Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun

Superb execution. Well balanced gameplay. Precise and interesting game mechanic. Great characters. Well made missions. All in all, this is some of the best and most accomplished pc gaming I've had in years. It deserves 5 stars because for once, this game is not trying to be some other game, it really is something that stands an its own with, maybe a few flaws, but those come out as design choices rather than shortcomings. I recommend it!

I came across this game by accident while reading one of my IT news sites. The actual article about the similarities to the games' spiritual parents the Commandos series and Desperados intrigued me enough to give the demo on GOG a go. I found myself starting the tutorial level and not looking at the clock even once. That was one day prior to release. I bought the game on day one on GOG and have finished it yesterday (okay okay ot was actually today at 1:12 in the morning). If you are thinking about buying this game I suggest to give the demo a try (a shame more games dont provide us with such a great opportunity to experience a portion of the game before buying). This game well deserves the 5 star rating. It was the only game I bought and enjoyed completing from start to finish since about 40 months. So in case a developer reads this I just want to say thank you very much for a very good game. Keep up the good work. Also I would love to see a second installment or at least a mission pack. As I cannot describe it in english any better than in german: "Man merkt die Liebe zum Detail, den Humor und das Fünkchen Extra. Klasse Game". Best regards from someone who found a new top list game

This is an amazing real time strategy game. The artwork, graphics, music, and game play are all excellent. And there is many ways to get through each level,, you are not lead around by the nose in a linear fashion. It's somewhat reminiscent of Satellite Reign that I enjoyed very much, but with out the building and upgrading of characters and weapons. I will say I found it hard on the default normal difficulty which I believe is just above easy. Only because I didn't understand all the concepts of what the different character abilities could do in certain situations. I had to look up online how to get through several maps that I was stuck on. Although, after playing through the whole game a few more times I began to understand the strategy. Bonus points for allowing the user to skip any video plot scenes. I took off one star because the game is a shorter than I expected, and re-play-ability of the game is limited. I've played through it three times and now fully understand the strategy concepts and have done each variation finishing the maps. I'm probably not going go play the game much more beyond this.

This is hands down the best "Commandos" game so far. It has vivid art style, great sound design (it's one thing to execute a nice backstab but it's so much better when it's accompanied by a punchy sound of the blade going through flesh along with the desperate grunt of your enemy), perfectly fitting atmospheric soundtrack and the voice acting (I played it in english) was just fine, definitely able to make you connect with your heroes (I don't know about you, but I never cared as much for my green berret guy from Commandos as I did for Yuki :) ). The dialogue may have been little cheesy sometimes but never to the point of cringe, and overal I enjoyed the interactions between my characters and the storyline. And then there's the Shadow Mode! It allows you to assign one action to each of your characters and then execute them all with a press of a single button - and there's nothing as satisfying as watching a meticulously planned attack on multiple enemies work out perfectly! Or maybe not - because one of your characters messed up and it's time to hit the Quickload button - no big deal - you'll be doing that a lot (I finished most of the missions with 100+ saves/loads - fortunatelly the quickload usually only takes a moment). Yes, this game is hard. But it's exactly that challenge, the feeling of overcoming seemingly impossible odds that makes completing every mission so rewarding. And most of the time it really is just your timing or trying something stupid that makes you mess up multiple times at the same spot. So, where's the speck of frustration that I mentioned in the title? Well, sometimes (fortunatelly quite rarely) you'll be required to execute a series of precise and time-critical actions while fighting a little with controls and the camera. Also one thing that annoyed me a bit (especially in the last mission) is that your characters can climb/jump only at certain spots and at times it seemed rather arbitrary. Still, a great game with a huge replay value!

t's been awhile since I spend most of my time in playing games. This one makes me ALIVE again. Great game, Great story line and it has good mission that can improve my strategies. I'm addicted! >_< b #thumbsup