I didn't play this kind of game since Commando 2 when I was very young...
I tried this game just because I read some good reviews...
AND OH MY GOD THAT IS A VERY, VERY, VERY COOL GAME.
Right now, I don't sleep anymore... I am just playing it at night when everything is calm and my inner Ninja can come out.
I am really enjoying it very much.
Cool.
From the very first mission to the last (13) this game is drop dead gorgeous. It's a true successor of Commandos & Desperados tactical games, as others concluded before me. I really enjoyed it, and in my opinion, after playing this whole game, it's worth every penny.
The story is fluent, dialogues are sometimes funny and other times intriguing, while plot twists keeps you connected till the very end.
Graphics are modern, and the details and players attention are the ones making the difference in the field of battle.
The music could have used some improvements (as in more background music), for people taking their patience and and play much longer, but is good as it is too.
I really enjoyed this game, and I hope developers will create tactical and stealth games like this in future.
ST: BotS doesn't just embody the best of a particular genre of stealth tactics: it IS the best. Lifting elements from Desperados (a franchise Mimimi Games would take on in their next project) and Commandos, BotS is trimmed of any superfluous mechanics.
Set in a beautiful rendition of Edo Japan, the artstyle resembles a watercolor painting, The five protagonists play well off of one another, dialogue is well-written, cutscenes are short but sweet, and the tone is both playful and becomes more serious as the story progresses.
This studio's successive titles, Desperados 3 and Shadow Gambit, were a little overindulgent in motion-captured cutscenes and overlong hub missions, and they lacked the beautiful efficiency of BotS. This, and Aiko's choice, is Mimimi's greatest production. The absolute best of stealth tactics, one of the greatest stealth games of all time.