This is one of the only games that I have completed in the past couple of years on the "normal" setting. I usually lose interest if a game becomes too difficult because it seems most games, rather than having the gameplay change as the game carries on will simply make it increasingly difficult. This is why I never played Super Meat Boy.
Mark of the Ninja is a side-scrolling platformer that involves the use of stealth in order to complete the missions. Just like Hitman, you CAN just rage through parts of the missions, but it is very unlikely you are going to win that way. You need to use the shadows to your advantage and find alternate methods of entering buildings in order to reach your target.
You are given new weapons as the game carries on but mostly your katana and stealth are the main tools of the trade. The game is very dark and well, that is kind of the point. Darkness is your friend if trying to remain hidden. By the way the scenery is wonderfully drawn.
One of the best aspects of the game is that the same vision restrictions that the enemy has, you also have. You cannot see through walls to determine where to enter a building. You must rely on sounds that are visually represented on the screen to identify where people are walking above and below. Choose incorrectly and a rifle might be pointed in your face when you open the door / window.
One aspect of the game that i find amusing in this and really any other stealth game is that you can run into a room and actually throw a knife and hit a guard, then if you run and hide, the guards come off high alert after a certain amount of time and resume their patrol patterns. I don't know about you, but if i had just been STABBED I might think there was a reason to stay on high alert for longer than 30 seconds.
I am a casual gamer and will rarely play a game long enough to truly get good at it. This game is difficult enough to be challenging but simple enough for non-hardcore gamers to get on board with. It was less than $20 when i bought it years ago and i consider it to be one of the best "bang for the buck" games I have ever purchased.
10 / 10