Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 Review PS3

Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 continues the story of Ryu Hayubusa from Ninja Gaiden Sigma. The Black Spider Ninja Clan abducts a CIA agent named Sonia who is looking for Ryu. Eventually, the leader of the Black Spider Ninja Clan, Genshin, steals the Demon statue that Ryu’s village had been guarding. The statue is being used to resurrect the Archfiend Vazdah. The game jumps from locale to locale in search of the statue and various battles with the Black Spider Ninja Clan, fiends, and other monstrosities. The game is visually pleasing on the Playstation 3, but horrendous camera issues hamper gameplay to the point of ultimately quitting the game in utter frustration. The game is difficult, but the wonky camera creates an added difficulty that renders any strategy an instant failure.

Graphic and sound:

Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 looks spectacular on the PS3. Outdoor environments have a lush magical look as a result of the bloom effect lighting and particles such as dust and leaves filtering through the air. Resolution has been increased to 720p as opposed to the XBOX 360’s 585p resolution. Also, textures have been redone for everything except character models, which increases the level of detail. Waterfalls and other liquid surfaces look amazing with realistic translucency and reflection. The character models and environment modeling look solid although invisible walls section off the environments, when they should be large open worlds with the advent of Blu-Ray storage space capacity.

Background sounds add a bit of atmosphere in the outdoor environment, but indoor it seems as if everything is deadly silent. There should be machinery sounds, guards talking in whispers, but instead this game is dead aurally. Sword on sword clashes sound generic and repetitious considering all of the different weapons and combos that Ryu and other characters use. Voiceovers are the standard fare American translations, which always sound and look odd. The voice talent isn’t horrible, but it is easily forgettable unlike Uncharted 2.

Gameplay and controls:

Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 has three playable characters besides Ryu Hayubusa that come from other games in the series: Ayane, Momiji, and Rachel. NGS2 now has trophy support and includes an online or offline multiplayer support. The multiplayer mode is composed of two-player team missions of clearing out an area of ever-increasing difficulty enemies until the sub-bosses are eliminated. The single and multiplayer games have two difficulty levels, path of the acolyte and path of the warrior. The game has reduced gore, reworked bosses, easier difficulty, and reduced enemies on-screen. The result is a refined Ninja Gaiden 2 experience, but with one major flaw, the camera. The camera in Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 continues to be an unresolved issue even after 2 games and 2 revisions. The main battle in the game will be mostly with the camera controls rather than enemies. The player will want to go in one direction and the camera will turn in the opposite direction many times resulting in the player having a blocked view and being attacked mercilessly by enemies. Another issue that arises is that Ryu’s outfit blends in with the Black Spider Ninja Clan’s outfits, which results in the player losing track of where their character is and leads to needless injuries while the player tries to locate their character.

Overall thoughts:

Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 had a lot of potential, but instead of targeting the most important issue that has been plaguing the series since Ninja Gaiden on the original XBOX, the company seems to have given up on fixing the camera and focused on easier issues of balance and visual appeal. Camera issues should not even be a problem in this day and age with all of the 3^rd person perspective games that have been released since the original Tomb Raider years ago. Unfortunately, as a result of the horrible camera issues, most players will never take the time to play through this game that has so much potential, but falls flat on its face.