First of all for the story. There isn't one. The story is weak, bad and in some cases strange, you will be consistently wondering how you got somewhere, better yet, why you went somewhere. I don't want to give any spoilers but all you need to know is that the emphasis is on gameplay not story.
And luckily the gameplay is great. You have an arsenal of weapons, ranging from a massive scythe which will literally take your enemies legs off to a staff which will cause your foes heads to explode. And also a number of ranged weapons including my favourite; the gattling spear gun. The animation of the fights is great and one of the best features is the ability to dismember most of your enemies. You can take off a leg or both legs, or an arm or both arms, or if you are lucky you will instantly take their head off. Now when an arm goes flying off into the distance it doesn't mean they are dead, in some cases it actually makes them stronger. Certain foes will sacrifice themselves to try and take you will with them, while others will just throw whatever they have at you and keep their distance. It makes the gameplay more intuitive and keeps you guessing. However when a leg or arm is taken off it makes them vulnerable to obliteration techniques. These are maneuvers which will kill the enemy quickly and generally in a very gory way. Although these look very cool and to get rid of some enemies it is a necessity, it does become a bit of an annoyance in that you will almost always have to use it. Sadly though the game does in a lot of cases become a button masher and you will catch yourself using the same set of combos over and over again.
However the design of enemies is brilliant, there are a large variety of normal enemies with great AI. There is a number of different types of demons and ninja type foes and you never fight the same enemy for too long which keeps the combat feeling fresh. But where this game attempts to shine is the bosses which in my opinion are a mixed bag. When you first fight the bosses they are fun and something new, but Team Ninja (the developers) thought it would be a brilliant idea to make you fight them again and maybe even again. Fighting the same boss again with 1 or 2 normal enemies with them isn't fun or inventive. Also the difficulty of the bosses throughout the game isn't progressive, the greater fiends who you would expect to be difficult are actually the easier of the bosses in comparison to the random, none story related based bosses.
The worst part of this game is the camera, it is possibly one of the worst cameras in a game. Although for a game that is this fast paced it must be very difficult to make a good camera. But still the majority of your deaths will be as a result of the camera facing in the wrong direction and just switching to a random and pointless view point. You will likely get the hang of it and learn moves that move you towards enemies anyway. But there is a definite learning curve to this.
The original Ninja Gaiden is remembered for being ridiculously hard, and this is not lost in Ninja Gaiden 2. This game will run your morale down and make you cry, it is one of the most frustrating games i have played in a long time. It is extremely hard and i am sure a number of 360 controller will be thrown and hit during this game (just don't throw it at your TV).
So to sum up, buy this game if you want a challenge and to go back to the old school style of gaming where you will actually get stuck on a boss. But if you want to have fun throughout the game that you purchase avoid Ninja Gaiden 2, or play it on Acolyte mode. But for those hardcore it has a lot to offer with the score system for every level and a number of different leader boards to try and be the best at.
Score:
6.8 / 10
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