Revenge is a dish best served cold, and one that can be easily reheated countless times. There are reasons that this is a popular subject matter for films and game: it’s something we can relate to, and understand the trauma felt by our hero and their need for retribution. It’s also a recipe for violence, gore, and straight up murder. Ronin is the latest indie title published by Deveolver Digital, who proudly brought us the fantastic Not a Hero. So I bet you’re wondering; can lighting strike twice? Let’s see.
Ronin presents us a curious and unsettling tale of revenge with a silent, biker helmet wearing protagonist, who is also handy with a samurai sword and mixed martial arts skills. The unknown figure is on a mission to kill five mysterious characters, each marked in a black and white photo. Why, you may ask? You’re not given the full details to begin with, and it’s quite refreshing — adding a little depth and intrigued to the simple narrative. All you know is that five of these people must die by your hands.
The Ronin is talented with a vast array of skills of attributes that make her a deadly killing machine. These skills also lend a hand towards the gameplay. Ronin is able to jump great distances, climb walls, and execute unsuspecting henchmen as a modern day ninja. What Ronin does well is bringing dynamic gameplay to the table by integrating two gameplay styles, and develop a new approach to action gameplay. It’s a combination of turn based and real time combat (though not like Final Fantasy 12). When spotted by an enemy, time will pause; allowing the player to adjust and plan Ronin’s following actions. This includes jumping to avoid enemy attacks (highlighted by red lasers), attacking, and using special items. However, if the player remains silent and unseen, Ronin is able to traverse freely and in real time, pulling off silent kills and reaching objectives undetected.
This is an engaging and dynamic twist to turn based gameplay. It gives the action a slower pace, but introduces more tactical and strategic elements. Thoughtful planning and plenty of patience is needed, as Ronin is the sort of game based on trial and error. Thankfully, there are multiple paths in most levels to take and a healthy array of checkpoints, meaning you won’t have to backtrack too far if you die. Even though there are strong elements of stealth gameplay, Ronin often forces intense encounters into the mix to remind you that it’s not a stealth game (a pop up in the game does state this). I would have liked a choice between stealth and action like Mark Of The Ninja did so well.
One thing that does impair on the fun are the overwhelmingly clunky controls, and certain limitations with movement during combat. For example: Smashing through a window and trying to execute an NPC on the other side requires the hand of God on crack cocaine to pull off, and most times you’ll miss the button prompt over the NPC (this is how you kill NPCs) and end up setting off the alarm. Best advice here is to play with a controller, rather than using a mouse and keyboard.
Collecting and spending upgrade points will unlock perks and skills that provide a helping hand for certain situations, and can also be a joy to pull off. A personal favourite of mine was being able to hang unsuspecting NPCs from the ceiling, as their buddies were unaware of the dead guy right above them. There are other attributes and items as well, such as the ability to throw your sword and employing hologram decoys. It is a little irritating that you have to perfect a level’s objective criteria in order to earn a single upgrade point, considering this does get a little harder to do as the game progresses.
Ronin also has a repetitive nature to it, as most mission objectives throughout the game often involve you exploring an area to find Intel on your current target. You’ll notice this early on, when a majority of chapters have missions where you just gather Intel. As such, there was no variation until later o,n but most of the game does feel slightly shallow with its dull and unimaginative objectives. Not a major fault, but some more effort for main objectives would have been appreciated — or at least a diverse array of set pieces to break things up. There is, thankfully, a large amount of side objectives that will keep players happy, and adds to the replay value (considering that these need to be completed to upgrade your skills).
Ronin has some minor faults with its repetitive nature and clunky controls, but overall, this simplistic 2D stealth-action game is an utter joy to experience. It’s an engaging experience, thanks to its thought provoking combat that effectively combines turn based and real time action gameplay. This could be classed as a mix between Invisible Inc and Not a Hero, and does extremely well integrating components from each genre to deliver an entertaining outing of revenge.