As we near the end of the list, our #2 proved just how well stealth mechanics can work in a 2d environment.
#2 Mark of the Ninja:
Mark of the Ninja by Klei Entertainment managed to nail all the major points of what makes a good stealth game. That is even more impressive by condensing it into a 2D platformer.
First is the UI, nothing hurts trying to be stealthy more then not knowing how likely you are going to be spotted. Mark of the Ninja featured a black and white system: If you’re in the dark then you’re good, in the light and you stick out like a sore thumb.
The game featured a very clean UI even with the screen lighting up from sound waves, spot lights and enemy sight ranges. While the game screen could become visually busy with all the different elements on it, the designers kept things minimal to prevent information overload.
Moving on there is the actual gameplay, the designers managed to take an experience that is normally a very linear affair and mixed things up.
Players could choose from several types of equipment and armor to mix up their strategy in the level. One of the best design decisions Klei made was giving the player freedom in terms of how stealthy they could be in a level. With most stealth titles, the player is punished the second they try to be violent, making the path through very slow.
But with Mark of the Ninja the player could get the best rank on a level by avoiding all combat, or slowly taking out guards one by one. Outside of just running around in broad daylight, the game offered the player different viable options.
This gave the levels an almost free-form aspect to them, with all the various means you had at your disposal for getting around. There was just something bad-ass about getting through a level without a single detection, or stalking the various guards and taking them out one at a time.
Speaking about the level design, good level design can be tricky to point out but Mark of the Ninja is definitely a great example. Especially in a genre where the level design is such a huge factor on whether or not stealth is actually viable.
The levels were designed with multiple paths through allowing whatever load out the player decided to take to be utilized. With collectibles and bonus challenges to find that offered the player rewards in the form of upgrade points for their gear and move-set.
Mark of the Ninja from top to bottom was a well designed title and similar to FTL, was a game that I would have loved to have seen more levels through DLC. With Klei currently finishing up Don’t Starve, hopefully they’ll return to this design in a future game.
And that just leaves us with one game left; I figured that since we are into February at this point, that it’s time to stop meandering around and finish this series. With that said, look forward to a double post tomorrow where I’ll be revealing Game-Wisdom’s #1 game of 2012.
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