
Dealspwn Rating: 5/10
Developer: Agetec
Publisher: Agetec
The year is 1560. Which, as any fule kno – cough, splutter – is the Sengoku Era, when Feudal Japan was in a violent political mess. Yeah, who says games can’t be educational?
Actually, that’s about it as far as the history lesson goes. It was, as that movie voiceover chap would have it, a time of war and that makes it a very good setting for this hack-and-slash title with a bit of a twist. You are an inexperienced Samurai. There are three factions battling for supremacy: the Fujimori Clan, the Ouka Clan and the villagers. Will you choose sides? Will you play one off against the others for your own gain and greed? Will you be a power of good through the land? Or will you be nasty and kill anyone who crosses your path? Your choices will determine what sort of game you have.
Only, of course, they won’t. Well not fully. For all the claims that Way of the Samurai is an “open world” game, with far-reaching decisions that will change your game, the AI for the billed “cause and effect” angle just isn’t quite up the level needed to make this a truly satisfying experience.

After an impressive start – a cut scene that wouldn’t look out of place in a Jet Li movie or, perhaps more likely, Season Two of Heroes – your Samurai (I called mine Daveymoto, because I’m such a wag) is in bad shape and is found by two passers-by. If you’re vaguely polite here, your Samurai will pass out and come round in a pretty little village called Takatane. If you’re aggressive and pull your sword – you regularly have a choice of flashing the blade or kneeling in submissive apology – you’ll make a startling recovery, terrify your potential rescuers and find yourself running through a gory battlefield… Either way, however, you pretty much end up in the same place: wandering around places trying to work out what the hell is going on.



















Platform: PS3
















