With A Side Of Vengeance – Ronin Review

<p>Revenge is a dish best served cold&comma; and one that can be easily reheated countless times&period; There are reasons that this is a popular subject matter for films and game&colon; it’s something we can relate to&comma; and understand the trauma felt by our hero and their need for retribution&period; It’s also a recipe for violence&comma; gore&comma; and straight up murder&period; <em>Ronin<&sol;em> is the latest indie title published by Deveolver Digital&comma; who proudly brought us the fantastic <em><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;need-hero-dont-hero-review&sol;">Not a Hero<&sol;a><&sol;em>&period; So I bet you’re wondering&semi; can lighting strike twice&quest; Let’s see&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure style&equals;"width&colon; 812px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img src&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;ronin-game&period;com&sol;images&sol;screenshots&sol;screenshot&lowbar;4&period;png" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"812" height&equals;"409" &sol;><figcaption class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Just hanging around<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p><em>Ronin<&sol;em> presents us a curious and unsettling tale of revenge with a silent&comma; biker helmet wearing protagonist&comma; who is also handy with a samurai sword and mixed martial arts skills&period; The unknown figure is on a mission to kill five mysterious characters&comma; each marked in a black and white photo&period; Why&comma; you may ask&quest; You’re not given the full details to begin with&comma; and it’s quite refreshing &&num;8212&semi; adding a little depth and intrigued to the simple narrative&period; All you know is that five of these people must die by your hands&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The Ronin is talented with a vast array of skills of attributes that make her a deadly killing machine&period; These skills also lend a hand towards the gameplay&period; Ronin is able to jump great distances&comma; climb walls&comma; and execute unsuspecting henchmen as a modern day ninja&period; What <em>Ronin<&sol;em> does well is bringing dynamic gameplay to the table by integrating two gameplay styles&comma; and develop a new approach to action gameplay&period; It’s a combination of turn based and real time combat &lpar;though not like<em> Final Fantasy 12<&sol;em>&rpar;&period; When spotted by an enemy&comma; time will pause&semi; allowing the player to adjust and plan Ronin’s following actions&period; This includes jumping to avoid enemy attacks &lpar;highlighted by red lasers&rpar;&comma; attacking&comma; and using special items&period; However&comma; if the player remains silent and unseen&comma; Ronin is able to traverse freely and in real time&comma; pulling off silent kills and reaching objectives undetected&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><img class&equals;"aligncenter" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn0&period;vox-cdn&period;com&sol;thumbor&sol;5JRtlffntibevc3K2ve9lN5z5-E&equals;&sol;cdn0&period;vox-cdn&period;com&sol;uploads&sol;chorus&lowbar;asset&sol;file&sol;3334882&sol;Screen&lowbar;Shot&lowbar;2015-01-23&lowbar;at&lowbar;8&period;47&period;13&lowbar;PM&period;0&period;png" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"830" height&equals;"431" &sol;><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>This is an engaging and dynamic twist to turn based gameplay&period; It gives the action a slower pace&comma; but introduces more tactical and strategic elements&period; Thoughtful planning and plenty of patience is needed&comma; as<em> Ronin<&sol;em> is the sort of game based on trial and error&period; Thankfully&comma; there are multiple paths in most levels to take and a healthy array of checkpoints&comma; meaning you won’t have to backtrack too far if you die&period; Even though there are strong elements of stealth gameplay&comma; <em>Ronin <&sol;em>often forces intense encounters into the mix to remind you that it’s not a stealth game &lpar;a pop up in the game does state this&rpar;&period; I would have liked a choice between stealth and action like <em>Mark Of The Ninja<&sol;em> did so well&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>One thing that does impair on the fun are the overwhelmingly clunky controls&comma; and certain limitations with movement during combat&period; For example&colon; 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&comma; and most times you’ll miss the button prompt over the NPC &lpar;this is how you kill NPCs&rpar; and end up setting off the alarm&period; Best advice here is to play with a controller&comma; rather than using a mouse and keyboard&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure style&equals;"width&colon; 824px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img src&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;img&period;itch&period;io&sol;aW1hZ2UvNDI1Ni85NDIwMy5wbmc&equals;&sol;original&sol;cGt5aX&period;png" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"824" height&equals;"507" &sol;><figcaption class&equals;"wp-caption-text">This ain&&num;8217&semi;t gonna end well<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Collecting and spending upgrade points will unlock perks and skills that provide a helping hand for certain situations&comma; and can also be a joy to pull off&period; A personal favourite of mine was being able to hang unsuspecting NPCs from the ceiling&comma; as their buddies were unaware of the dead guy right above them&period; There are other attributes and items as well&comma; such as the ability to throw your sword and employing hologram decoys&period; It is a little irritating that you have to perfect a level’s objective criteria in order to earn a single upgrade point&comma; considering this does get a little harder to do as the game progresses&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>Ronin <&sol;em>also has a repetitive nature to it&comma; as most mission objectives throughout the game often involve you exploring an area to find Intel on your current target&period; You’ll notice this early on&comma; when a majority of chapters have missions where you just gather Intel&period; As such&comma; there was no variation until later o&comma;n but most of the game does feel slightly shallow with its dull and unimaginative objectives&period; Not a major fault&comma; but some more effort for main objectives would have been appreciated &&num;8212&semi; or at least a diverse array of set pieces to break things up&period; There is&comma; thankfully&comma; a large amount of side objectives that will keep players happy&comma; and adds to the replay value &lpar;considering that these need to be completed to upgrade your skills&rpar;&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>Ronin<&sol;em> has some minor faults with its repetitive nature and clunky controls&comma; but overall&comma; this simplistic 2D stealth-action game is an utter joy to experience&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s an engaging experience&comma; thanks to its thought provoking combat that effectively combines turn based and real time action gameplay&period; This could be classed as a mix between <em><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;unseen-shenanigans-invisible-inc-review&sol;">Invisible Inc<&sol;a><&sol;em> and <em>Not a Hero&comma;<&sol;em> and does extremely well integrating components from each genre to deliver an entertaining outing of revenge&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;