One moment describes why I love Mark of the Ninja so much. I encountered a group of guards patrolling an area I needed to get through. I could have simply sneaked past them, but I felt like toying around with them. So I took out one guard and strung up his body on a lamp post (then I went and hid back in the shadows). Two more guards walked near the post. The first one saw the body and panicked. He turned around, saw his fellow guard immediately behind him, became startled and shot the other guard dead. Now alone, he nervously walked back and forth, shooting at anything he found suspicious. Finally, overwhelmed by anxiety, he pointed his gun at himself and pulled the trigger.
You don't have to handle the game in this way, though. You can go through the whole thing and kill no one. It's a remarkable stealth game, honestly. It's certainly the best I've played in a long, long time. And it's all the more remarkable because it's done in a 2D environment. You
can sneak your way through everything. You
can kill everyone you see in a straight up fight (though that is very, very difficult. One or two bullets will kill you). You
can terrorize enemies into taking each other out. And you
can simply disable them temporarily with some of your tools. Each of these methods are fun. If you enjoy stealth games, Mark of the Ninja is a must-play.
