Tenchu: Fatal Shadows

Next Level Gaming

If you’ve never played a Tenchu game before, this is definitely not the one to start with.

Siliconera

One thing that fans of the Tenchu series will enjoy is the enemies have increased AI. You can't just hide in a bunch of bushes and be "invisible" to enemies anymore. [JPN Import]

PSM Magazine

By far the most useful addition though is the ability to pick up bodies so you can hide them. It's a simple little skill that should have been available all along... and now it is. [March 2005, p.80]

BonusStage

All you really need to know is that Fatal Shadows is the best game in the series to date, and although there are a few considerable drawbacks, playing this game is a sneaky good time.

Weekly Famitsu

9 / 7 / 8 / 7 - 31 silver [Vol 815; 30 July 2004]

GamePro

She's a good old dog but hard pressed to learn new tricks.

Game Informer

I'm a little disappointed that Tenchu isn't pushing the genre forward like "Splinter Cell" and "Metal Gear Solid" have. [March 2005, p.132]

IGN

Not only fails to enhance the genre as a whole, but also fails to offer any serious improvements over its predecessor.

Game Chronicles

But this latest version of the game suffers from the same problems pretty much since the beginning. What was once tolerable due to technology constraints simply doesn't cut it in the era of "Snake Eater" and "Chaos Theory."

GameSpot

This game might make a few halfhearted attempts to try to rope new players into the Tenchu fold, between its original story and its tutorial mode, but the gameplay itself is cumbersome, and the presentation isn't going to be good enough to hold most players' interest when the gameplay fails to.

GameZone

What happened? The previous games in the Tenchu series were really good, but the developers of this game really dropped the ball.

My Gamer

When the rose petals fly across the screen after such a bloody intro, you know Tenchu: Fatal Shadows will be an extreme, if somewhat flawed, mixture of beauty and death.

Pelit (Finland)

Sneaky ninjas do not even have to sneak. Someone has been lazy when making this sub-standard game. [July 05]

3DAvenue

This game itself would be fine if this was 1998 but considering Tenchu: Fatal Shadows sits between games with a similar mission and a more up to date feel I would say leave it on the shelf.

Thunderbolt

Until K2 pull their finger out and bring the game engine into the 21st Century, Tenchu will be remembered as a Playstation classic with a load of all too similar sequels.

Gaming Nexus

If you’ve played any of the previous Tenchu outings you have already seen most of what is in this game.

GameSpy

It might as well have been published by AT&T, because this is the most phoned-in sequel this side of a football game.

Edge Magazine

Few games can capture the sense of being in the hunt so well, and by degrees few games can disappoint so much when this sense is lost to wrangling with the camera or gawkish, unpredictable controls shackling your weightlessness. [Oct 2004, p.108]

1UP

Besides the higher-resolution visuals, you'd be hard-pressed to tell this apart from the PlayStation game that kicked off the series nearly seven years ago.

PSX Nation

Sega should have known better than to pick after Activision’s pile of rejects.

GamerFeed

It's not that Fatal Shadows is a horrible game, it's just that we've seen it before- it fails to distinguish itself from "Wrath of Heaven" and even keeps some of its most crucial flaws.

Yahoo! Games

About the only thing Fatal Shadows does well is the rooftop sneaking, and that's nowhere near enough to carry the game on its own.

Electronic Gaming Monthly

A number of flaws kill the game's flow, namely a particularly atrocious camera, a weak lock-on system, a frustrating lack of checkpoints, and poor enemy A.I. [March 2005, p.124]

Cheat Code Central

There's nothing about Tenchu: Fatal Shadows that hasn't been explored in previous versions.

PALGN

Fatal Shadows isn’t awful, but it’s simply too primitive for anyone else but Tenchu fans to bother with in this era.

GameBiz

Just an average game really. Nothing really grabs you to keep playing.

Eurogamer

With the dreadful lack of effort in the PS1-like visuals, and ghastly AI, even those with especially designed tattoos should consider their old friend exactly that: old.

Sydney Morning Herald

Fans will enjoy creeping around and using the wonderful grappling hook, but in a post Splinter Cell-era it is disappointing that light and darkness still have little bearing on the ninja's visibility to foes.

G4 TV

Constantly fighting the camera to get the view you’re looking for, sword duels with all the grace of a rusty robot, and unpolished graphics and presentation make Fatal Shadows feel like a much older title that hasn’t aged well.

Official U.S. Playstation Magazine

Suffers from one of the most useless cameras since the advent of 3D gaming. [March 2005, p.101]

Game Revolution

Continues on the path of cool ninja stealth action, but is thwarted by a plethora of traps like poor control and retarded AI.

Detroit Free Press

This series has not evolved a bit. Other stealth titles are more tense; this does nothing to get the adrenaline pumping. Fifty bucks is way too much for this halfhearted effort.

Gaming Age

Fatal Shadows took a big step backwards by not making any improvements over "Wrath of Heaven." Stay away. You’ve been warned.