If there's one game series that seems to have magnified upon the formula of actually being a ninja, it would have to be K2's long-running Tenchu series. Sure, NInja Gaiden offered plenty of visceral thrills and the kind of break-neck gameplay that actually left quite a few gamers stunned, but if you want to talk about being in the shoes of a ninja and perfecting techniques that involve both precision and stealth, then Tenchu is arguably the way to go. The series had enjoyed some success on the Sony PlayStation with the releases of Tenchu and Tenchu 2, before shifting its way onto the PlayStation 2 with Tenchu: Wrath of Heaven and also making its way onto the Xbox, complete with a multiplayer option for Xbox Live. Now, with the series shifting hands from Activision to Sega, the series returns for an "all-new" adventure titled Tenchu: Fatal Shadows for the PlayStation 2.

Notice the quote marks around the words all-new...see that? The reason I quoted the game like that is because it may seem like an all new entry in the series, with a different storyline and all, but as you play, you'll probably find yourself noticing that not much has really changed. Fatal Shadows really seems more like an expansion to Wrath of Heaven rather than a genuine sequel, as it rarely catapults itself into sequel status and instead follows typical formula. In some ways, I can understand why K2 chose this route, but then little things pop up that make me question why improvements weren't implemented.

The game's story does take a shift, but it's for the disappointing, I believe. In the game, you find yourself watching Ayame, the heroic and sexy female ninja from Wrath stumbling into a burning village, shortly after the disappearance of her fellow ninja Rikimura (the male from Wrath). In this village, Ayame runs into a fellow ninja, a petite female by the name of Rin with a large sword, and somehow the two are woven into a plot for revenge. So the beauty and mystical nature of Wrath of Heaven has succumbed into another "let's get revenge" plot. I suppose it works for the formula in mind, but I expected something more.

The game, which takes place in feudal Japan, once again boasts a design that is typical for the series- villages, forests, and other locations to sneak through and plenty of guards to dispatch. The environments still look as great as they always have, although there's not much significant change to the levels themselves. You can sneak around walls, jump on rooftops, hang along walls, and even do a little wall running, a neat little feature obviously borrowed from Prince of Persia that comes in handy in spots. They seem to be a bit bigger, which is nice, but some might be bored by the design at this point. The animation still looks good, but the frame rate stutters, mostly during stealth kills and when multiple enemies are on the screen at once. This could've easily been fixed somewhere in development.

Let's talk about the nature of stealth kills. K2 has wisely added a neat little component where you can actually kill two guards at once with a stealth kill. (However, the opportunity doesn't nearly present itself as often as it should.) If that's not your thing, you can just stick with the traditional "kill one enemy rather brutally" death to score yourself a bonus scroll. However, should that not work and the guard spots you, you can engage in a simple little battle with a three-hit combo attack or jump behind them and strike from the rear. The gameplay still remains alright when it comes to this sort of action, but the camera system is really problematic, and sometimes leaves you striking air when you should in fact be taking down an enemy. This is frustrating, especially during a boss fight where you miss a plan of attack and then watch as they unleash hell on you.

Past that, the gameplay never really expands past the basics. The more scrolls you collect, the more moves you can unlock, but they're done for good looks rather than adding any genuine style to your method of attack. Furthermore, while you have a huge array of ninja weaponry and tools at hand, including the grappling hook and a few shuriken toys, there's nothing really significant here to define evolution in the ninja theme. Some useful weapons or traps would have been great here.

Another huge flaw that the series continues to have is some stunningly bad computer intelligence. Sure, an enemy can notice you standing around or a body of a guard that makes them alert for, oh, twenty seconds, but I cannot figure out why K2 hasn't fixed this where they're more aggressive. A guard sees something that alerts him, draws his weapon, and demands that you show yourself. After waiting for ten or twenty seconds, they become a little less interested, then realize it's just the wind or something like that. Um, excuse me? You see some figure in black dancing around and then jump on a roof and then you assume it's not a threat? I know that this kind of stupidity is something that fans can jump on just to get the stealth kill, but come on. You'd think that K2 would've advanced this to a point where the guard would get other guards or set a trap or something to make things a bit more interesting.

The game runs into other flaws. Rin, while playing pretty solidly alongside Ayame (sometimes you control both during a mission, going back and forth), doesn't really measure up to what Rikimura had to offer. She's pretty agile, but lacks the substance of what the older ninja had. The sound department fails to really innovate, keeping some slick traditional tunes but bogging down the speakers with generic sound effects and horrible US voice acting. (Fortunately, a Japanese language option can be unlocked the further you get into a game- most recommended.) And while the game is pretty lengthy and has some features to unlock (as well as a Boss Mode you can try out), it's eliminated the Multiplayer option. This may not seem like bread and butter to all the fans out there, but I thought multiplayer added a level of depth to the game and made it that much more enjoyable after conquering the single player modes. Without it, the game just feels lacking.

Tenchu: Fatal Shadows isn't a bad game by any means, it just stumbles backwards when it's supposed to be lunging ahead. Too many of the elements feel like they've been lifted from Tenchu: Wrath of Heaven when a little more time and effort in every direction could've made this feel like a genuine sequel. I like some of the ideas (the double stealth kills, the introduction of a new female to get attention), but just can't get past the disappointment of lacking execution. Maybe next time, on the PS3 or Xbox Next, we'll get the shiny, brazen ninja blade that we deserve, instead of the cookie cutter, me-too sword you could probably find at a trade convention. Rent it and see if you're up to the cut- otherwise, go back to Heaven.