Just as with the predecessors, the camera lets the gameplay down seriously. When running about large areas, the camera trails behind the player, twitching and skipping should any scenery get in the way. Frustratingly, when moving around a small area, as you might when trying to sneak up on an enemy, the point of view remains fixed leaving you essentially blind to what's in store. A quick blip on the sneak button brings the camera to heel, but too often this isn't quite where you want it. For a game where awareness of the surroundings is paramount, the camera system is utterly inadequate. More surprising is the fact that this is an issue that has been with the Tenchu series since the very beginning. Seeing it go unfixed on the second revision is disappointing (to the point where this writer gave up on the second level of Tenchu 2) but to have such a fundamental issue go unaddressed eight years down the line is simply negligent.
Graphically the game isn't exactly a watercolour, let alone an oil painting. Characters look reasonable, but animation jumps unnaturally between one cycle and the next - enemies standing on guard will snap 90 degrees when turning to look around. With block-based scenery construction, you're never far from levels reminiscent of the original Tomb Raider, resulting in caves, hills and crevasses that appear to be made from a set of painted crates. With such primitive scenery, it's startling just how poor the draw distance is. We can only assume that this myopia is an intentional gameplay mechanic - somewhere in the big book of gameplay there must be a chapter on how non-player characters should be capable of 'seeing' your character from far beyond your field of vision - either that or the creators of Tenchu were just taking the piss. Having an enemy spot you when you cannot see them, which in this case it around 10 metres (30 feet) is a crippling flaw for a stealth game. Especially so when - after painstakingly plodding through a lengthy mission - an eagle-eyed enemy spots you from way beyond the murk. The ensuing kerfuffle is likely to bring further enemy attention, sending your ranking straight down the pan - if you survive.
Getting beyond the minor issue of not being able to see what the hell is going on, there are audio cues to help you out. With the tiny PSP speakers lacking surround there's not much that can be done to point you in the right direction, but different characters make different sounds as they wander around. This can at least give you a heads up on what or who it is you're about to deal with.
Ultimately you'll get drawn into face-to-face fights - none of that sneaking up and sticking a sword into the top of the skull. Now, here the action is solid and plays well. Thankfully, you can lock-on to the enemy, which avoids the flaky camera angles and places it right over your shoulder. With block/attack combos you can even make your way through a gang of enemies without too much effort. However, the aim of a stealth game is to NOT get into mass fights!
When you've exhausted the many story and stand-alone missions, those of a creative bent can turn to crafting their own. The mission builder provides the tools to set the scene with a selection of images and music and your own intro text. Constructing the level layout is straightforward and fairly simple to get a handle on, though there's a pretty comprehensive tutorial if you hit upon a snag. The layout is based on selection of block-based elements laid down in a grid arrangement, which differ in type depending on the setting of your levels. For example, in the dojo you can choose from walls, stairs and ceilings, plus water, cellars, pits and a selection of traps; however, in the town setting you can place buildings and create hills.
Placing enemies and civilians is a simple matter for dropping the chosen character at a start point and drawing out their route, with points where they wait, look out or sleep. When you've got the fundamentals down, you can tart things up a little with lanterns, bushes, fences and so on. In a short space of time - so long as you have it planned out before you begin - you can quickly create missions on a par with those in the game. However, no matter how you try, just like the game itself, the levels are more akin to a kid's Lego creation than a real world environment.
It's possible to create missions that can be shared in multiplayer mode. With multiplayer you have the option to work in cooperative or against one another. The versus games probably provide a more balanced experience than the single player game, as both you and your opponent are crippled with the same inability to see beyond the claustrophobic veil of darkness. It's disappointing that the game requires both players to have a copy of the game, instead of allowing for over-the-air game sharing.
After lengthy play, hoping that the problems are an issue of the levels design of a particular mission, or that there's some magic button to make the camera to behave well, we can say that things don't get any better. If anything, it's worse really, as the difficulty increases as you progress. For a series that's been around for so many years, it's a great disappointment that the gameplay hasn't seen
any improvement and that the technology hasn't evolved despite the evolution of the host hardware.
Fans of the series hoping for these issues to be resolved must now look to the Nintendo DS re-take on the game, facilitating the dual screen, touch-based action.
SPOnG Score: D
At its core you just know there's a sound game here, so it's sad to see that snatched away by the robbing hands of poor implementation. On the most part, with a bit of effort and practice, it's possible to work around the camera issues with a combination of sneaking, grapple targeting and first-person view. However, it's completely unreasonable that in a game where it's imperative that you are not seen, you can't even see where the possible threats are because of the horrible camera system. Coupled with the hideously short field of vision, the game moves from cumbersome to seriously frustrating.
