Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun

 PlayStation 4
Metascore
85

Generally favorable reviews - based on 16 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 16 out of 16
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 16
  3. Negative: 0 out of 16
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  1. Eurogamer
    Aug 9, 2017
    A winning premise of cleverly combined genres let down by a series of irritating design issues.

Awards & Rankings

28
#28 Best PS4 Game of 2017
45
#45 Most Shared PS4 Game of 2017

User Reviews

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User Score
8.4

Generally favorable reviews- based on 139 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 116 out of 139
  2. Mixed: 9 out of 139
  3. Negative: 14 out of 139
  1. Wolfenstein51
    Aug 2, 2017
    10
    Brings me back to my days playing Commandos 2 on PC. The game is excellent, has a very clean look and is really fun to play. You really haveBrings me back to my days playing Commandos 2 on PC. The game is excellent, has a very clean look and is really fun to play. You really have to plan your approach to succeed in this game, but the payoff is worth it. This is a game I will be playing for a long time. If you like a bit of strategy in your stealth games, pick it up.… Full Review »
  2. Ikenda
    Aug 3, 2017
    10
    Wow I'm just shocked by this. Didn't see it coming. I tried the demo and realized that this is Commandos in feudal Japan! I bought itWow I'm just shocked by this. Didn't see it coming. I tried the demo and realized that this is Commandos in feudal Japan! I bought it immediately I'm having so much fun. Graphics are slick, controls are great for a console and the game is a total through back to the Commandos games which i really loved. This is going to resurrect this genre and I'm loving it! A must buy for anyone who even remotely knows what Commandos is and a must try for all the youngsters since there is a demo (another dying thing). Top notch!… Full Review »
  3. GBG_Jason
    Sep 28, 2017
    9
    A very astute man patrols the walkway, lined with stone and shrubberies, ensuring his fellow colleagues are safe. A battle has emerged at theA very astute man patrols the walkway, lined with stone and shrubberies, ensuring his fellow colleagues are safe. A battle has emerged at the front gate, and it is a battle life or death for the guards of the fort. The walls are lined with gunmen, firing away at the invading army of the Shogun. On his way back home for the night, the guard feels the cold steel of a katana cut across his neck, and all so suddenly tastes the copper of his own blood as he slinks to the ground and is dragged into the very bushes he kept walking past unknowingly. An assassin was waiting for the perfect moment to strike, as the Shogun would surely rule this land.

    Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun is a game that mixes two genres that go hand-in-hand: stealth and strategy. If there’s a genre that is most often either a hit or miss, it’s stealth. If the mechanics are off just enough, it ruins the entire game. Likewise, strategy can often be unplayable thanks to the difficulty and/or a lack of actual options. Luckily, this manages to harness the best from both genres, while also having a great story and plenty of replay value.

    There’s a lot that goes into the 13 levels you’ll be playing. While each one has a badge for completing it within a certain amount of time, (5 minutes, 15 minutes, etc), chances are you’ll be spending a lot more time than that. The first level took me about 45 minutes, and that’s not including all the reloading I did because I messed something up. The game allows for quick saves by pressing the touch pad, which only takes a few seconds. It keeps your three most recent saves, because we all know that when you save in a game like this, chances are you do so at a terrible time and need to rethink a portion of the game. This will save you so much frustration, and keeps the game fresh as you try different tactics in each level, as loading a quick save is near immediate.

    You start off with a ninja, but are soon introduced to a samurai and sniper, all of which you’ll end up controlling. As the game is constantly moving regardless of who you are, you need to ensure the characters are in safe spots when left alone. Crouched in a hidden spot is ideal, unless you’re keen on dying. This is a bit less of an issue if you’re killing everything in your path, but for those that are doing non-lethal playthroughs and only knocking characters out, the guards may come looking for you once they come to, and it doesn’t take them long to do so.

    Each of the five characters you gain control of has their own abilities, adding their own flare to each level. These include combat as well as distractions. When you are first introduced to a character, there are fairly obvious places to use them. The levels are designed to teach you their abilities if you are so inclined, although you don’t have to. The game is also sure to inform you of level specific features, such as riding in a wagon to get past guards or using the environment for kills. These will often factor into the badges for each level, and typically have a trophy attached. You’ll find that certain sections of levels are seemingly impossible without a bit of teamwork that you’d find in the likes of Modern Warfare with your AI sniper taking out the left as you kill the right. Luckily, the game offers a shadow mode that lets you set up an action per character, and lets you execute it at the perfect time with the press of the triangle button. This is extremely satisfying.

    The nice thing about the camera is it lets you view enemy patterns all around the level, and you can reset it back to who you’re currently in control of, which is nice as you can easily become lost in the maps. When wandering around, you will undoubtedly walk into an enemy’s vision cone that you overlooked. This will bring up a green cone that fills up with yellow until it reaches you, at which point it’s red and you reload your save. You CAN keep playing – you have life and whatnot – but with how often you save (the game reminds you ever minute and twenty seconds with a spiffy graphic) there’s really no reason not to reload. You are also able to view each enemy’s vision cone (one at a time) by pressing left on the d-pad, which allows you to get to the next bush at just the right time, or draw their attention and kill them just out of sight while their buddy surveys the area.

    If you are a fan of stealth or strategy, I highly recommend Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun. It offers so much content, and presents it better than most games in the genres it covers. The only downfall is the camera, and it is a big one once you spend some time with it, but that’s hardly a reason to not play this. Mimimi Productions has created a gem of a game, and their future looks very bright.    … Full Review »
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