Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun

Here's what's good: the graphics (and art style), the voice acting, the puzzles, the gameplay (especially as you get further in), and its stability (no issues). Less than good is: the story (a bit thin and cliche), the load times (painfully long), the default keybinds (feels like a mess - though all of them can be remaped thankfully) and while multiple approaches to each map is valid there is a feeling of having to connect the dots and find the exact right guard to start with. Some may enjoy this, for me it was a bit of mix. Sometimes I didn't mind, at others it felt like a drag and I wished there was more consistent gameplay flow without needing to wait for vision cones to disappear and constantly reload a previous save to get past a section. Conclusion: there's a lot to be admired at how well polished and solid much of this game is. If there's another iteration of Shadow Tactics it could be a classic. With this initial entry you may end up with some grievances but overall it's hard to argue that it's not a worthwhile experience if stealth gameplay, strategy and puzzles are your thing. If you're on the fence wait for a sale and you'll more than likely be satisfied.

An outstanding Commandos-like tactics game which I completed in ca. 25 hours. Important for working dad's: great chunk play value as game supports quicksaves. I would love having some 5 more missions as the replay value is not really that great, but the missions themselves are varied in visual style, mission goals and mechanics which is absolutely great. The gameplay price value is excellent mind you, I just want more missions because I really liked the game itself. A small caveat is the lack of some technical polishing - the game itself works fine and looks stunning constantly, but little quirks annoy sometimes like when the game struggles to find "where can I drop this body off a cliff" trigger points. Verdict: if you played a single level of Commandos or Desperados games and it felt good - this is the game for you, do not hesitate.

Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun is a diamond in the sea of sh*t that is the PC game industry today. It is fun and reasonably challenging from start to finish. There are so many possibilities and the levels are masterfully crafted to provide myriad routes to victory. You can play without killing anyone or you can slaughter every enemy. So many memories and I've only played it through once (purchased on Steam and got it here in a bundle with KD: Deliverance). I will definitely play again at some point as this game has a lot of possibilities from a gameplay perspective. It truly is a throwback to days when games were made with love and care. Play with Japanese audio for full immersion. Also option for Japanese text but I'm not learned enough in the language to keep up. Gameplay: 9 Story: 7 Level Design: 9 Graphics: 9 Sound: 10 Voice Acting: 10 Polish: 10 Replay Value: 8 Enjoyment: 9 Verdict: Overall excellent in every aspect. You cannot go wrong with this one. Rare these days.

It started out really good that eased you well into the gameplay. Graphics, voice acting, etc the presentation and story are excelent. Though thes story is really predictable. Good aside the main problems and why I couldn't bring myself to finish is when you play more and get closer to mid game. The level design and gameplay can get extremly annoying as in it heavily encourages you to spam the quick save feature more than you should. Now as a stealth game there really should be multiple options for appoaching a objective. In this game with the enemy layout and abilities it behaves like a puzzle. There really is only one way to solve the puzzle of getting through the enemies. With every other possability being way to hard. And even then the solution to the puzzle requires very specific inputs and requires more clicks per minute style speed to pull off without setting off alarms. And you still will need to reload saves as the controls and pathfinding can be a bit akward to manage. After a while you notice these issues really itch ya more and more leading to gradually declining fun factor as the game goes on. These issues can be resolved by improved map layout and level design. As with the different enemy types and abilities of your characters it should be a fun game. But the level design and control issues making quick save spamming necessary to avoid restarting the whole level really kills to fun factor. I can only suggest this to people that are long time fans of these games with bit more experience in this genre of stealth, and wait for a sale.

The GOG version just keeps crashing on startup. There is also no error message or any hint on what might go wrong. Tried a bunch of things found online, but none of those worked.