Ronin

The game is (as other reviews have said) very charming, but has some flaws/bugs in its execution. I would highly recommend it as a good 'distraction' game to purchase when you see it on sale, but not particularly remarkable other than that.

As stated in other reviews, the controls are particularly odd on this game. They aren't entirely unfair in how they behave, but so many times I had to load a checkpoint because the transition from real-time to turn-based completely ruined my plan of approach. When the game changes to realtime, you can no longer walk AT ALL. If you are hanging from a ledge when the turn starts, you can't climb up over it, and instead end up having to do a multitude of jumps and grapples to try and move yourself into a better spot. Several times when trying to jump to a wall or to the floor, the game would just force the character through to the other side. OFten this would leave me in a spot outside the level or surrounded by the insta-kill hazards.

You are a Ronin, on a mysterious revenge mission! The game starts and you're told your next objective is assassination, and you're also told not to worry, your target deserves death, because he knows he did. Lucky he knows what he did, because we never find out! Ha haaaa! (Actually I'm on what appears to be the final level and haven't beaten the game yet so I dunno for sure but the intro was funnier this way so let's roll with it for now, OK?) :) Anyhoo what you, the reader of this review, want to know if this game is worth your hard-earned sheckles. PROS - perhaps the best 'Spiderman swinging around' game I've ever played, because of the pixel-perfect precision and the game design that gives you reasons to use all your different 'Spidey-type' skills. - doesn't take itself too seriously. - essentially turn-based combat, but really well paced so it feels like real time (the player is led by the game design to make quick decisions most of the time) - clearly made by a small studio - a small studio that has dropped a BANGER! (FYI that's a good thing younguns) I reckon there's minimum 10 hours of fun in this for me. CONS occassionally if you hit a wall or the ground too hard you glitch, you noclip into the backrooms! Spooky! If that happens you have to restart from a checkpoint (checkpoints are in logical spots and intelligently designed). (shh don't tell anyone you can sometimes use it to cheat through a wall shhh just between you and I shhhh if you tell people everyone will experience how godly it feels to pass through an otherwise impenatrable barrier shhhhhhhhhhh) Anyhoo buy it or don't. Congratulations Tomasz Waclawek! A sterling effort! Good show to all involved!

I play a LOT of stealth-based games and Ronin has to be one of the worst I've ever experienced. It's sad too, because there's the framework here for a really good game, but it's destroyed by hideous controls and poor game mechanics. What's so bad? Well, the controls are extremely wonky, in particular the grappling hook. Using it (and having it actually work properly) seems to be based more on haphazard clicking and luck. You'll experience a lot of misses and deaths due to the controls themselves. The game gives very little indication when you're about to be killed. Sometimes the red reticle focused on you means you'll be killed or it simply means you're being targeted. The game makes more differentiation between the two, which is really, really annoying. You'll only earn a skill point (something that's necessary to get new abilities) if you complete ALL the tasks in each level. This isn't bad in and of itself, but sometimes this makes for a no-win (or rather, no-earn) scenario where you need to choose between killing civilians or letting them ring the alarm. And no, sometimes it's impossible to avoid detection. There's also relatively very little stealth in the game. It's more of a "kill-while-looking-cool" title, so if you want stealth, you might find this game lacking. Perhaps the biggest sin of all is a complete absence of manual and quicksaves. You have to rely on (very poorly placed) auto-saves and checkpoints. This can be incredibly frustrating when you need to redo a bunch of stuff you did right in order to get to where you messed up. So what's good? Well, the art style is neat and the game's requirements are extremely low, so any machine can run it. That's really all I can say that's positive. In a nutshell, I'd strongly recommend staying away from Ronin unless you're a masochist. This game is unbelievably annoying and frustrating, not due to innate difficultly, but terrible game mechanics and controls.

I enjoyed the game. It's hard at times, but once you figure out the tactics, it's beatable. The comic book in the Digital Special Edition is nice, too. The plot is simple - you must avenge your father who was wronged by a group of powerful and evil people. Fortunately, you were trained by the best. With your sword, grappling hook, and a couple extra gadgets, nothing can stop you! Study your opponents. They can have more than one way of killing you. Time is your enemy. Learn to use the tactical pause option against it. (Tip: to use it outside of combat, you need to press AND HOLD spacebar). The Doctor is the trickiest foe. And be careful with the grappling hook - sometimes it can drag you right through walls, which can be useful but mostly is uncomfortable.