Developer Team Ninja’s gore-laden franchise Ninja Gaiden is back and it looks gorier than ever. We had a chance to taste some of the action via an early build of the game, and boy, did we love what we saw!
To start off, let me tell you guys that the game isn’t as hard as the previous one. The last Ninja Gaiden was super tough for all but the elite, making it kind of unappealing to many. To allow more flexibility than its predecessor, Ninja Gaiden 2 allows you to pick from four difficulty levels to suit your skill level – Path of the Acolyte, Path of the Warrior, Path of the Mentor and Path of the Master Ninja, with the last being the hardest.
The build I played had just the first two modes – I played it in the easiest and combat was still pleasantly challenging (hey, don’t call me a wuss!). So if you end up buying the game when it’s released – so far, I see no reason why you shouldn’t – I suggest you stick to ‘Path of the Acolyte’ if you’re as inexperienced with the franchise as I am.
Within the first five minutes of the game, I fell in love with the combat system, which is built around very basic principles just like most other melee action games. You block, counter-attack, and well, attack. What really made it stand out was the responsiveness of the controls, and the intuitive blocking and countering systems.
For an action game as blazingly fast as Ninja Gaiden 2, blocks, counters and attacks requires extremely precise timing, which many other melee action games have failed to deliver. Fortunately this game hasn’t, and the action feels more fluid and fluent than you can imagine.
Although I’ve never played the previous title, I got a hang of the combat system in no time at all, and was tearing out limbs before I knew it, which goes to show how intuitive it is.

