.

Over a brisk tutorial level, you're introduced to the basic skills you'll be using throughout the generously proportioned story. Mark of the Ninja's pleasures are in the moment, in the intuitive mastery you have over your environment and in the way Klei gradually expands from a solid gameplay core to introduce a steady stream of new abilities, enemies and ninja tools. Ignore the generic title, and skip past the predictable story about an honourable clan at war with a ruthless technologically advanced enemy.

It's a stealth game, and one of the finest examples of that genre to see the light of day in a long time. Where Shank stamped its mark with a blood-stained boot, Mark of the Ninja is, by necessity, a far more measured and contemplative experience. There's the side-scrolling template, with crisp responsive movement. There's the same robust comic book style, with designs and animation reminiscent of Genndy Tartakovsky. Within seconds of pressing start, you can tell that Mark of the Ninja is the work of Klei Entertainment, the Canadian indie dev responsible for action brawler Shank.

Free download mark of the ninja xbox one