Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun Reviews

Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun is ranked in the 91st percentile of games scored on OpenCritic.
9 / 10.0
Sep 7, 2017

I can't recommend Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun enough to fans of strategy and stealth titles. There is a high level of replay value, and there's a sandbox feel to the levels, so players can determine how to beat them in a variety of ways.

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85 / 100
Jan 26, 2017

Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun is a great stealth experience featuring a diverse squad of deadly assassins ready to implement the perfect plan.

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8 / 10
Aug 12, 2017

There is a certain charm in attempting stealth in Shadow Tactics and with its focus on tactical aspects of combat, the story unforuately takes a backseat to the gameplay.

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8.5 / 10.0
Jan 10, 2017

Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun is a pleasant surprise. In a time when the genre is making a comeback, it adheres to some of the popular traits while still providing a fresh setting, an interesting story and a good set of characters. Stealth fans will love the level of intelligence in the enemies, while light strategy fans will love the various options at their disposal for accomplishing even the simplest of tasks. With a good presentation and solid controls for both keyboard/mouse and controller, Shadow Tactics is an excellent choice for anyone who's looking for the next strategy or stealth game fix.

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GameGrin
Top Critic
9 / 10.0
Jan 10, 2017

A brilliant tactical puzzle game, interesting story, engaging characters, slick controls and beautiful maps make this a very enjoyable play. It’ll take you while to get through each level but it’s very rewarding when your plans all come together and you feel like a master ninja!

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Cubed3
Eric
Top Critic
5 / 10
Jan 13, 2017

Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun is a game hardcore puzzle types will enjoy, despite what any screenshot looks like, but any fan of RTS or even stealth games will be annoyed by the very narrow path of figuring out the current "stealth puzzle" facing them. If it is any indication of the slog that will be faced, a warning appears if you have not saved in over a minute. For the very narrow niche of puzzle gamers, they will enjoy figuring it out, but for everyone else, it is simply far too much guess-and-check, and the pure repetition grinds the player down.

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8.7 / 10.0
Dec 8, 2016

Everything in Shadow Tactics is just so refreshing (and challenging that’ll ultimately get you frustrated, but will still make you play the game because you really want to know what’ll happen next, too), and it is really a huge surprise to me that such game still exists during this time of generic triple A titles.

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9.5 / 10.0
Aug 24, 2021

Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun is a really great and difficult game, it is a challenge for tactical thinking. If you liked the game Commandos, you like real-time strategy, stealth action and you like challenges and Japan, this game is for you. It's no wonder this game is holding high ranks in all the ratings.

Review in Czech | Read full review

80%
Jan 16, 2017

Shadow Tactics is going to soothe the soul of many strategy game fans, even of those that haven't played the old classics. Its gripping story makes it easy to recommend.

Review in Slovak | Read full review

9 / 10.0
Feb 5, 2017

Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun is a breath of fresh air for the real-time tactics genre, and a wickedly difficult, satisfying gameplay experience.

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8.5 / 10.0
Sep 3, 2017

If you enjoy stealth and tactical games and even some Japanese history I suggest that you pick it up. The game can be tough as nails and the temptation to rage quit when nearly an hour of progress is lost because you saved in the wrong place is there, but the satisfaction when you get things just right will soon have you coming back for more.

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9.5 / 10.0
Nov 9, 2018

Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun is a game that hits me right square in the nostalgia, almost completely disarming of my faculties as a critic. As a love letter to the fans of Commandos, it is a dream come true.

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8.5 / 10.0
Sep 13, 2017

Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun made my eyes tear. Playing the game I started to reminisce about the old days. The game is really similar to Commandos series, featuring a distinct and flavourful heroes. Crippled sniper, a child-thief, shinobi, samurai. They all make a ragtag team of personalities who have the same goal, but every single person has a different motivation - loyalty, wealth, fun. Put it simply, it's a perfect strategic game focusing on a single person-scale operations.

Review in Polish | Read full review

7.5 / 10.0
Nov 25, 2016

I think the concept concocted by Mimimi Productions alone was what made Shadow Tactics a worthwhile game to make, and even more worthwhile to play.

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8 / 10.0
Dec 9, 2016

We are in front of a genre that seemed to have disappeared, even though it had strongly marked the 2000s, the kind of tactics in real time; thanks to Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun, the Mimimi Production team really succeeds in bringing back strength and strength to this type of game.

Review in Italian | Read full review

7.4 / 10.0
Oct 2, 2017

A game with loads of challenges, hours of playtime and a a solid use of console controls which help to overcome lots of the usual frustrations with PC ports.

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Nov 28, 2016

Mimimi aus München haben die Echtzeit-Taktik würdig wiederbelebt und bis auf ein paar Kleinigkeiten prima an moderne Standards angepasst. Bitte mehr davon!

Review in German | Read full review

Aug 1, 2017

Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun is a masterpiece of hardcore stealth gaming. You’re constantly outnumbered and outgunned by enemies that react rather convincingly to your presence. It takes full mastery of the wide array of tools at your disposal to turn the tides. Success takes patience and cunning, but the reward is immensely satisfying.

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8.3 / 10.0
Aug 8, 2017

Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun macht seine Arbeit auch auf der Xbox One und Playstation 4 sehr ordentlich. Optisch steht das Spiel der PC Version um nichts nach und auch die Steuerung mit dem Gamepad geht locker und leicht von der Hand. Die rund 25 stündige Spielzeit der Kampagne resultiert Großteils zu Schulden der Trial & Error Passagen, die viele Spieler und Genre-Einsteiger abschrecken könnten. Denn unter dem hohen Schwierigkeitsgrad und dem ständigen Neu-Laden des Geschehens leidet der Spielspaß enorm, was sich in den späteren Missionen deutlich bemerkbar macht. Wer sich jedoch voll darauf einlässt und eine Herausforderung sucht, der kann ohne Zögern zugreifen, denn mit Shadow Tactis: Blades of the Shogun wartet ein wahres Echtzeit-Strategie Meisterwerk darauf, auch auf der aktuellen Konsolengeneration gespielt zu werden.

Review in German | Read full review

Essential
Jul 31, 2017

Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun is a great game, one that has a ton of replay value and allows you to experiment with various ways to achieve your mission objectives. If you're a fan of Commandos from the old days, then this game will bring that back with a modern gameplay twist.

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