Ninja Gaiden 2

Well, I was able to play the sequel to this Xbox hit for about 10 minutes last night. And my first impression was "wow". The fluidity of the fighting is unmatched in my limited experience and the blood/gore factor is huge. The controls are tricky at first if you haven't played the first one, and at times the attack button didn't seem to respond well to my button mashing, but that may be because my controller needs some oiling.

I've heard a lot of complaints about the camera. Again, if you haven't played the first one, the unconventional third person camera swings can feel very nauseous and unnerving at first. After you get used to it though, you won't want to go back to the still camera 15 feet above your character.

The fighting is what drives this game. It is amazing. As of right now I only have the dragon sword you start with but the additions they made to the fight were needed. You can now chop off limbs as well as decapitating enemies, like in the first one. However, enemies with just one limb off are much more dangerous and can still attack you (finish these off quickly). The game allows you a few finishing moves with a few different camera angles by merely pushing 'Y' near an injured enemy.

Another excellent addition to the gameplay is adding wounds to your health. In the first one, the reason it was so hard was because you had to use all your potions on the regular enemies and not the boss at the end of the level. This one will regenerate your health up to the most it can be after the fight is over. However, extra hard hits, or grappels, cause you to gain wounds which cannot be gained back without the use of a 'healing herb' or a save point (which also grants health now). Your health will regenerate to the max allowed minus the wounds received.

The best change that Team Ninja made was changing the action button from 'X' to the right bumper button. This makes fighting around doors infinitely better. And a welcome adjustment.

If I were to give it a score then it would have to be 8.8-8.9 right now. Slightly below the first one because of originality and it seems to rely on highflying gameplay rather than plot line. It seems that I will thoroughly enjoy the game but as of the first 10 minutes of gameplay that is my assessment. I'll keep you posted.

~J