Mark of the Ninja: Remastered Reviews

Back when Klei Entertainment did some amazing games and did not focus 100% of their effort on Don't Starve. I want my Shank 1 & 2 remastered AND Shank 3 god damn it!

An incredible experience, absolutely one of the best stealth games [b]ever made[/b]. I'd implore [i]anyone[/i],[i] [/i]fan of stealth games or not, to play it (or at least give it a try).

I haven't finished the game yet, but, so far, it's fun and not too reflex oriented. There are tricks you can use with your powers to allow you to plan out your actions at your own pace in regards to what is on screen. I'm using a controller, so I can't speak to the K/M controls.

Short but good stealth game. It twists the story in interesting ways too. It's not perfect, it can be really frustrating at times, especially with the trap map, where a lot of what you do, need to be trail and error with no real logic to understanding them the first time you come across them. Overall though, I do recommend it. Good voice acting, good art and good stealth gameplay.

Mark of the Ninja’s core strengths and weaknesses largely stem from the same source. MOTN is a pretty simple game on the mechanical side, taking most of the core features of other stealth games and condensing them into a 2d environment. This approach has its benefits –there’s a much greater degree of visual clarity for environments and enemies and players are less likely to be screwed over by weird physics issues– but it also limits what the game is capable of. Having access to so much information reduces tension and the enemies aren’t observant enough to balance things out. Meanwhile, navigating a 2d space is far simpler than a 3d one making traversal through the levels feel a lot less varied compared to other major stealth titles as there are few unconventional or hidden approaches that it's possible to take. It makes for a game that’s quite easy to learn and pick up (good considering its short runtime) but with a low skill ceiling. I played nonlethally and with none of the optional abilities but still managed to get max rank on nearly every level without much difficulty. The picture is the same when looking at MOTN’s stealth mechanics. There’s a decent variety of items and abilities you can use to supplement your starting kit, but aside from the tutorial sections where they’re introduced none of these additions are required or even feel well-integrated with the rest of the gameplay. Rather than expanding how you can approach the game, they feel more like a means of bypassing challenges entirely. If you’re struggling to sneak past a guard, you can lure them away with a distraction or temporarily blind them with a flash grenade. If you come across a laser trap, rather than finding a way around it or disabling the trap by finding its power source, you could also just toss a smoke bomb which disables the lasers until the smoke dissipates. For a game that's already quite easy, the upgrades far outpace the increased difficulty of the enemies and levels such that MOTN gets easier rather than harder the further your progress until you’re near the very end of the game. Most of the ways the game gets more difficult (stronger enemies in particular) don’t even come into play if you’re sneaky enough not to get caught so there’s very little added challenge between the beginning and the mid/late game. There is a decent foundation here, but it's clearly lacking. The only way to get more variety is to sacrifice difficulty, meanwhile the base game never feels so hard that bypassing the challenges ever felt necessary or even desirable. For any semi-skilled player you’ll essentially be playing the whole game with nothing but the tools you get at the very start plus one ability that unlocks near the end. And while the enemy placements and level design are good enough that the limited toolset is still enjoyable to use, once you start to learn the patterns and get a feel for how the designers intend for you to solve something, it's not hard to actually execute it. But while I complain that MOTN is too easy overall, it still has some elements that feel quite unfair to deal with and make some portions of the game needlessly difficult or frustrating to deal with. There’s a heavy emphasis on sticking to the shadows to avoid detection, but at the same time the game does a poor job at distinguishing between light and dark areas. Your current position is easy to tell –when standing in light your character will be in full color, but when in the dark they’ll only be pictured in black and white– but when moving to another spot it can be hard to tell, especially in outdoor areas. A spot can look bright but not be considered bright enough that you can be detected in them (or vice versa, but to a lesser extent). While in the darkness, enemies can only see you when you’re in their vision cone but if you’re in the light they can see from wherever they’re standing as long as they’re facing the correct way. So stepping into the light can easily be a death sentence but without a reliable way of distinguishing between the two it places an unnecessary amount of risk onto any player movements, encouraging you to take alternate routes that are more certain but also more boring. There are a few frustrating technical issues as well. Checkpoints were handled quite poorly, sometimes respawning me directly into an enemy’s line of light and forcing me to either continue with the alarm raised or restart the whole level. Controls were also awkward when playing with Keyboard+Mouse as the game would sometimes disregard my mouse and give me the Keyboard prompt for something instead (Entering a hiding spot, for example, is E on the keyboard or right click on the mouse, but if I walked up to it using WASD then the game prompted me to use E since it recognizes I’m using a keyboard instead of right click since I still have a mouse). And the game binds too many actions to each key with many interactions (moving/dropping a body, entering a hiding spot, pulling a switch, etc) all using the same prompt which often meant doing something I didn’t intend because the game changed what it was indicating my button press would do at the last second. And just to mention it, the story is fine. It’s serviceable as a way of contextualizing your actions but it's pretty simple and predictable so there isn’t any reason to get invested. MOTN is still a decent game and I recommend it if you just want to kill a few hours. It has enough going on to keep you invested in the moment-to-moment without ever being overwhelming and, while hardly compared to the genre’s greats, the stealth mechanics are fun to engage with. It’s hardly a game that will stick in my mind for too long but I don’t regret my time with it.

Amazing game! Lovely level design. Cool lore. Well finished. As usual Klei met and surpassed expectations.

Very well put together, great visuals, amazing game play and mechanics, it is just a great game.

The game mechanics quite fun and allow players to creatively execute the combat process

w game. Loved the stealth mechanics

Mark of the Ninja: Remastered is an absolute masterclass in stealth gameplay, blending fluid movement, strategic decision-making, and a beautifully stylized presentation into one of the best 2D stealth experiences ever made. Whether you're a stealth game veteran or a newcomer to the genre, this game is a must-play. The controls are incredibly smooth and responsive, allowing you to sneak, climb, and take down enemies with precision. Every movement feels intentional, and the game gives you complete control over how you approach each level—whether you choose to remain completely unseen or take down every enemy methodically. The variety of tools and abilities at your disposal, from distraction items to lethal assassination techniques, ensures that every encounter feels dynamic. The level design is superb, offering multiple paths, secret areas, and creative ways to eliminate or avoid enemies. The game rewards patience and planning, but it never feels punishing, thanks to generous checkpointing and intuitive mechanics that encourage experimentation. The hand-drawn art style is stunning, with smooth animations and striking lighting effects that emphasize the importance of shadows and visibility. The sound design is equally impressive, using audio cues to enhance the tension and make sneaking through levels even more immersive. The remastered edition polishes an already fantastic game, improving textures, animations, and adding higher fidelity visuals while maintaining the game’s signature aesthetic. The inclusion of the Special Edition content, which adds an extra level and developer commentary, makes it an even better package. With its brilliant stealth mechanics, engaging progression system, and stylish presentation, Mark of the Ninja: Remastered is an essential title for anyone who enjoys tactical, skill-based gameplay. Rating: 9.5/10 – One of the best stealth games ever made, now even better.