Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun

Shadow Tactics is a 2016 real-time stealth tactics game from the German studio Mimimi. It is set in Japan in 1615, and follows five specialists working for the shogun: a ninja, a samurai, a young thief, a female spy who disguises herself, and an old sniper.

It plays like Commandos: an overhead view of large maps, guards with visible sight cones, and characters with complementary skills, controlled in real time. Its key addition is Shadow Mode, which lets you set one action for each character and launch them all at once.

It is widely considered the modern masterpiece of the genre. Its maps are large and dense, its characters are memorable, and Shadow Mode makes coordinated attacks a pleasure. Its story is better than the genre's average.

Like all games of this kind, it is built on saving and reloading, which some players find tiresome.

Shadow Tactics is the most faithful modern heir of Commandos, and it improves on it. Shadow Mode is the coordination tool Commandos lacked, inherited from Desperados' Quick Action. If you liked Commandos, this is the next game to play.