Alrighty let's not get our ♥♥♥♥'s twisted this game at it's core is fkn awesome and I still feel as though it's worth your time and money (on sale). That being said this is not the "black" or definitive version of NG II. This is a definitive version of Sigma 2, not original 2; which sucks since original 2 is what everyone wanted this to be. While Sigma 2 isn't inherently a bad game by any means it's just not at all what original NG II is supposed to be. Original NG II is a balls to the wall adrenaline rush heart racing hack n slash that is challenging as hell but keeps you coming back due to it's fundamentally fun game play. Gameplay in 2 black is still great but some weapon combo's straight up don't even work when compared to original 2 or even sigma 2 for that matter. One of the more memorable boss fights (The fkn statue of liberty) is outright removed from this for actually no reason, because game dev's just love to cut cool content. Another issue that only a certain minority of people care about is also it's visual presentation, this game being put into unreal engine 5 hurt it in 2 big ways. First one being how a lot of the combative flair seems to be shelved in this, most weapons don't have that visual punch that they really should given how insane the combat that this game is known for. Sword slashes, explosions, slams of the heavier weapons are just reduced or non existent since in general UE 5 doesn't do well with stylistic games and are better used for realism; and given that NG has always had a high octane almost anime style presentation it doesn't mesh all that well and honestly looks fan made. One big technical problem this game suffers from when it comes to UE 5 is it's optimization which in some cases will result in poor input delay which is the absolute last thing you'd want for a game like this and have to drop the FSR/DLSS upscaling to fix which at this point is almost imperative for a stable frame rate since good game optimization is dying. All things considered it's still a good way to experience Ninja Gaiden 2 and will hopefully at least get a newcomer to get into the series and wanna check out all iterations of each installment. It still however beats out most over-saturated souls games and I'd still say if your interested check it out for yourself n make your own opinion.

An unfortunate drop from me. I really did enjoy the first 4-5 chapters of the chapter and from chapter 6, the game became very very dry. same enemy variant, no story substance. please just play the original if youre looking for a good experience.

The awesome decapitations and the traversal mechanics like running on walls and on water could have been the basis for a cool, simple, flashy game, but the combat is kinda janky, the bad camera quickly wears you down and then comes the nail in the coffin which are the annoying enemies introduced in the second half.

You can have some fun with this game, especially if you like Team Ninja, but get it on sale if you want to check it out.