Developed and Published by: Activision | Played: 5/02/03

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The basic game play that made the other two Tenchu games fun is what makes this game fun. The sneaking up on people stealth action, the tools snd stuff that are authentic Ninja-looking.

There's some story elements.

The controls are pretty well-tuned and not too difficult to learn.

Landscapes are diverse.

Rikimaru and Ayame feel very different when you play each one. Ayame is very nimble, agile, but lacks raw physical power. Rikimaru has strong physical power, but is slower moving.

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The game is broken down into missions with scoring and other things that take away from escapism.

The gameplay is all the same thing throughout the game. All you do is hide behind stuff and sneak up for the kill. It gets repeditive.

The story's pretty weak.

There are many times when you will progress a long way through a level, and then die and have to go all the way back to the beginning. In previous games, if you made it to the boss you could continue from right before the boss. In this game you can't.

The end pose and chinese character that shows up after performing a sneak-behind kill makes the whole thing seem more cheesy and less authentic.

Not much different from the other two tenchu games, other than the improved graphics via PS2.