Press Start Review: Ronin

To get the most important thing out of the way – this is not a stealth game. It looks like you’re ninjing through all the levels, trying to reach objectives, but that’s only a small part of the game.

This, my friends, is a martial arts movie simulator.

You play a woman who is getting revenge against the former allies and friends who killed her father years ago. She is pissed off and ready to take out anyone who gets in her way. You use a variety of tools and tactics, from throwing stars to quickly teleporting to an enemy to slice them through. And when I say slice them through, I mean completely. The blood spray is… impressive.

In terms of core gameplay, the mechanic is interesting; when in combat the game goes into a turn based fight. You can tell where you’re going to land from a jump, where guns are pointed, and you can make deliberate choices of what you can do next. And each time it freezes, it looks like a frame of an action movie – bullets flying everywhere, your sword running through multiple guys, and blood splatter everywhere. If the main character was wearing yellow the game would be sued by Quinton Tarantino.

If you meet all the objectives a level, you get experience points to get new abilities and skills. Throwing your sword, striking from the shadows, throwing stars to knock over opponents. So every time you play you can choose different abilities, and it changes how you play drastically.

Rating: Stayed up 4 out of 5 hours past bed time. For the third time this week.

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