[PAX Prime 2012] Mark of the Ninja

[Lekon]

PAX Prime was one amazing time, so it's only fitting to start my coverage of the games and tech with one of the surprises of the show for me: Mark of the Ninja from Keli Entertainment. While I had heard of this game before, I really wasn't prepared for just how amazing a stealth game could be.

Klei's art team continues to impress

In almost every game I've played, when you get to the stealth mission, the game goes from joyous to a tedious set of "hope you aren't spotted, get spotted, instant death, retry" or occasionally "get spotted, forget going for the achievement, open fire with full auto". Usually games with stealth elements have them poorly implemented, with little feedback of just what enemy can notice you, and from how far away. Mark of the Ninja is finally a game that makes everything completely easy to understand. As a 2D action/platformer, it shines just on the ease of control. I never once missed a jump, never had any problem getting into vents, or using grapples between points. Past the controls though, the game gives you specific visual cues as to when you are making too much noise, or when a light is revealing you.

The circle shows just how far away the sound can be heard.

As seen above, anytime a noise is loud enough to be noticed, a circle pops out, radiating to the range of the noise. Normally your hero is completely silent in jumping and moving, but if you go at a full sprint, blue circles will start to radiate out and soon the guards will realize someone's nearby. Shortly into the demo, I received an throwing weapon that could not only kill guards, but hit bells, lights, or other objects to make noise and draw them away. Visually, your hero is almost always invisible, unless light is directly on him. Anytime he's hidden, he'll appear in silhouette only, much as he is seen in the image above. It's always easy to tell when you're able to be seen or not. Several spots in each level area also had hiding places (doorways, plants, etc) that let you hide until a guard went past, keeping you out of their flashlights until it was time to strike.

Oh how satisfying that strike was

As long as a guard wasn't aware of your presence, dispatching took all of two button presses, one to start the animation, then you were given a button to press at random to make a clean kill. Clean kills were silent, while imperfect take downs caused some noise, and usually were a bit longer and more brutal to watch. I tried going toe to toe with guards, and found that the hero can actually survive a stand up fight, just not for long. This isn't the hero from Shank, he needs to rely on surprise, not a twenty hit knife combo.

These moments of stalking to set up kills were both frequent and awesome

What really separated Mark of the Ninja from so many other games was that there was little to no waiting. This wasn't a stealth and camp game. I was always moving, going from point to point, only pausing to check where to land, or which vent to pop out of in order to start the killing. I never had to spend more than a minute waiting to plan my attack, as all the information was right there, all of the motions came easily. In short, the game controls like a dream. I'd have to compare it to a 2D Mirror's Edge, with a lot more stabbing.

Mark of the Ninja was certainly one of my games of show. Klei has done an awesome job. Best of all: it will be released on Friday, September 7th on XBLA for 1200 MSP. Put some points aside for it.

[Ink Asylum]

No PC? That's disappointing.

[Lekon]

Originally Posted by Ink Asylum

No PC? That's disappointing.

While the exclusivity to XBLA might seem rough, it's understandable. I'm hoping the game sells well enough that they bring it to PC like they did with Shank.

[Ink Asylum]

Yeah. The game looks great, and I've been looking forward to it, but now that I don't have an Xbox I miss out on all these exclusives.

[Gorvi]

This looks pretty interesting,hopefully it'll hit PC soon so I can grab it during the holiday sale.

[Reverant]

That looks cool. I always seem to miss the XBLA favorites (was not interested in Fez, for example), but I can see myself trying this one.

[PathMaster]

First heard of this earlier today on PA and I am very interested. This releases this week I believe.

[crazyD]

Originally Posted by Lekon

While the exclusivity to XBLA might seem rough, it's understandable. I'm hoping the game sells well enough that they bring it to PC like they did with Shank.

I disagree that it is understandable. MS fucking over their own platform with exclusivity deals? Not understandable at all.

[Scull]

Actually, I was chatting with the lead dev on Sunday night and he was sure that the game was coming to PC "in a couple of months", so they are already planning on it it wold appear.

[Lekon]

Originally Posted by PathMaster

First heard of this earlier today on PA and I am very interested. This releases this week I believe.

Tomorrow! And from everything I've been hearing, they really want to do aPC version like they did for Shank.

[crazyD]

Then why haven't they?

[Ravenlock]

Because they accepted money from MS to not do it yet. (If you're asking why MS would give them money to keep it off PC for now, that seems obvious to me, but maybe it's not? MS gets no dollars from a game selling on Steam.)

Also because it's way easier to develop and test for a single piece of hardware than it is for "all PCs".

Hopefully once the exclusivity window is up, the port to PC will be relatively fast and easy.

My only quandary is deciding whether to buy it Friday on 360, or wait for Steam.

[crazyD]

MS is a bunch of idiots, poisoning their own well. No, they don't get money off of releases on Steam, but they do get to bolster Windows PCs as a gaming platform. Granted, I doubt anyone is going to buy a copy of Windows just to play this, but still. It's just short sited and stupid to create exclusivity rules that prevent people from releasing on your own platform.

[Spigot]

I've been seeing a lot of chatter about this on Twitter today. I'll probably grab it when it drops tomorrow. I loves me some Stealth!

As much as I would like to wait for a PC release, I don't mind paying a pittance if it's on XBLA if the PC release isn't anywhere in sight.

[Ravenlock]

Originally Posted by crazyD

MS is a bunch of idiots, poisoning their own well. No, they don't get money off of releases on Steam, but they do get to bolster Windows PCs as a gaming platform. Granted, I doubt anyone is going to buy a copy of Windows just to play this, but still. It's just short sited and stupid to create exclusivity rules that prevent people from releasing on your own platform.

I don't think Microsoft considers the PC "their own platform," from a gaming standpoint, and from a gaming standpoint they're right not to. They aren't selling Windows to anyone in order for them to game (gamers already have Windows, by an overwhelming margin), and most games on Windows that are sold digitally are sold through Steam, or Origin, or (insert marketplace that isn't Games For Windows Live).

The only way Microsoft gets money from PC gaming is if they published the game. And they aren't publishing this one, so.

An exclusivity window for titles like this on the 360 is smart of Microsoft, not stupid. They have an incentive both to get people buying stuff from the XBLA marketplace, and to get people connecting their 360s to the internet to do anything (since that makes XBL Gold sales more likely).

And it doesn't hurt the PC side, either, even if they had a reason to care. It'll sell just fine on Steam, when it does come out there.

[crazyD]

Gamers already have Windows because games are on Windows. Not releasing, or delaying games on Windows gives people a reason to not use Windows. I know that if I didn't game on it, I wouldn't use it. Again, I doubt this game is going to be the make or break point on anyone buying Windows, but deals like this do hurt them.

Microsoft gets money from PC gaming when PC users buy a Microsoft product in order to play games on it. I'm sure it will sell just fine on Steam eventually, I just don't like having to wait to play the game on a Microsoft platform because of an idiotic Microsoft exclusivity rule.

[Ravenlock]

Obviously I don't like having to wait either, I just disagree that it's idiotic.

Steam views Microsoft as a competitor. It would be pretty dumb, given that fact, for Microsoft not to view Steam the same way. A sale on XBLA is better for Microsoft than a sale on Steam. It just is.

So an exclusivity deal that brings in more money for a few weeks on the XBLA side, while not really driving away any eventual PC customers anyhow, is a good deal for them.

I can guarantee you that I would not own XBLA copies of Bastion or Costume Quest if they had been available on Steam on Day One. The exclusivity deal got Microsoft more of my money. It would be weird of them to behave any other way.

[crazyD]

All right, I guess I just think supporting PC gaming in this way can be more beneficial to Microsoft than you do.

[muddi900]

Expect these games to appear alongside the Xbox release after Windows 8, and Xbox for windows, come out!

[menage]

Reviews for this are great, might pick this up