Mark of the Ninja makes stealth a series of choices: evade unseen, avoid kills or clear a path with assassinations. At $4.99 from Steam, weigh that focused campaign against the available player feedback and your interest in replaying levels for challenges and collectibles.
Steam players rate it 96%% positive across 11,743 reviews. The Steam PC version supports full controller use and custom keyboard and mouse controls, making the listed control options part of the buying decision.The English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, and Japanese interface languages suit a purchase at $4.99 from Steam, and Visa, Mastercard, and PayPal are available for payment.
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96%Steam Reviews11.7K reviews91Metacritic/100
Stealth · Platformer · Ninja · Indie · 2D
Steam+2·Platform:Steam·United States Steam official price~ $4.99Buy now
KinguinMark of the Ninja PC Steam CD Key+2·Platform:Steam·~ $16.87-48%from~ $8.72(~ €7.75)Buy now
GAMIVOMark of the Ninja EN/DE/FR/IT Global+2·Platform:Steam·from~ $8.87(~ €7.88)Buy now
EnebaMark of the Ninja Steam Key GLOBAL+2·Platform:Steam·~ $9.51Buy now
K4GMark of the Ninja Steam CD Key+2·Platform:Steam·from~ $12.19(~ €10.83)Buy now
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Mark of the Ninja is a 2D stealth action game about slipping past opponents through silence, agility and clever use of the surroundings. Each situation offers choices, from avoiding kills to eliminating every obstacle, while tools and techniques can be upgraded to suit your approach.Steam players rate it 96%% positive across 11,743 reviews.Steam PC supports keyboard and mouse controls as well as gamepads.
The Steam PC version supports full controller use and offers custom keyboard and mouse controls.
Ways to play
The story can be approached without killing anyone or by assassinating opponents. Optional objectives, score challenges and hidden collectibles add further goals.
After the story
Completing the main story unlocks New Game Plus, with additional challenges and rewards.
03Frequently asked questions
What choices shape each encounter?
You can move unseen past opponents or take a lethal approach; the game rewards different play styles.
What is New Game Plus?
It unlocks after completing the main story and adds challenges and rewards.
What can be found in each level?
Levels include three score challenges, optional objectives and hidden collectibles.
Popular Steam reviews
Native-language selection · 10 reviews
Selected helpful reviews in this language show both recommendations and criticisms. This selection does not represent the overall positive rating; opinions reflect the version reviewed.
RecommendedSteam player
Title: This confused me for a while. I interpreted it in a manner similar to "George of the Jungle", and spent a good space of time believing that the protagonist was named Mark. Somewhere, deep in my heart, I still believe his name is Mark. As such, I will be referring to the protagonist as Mark for the duration of this review, and afterwards as well.
Graphics: It's like playing a cartoon which is kind of cool. I watched Samurai Jack one time, and he was pretty neat. I like to consider Mark as like his cousin on his mother's husband's side or something. The graphics contain many cool features such as ninjas, lights, and enemies. Some people consider the characters to be two-dimensional, but I think that they're just drawn that way so we shouldn't make fun of them. Everything is nice and fluid, it's like the characters are made of water or maybe filled with *blood.
Sound: The characters have voices and they use them to say things like"HURGH" or "BLARGLREGARGLEBLARGH" when you stab them
Gameplay: Gameplay is very stealth-centric, meaning it may be difficult to notice at first. Once you manage to spot it, however, you'll be hooked. And so will the guards.
There are lots of great ways to sneak around, like kill the guards, or hide from the guards, or scare the guards so much that they shoot their friends and kill them for you #Teamwork2014 #JustGuardThings #Livin'It
You get gadgets and they're useful
You can think in this game, and I've grown to appreciate how thinking stops time so you can decide where you want to throw things like darts and smoke bombs.
I find it very distracting how much the game is based on distraction and getting guards to squander their attention on arbitrary things in the environment like the noise mine you threw behind them.
Story: Mark bears the mark of the ninja, which gives him extra abilities. One of those abilities is the ability to take Revengeance upon the bad guys by killing them and stuff. Another ability is to go insane and kill your friends, which would be sad, but I guess they'd stop being your friends when they saw you trying to kill them so then you wouldn't be killing your friends it would just be a mob of angry dead not-friend ninjas which is entirely morally justifiable by comparison.
Title: 1
Sounds: a lot
Graphics: Probably more than ten, I wasn't really counting when I played it so I dont know the exact number of graphical assets involved
Story: 2 if you have the DLC thing, 3 if you count the two different endings based on your final choice.
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Total: pretty good game, almost bought again but realized that would be pointless
*This has, in multiple instances of gameplay, been confirmed true.Show moreShow less
9.3 hours at review215 people found this helpful
Not recommendedSteam player
A game that gives you a lot of ways to progress, but doesn't make things difficult. The game was longer than I suspected, and the story partially drew me in. The problem comes from the different skill-sets that should provide replayability, but if you don't want to go for full achievements or so, the game offers little more motivation to replay. The default difficulty level is too easy, and once you have completed the game once, you can start a new game on the plus mode. Which makes it more difficult, but also makes you wish you could have played the whole game through the first time with the plus mode. Because after breezing through a few missions on the plus mode, you get bored of the repetition and move on a new game. A solid game that gives 10+ hours of playtime, you can decide whether or not it is worth it's current price tag.Show moreShow less
21.7 hours at review75 people found this helpful
RecommendedSteam player
Mark of the Ninja is a mix between 2D platform and stealth killing, in wich you can always clearly see what's happening around you, making it easy to plan your moves.
Controls are greatly responsive and you have a good variety of ways to complete the interesting and diversified levels, in wich you can find optional stuff and complete secondary objectives; this and a New Game+ option make it easily replayable.
Graphics are very clear, and overall style is enjoyable.
Story felt uninteresting to me, but with solid mechanics like the ones this game has I can deal with it.Show moreShow less
38.9 hours at review212 people found this helpful
Not recommendedSteam player
I think I'm the only one I know who played this and wasn't a big fan. I mean it's not bad. All the stealth mechanics work pretty well and can be fairly rewarding, in that Arkham Asylum way where the last guy to disappear is kind of bricking himself and firing his gun at ghosts. I'm not sure what I didn't like so much. Something about its overall feel. I wasn't a big fan of its art style, which seems to try to emulate Genndy Tartakovsky using mostly motion tween. I didn't like the really hokey attempts at doing Asian things like those godawful haikus. I thought the upgrades system was a bit dumb and not handled very well in general. Most of all, I hate how this is a game where you have to really take your time and carefully pick your targets, but meanwhile Female the Ninja is nipping at your heels telling you to hurry up every three minutes. They flavor the whole thing with a completely out-of-place sense of urgency. It bugs me. But yeah, like I said, I'm the only one bothered by these things, apparently, and the core game does hold up pretty well.Show moreShow less
8.8 hours at review67 people found this helpful
RecommendedSteam player
Bear the Mark
Awesome sidescrolling platformer with excellent stealth gameplay with varied gameplay. Plenty of routes you can take and a variety of weapons and equipment at your disposal. Levels felt unique and boss battles didn't force you out of being stealthy. Also love it when games let you replay specific levels to improve score, find collectibles, etc. A definite must have if you enjoy stealth games.Show moreShow less
21.1 hours at review153 people found this helpful
Not recommendedSteam player
The game's main bait is the cool cartoonish look and animations. However, 30 minutes or less is all you need to experience all the game has to offer. Sure there are some additional bells and whistles that drop every once in a while as you progress, but they're requisites on top of a core that stays unchanged. So what fails?
Game design
As good as it looks in a 2-minute gameplay video or on a screenshot, the design doesn't have the depth and variety to make a 10-hour game. It just get's worn out.
Level design
Here's probably the weakest aspect of the whole game. You get the same level design with mild variations from beginning to the end. Too soon it starts to feel like doing chores.
In-game tasks
You have to complete small in-game tasks to earn points to level up. The tasks, however rather break the immersion than add anything to it. Most often they were just annoying, at best neutral, not once thrilling.
Story
The ending was surprisingly good in many ways. The rest of the story was plain and uninteresting though. Sad thing is, that a good story would have helped a lot to make up for some other missing features.
Mechanics
There's a strong stealth system built into the game, equal to the Hitman series. Here's where the game shines most. You sneak, hide, distract, terrorize, confuse, stealth kill enemies and more. Having pulled that off in 2D makes the outcome even sweeter. The power-ups shine with originality and come in handy, whatever approach you choose to go with. And on top of that, the quick time events while killing with a sword, gives a nice extra touch.
Replayability
Lots of replay value for three reasons:
1. Great game for speedrun.
2. You can try to complete all the mini-tasks and find all the hidden places.
3. Upon finishing the game you unlock a new difficulty mode with tougher challenges.
Verdict
I found myself struggling to finish the game because of the repetitive level design and the overall routine that I felt while playing. The in-game tasks made it feel like a competitive game, common to sports genre, whereas it should have focused more on the immersion and atmosphere. Despite the power-ups I didn't feel like there was much character development going on. Besides the philosophical ramblings thrown at you time after time, you never really get to know the character.Show moreShow less
11.8 hours at review48 people found this helpful
RecommendedSteam player
PROS:
+ Great gameplay
+ Interesting puzzles
+ Intriguing story
+ Awesome graphics
+ Wonderful animations
+ Great sound effects
+ Good music score
+ Good voice acting
+ Fair game length
+ Excellent replayability
CONS:
- Sometimes the controls could be troublesome
- A little repetitive
- Some issues with the checkpoint saving systemShow moreShow less
13.4 hours at review151 people found this helpful
Not recommendedSteam player
I really want to recommend this game, because I really do like it. 80% of the time I play, it feels amazing to be a stealthy, badass killer. The platforming and executions and traps all feel fantastic. But all too frequently I find myself fighting with the controls. This problem feels especially emphasized in the third world, which is filled with traps and hazards. When I die, or am seen and feel like I need to restart, I rarely feel that it was my fault. Instead, I'm left wondering how that guy saw me, or why my jump didn't register, or just plain yelling about how that wasn't the platform I was trying to climb to, or how I meant to climb on the ceiling but ended up jumping into an enemy instead. On top of that, I've encountered a few bugs, both bad ones that got me killed. In one case, the ui got frozen and refused to show me the execute qte. The other time, a laser beam stopped moving, blocking my path.
Another thing that may annoy you is the story. It's alright, a bit hit or miss, but there are a lot of cinematic moments, cutscenes, and tons of dialogue. That's going to either be a pro or a con for you, depending on what type of game you're looking for. The art's gorgeous, the sound's great, and the atmosphere is very well crafted, but I'd only recommend this on a steep sale, unless you're positive you'll love it.Show moreShow less
22.3 hours at review25 people found this helpful
RecommendedSteam player
Mark of the Ninja is an aesthetically pleasing, 2-D, stealth-based, side-scrolling platformer...a.k.a. a masterpiece. For those of you who want a brief overview without looking at it in the steam store, think of it as combining the best qualities of Thief, Dishonored, and Assassin's Creed and giving it all to you in a different, albeit wonderful, 2-D perspective.
To give you a sense of the story itself, you play as a ninja (no way, right?) who accepts the "First Mark," a tattoo which imbues mystical powers to the one who accepts it upon their body. While this seems like a fantastic benefit, accepting the mark means sacrificing yourself in the future because the ink is said to drive people to insanity (e.g., hallucinations). Your purpose-without spoilers-is to avenge your clan that was recently attacked by an evil arms corporation by utilizing your newly-acquired powers. As the story progresses, you receive more marks, more abilities, and more means to uncover the irreconcilable truth about your role, your clan itself, and those of power who essentially mean to save and/or destroy it.
Now if this hasn't already got you hooked or clicking off of my review to go buy it, then please allow me to further elaborate the feel of the gameplay. Mark of the Ninja does not care precisely how you play the game...to a certain extent. Yes, the stealth aspect is a given. This is not simply because this is the major theme/tag for the game itself (who knew?), but also because while you can dish out hits, you can't take many more hits than other enemies in the game. This is exceedingly true if you try to go in "weapons blazing" (expect to be punished and killed relentlessly if you do this). Despite this sometimes perceived "limitation" by some players, there are multiple routes and means of accomplishing each level through various stealth-based tactics. You can choose to be cruel, fast, and terrorizing, or merciful, meticulous, and tactful--or even a mix of these depending on the situation/your mood at any given moment! That's one of the most glorious aspects of the game: Freedom of choice to accomplish objectives. Combine this with the gorgeous settings for each level, and the 2-D game does not feel at all linear or dimensionally flat.
Finally, there are a couple of minor details I'd like to state that may or may not apply to other players (skip this if you like):
1) I admit that I played this game on steam with an Xbox 360 controller and not with the keyboard and mouse. I recommend doing so for the sake of the ease of controls. However, you may have your own preferences and be able to get used to keyboard/mouse controls faster in comparison to me.
2) At some points my computer lagged terribly due to how many various processes were going on in the game with the visual effects (e.g., when there was a raging sandstorm in one level). The creators even comment upon this minor flaw if you turn on the in-game commentary within the game itself (which I also recommend because it reveals some really awesome facets of the making of the game!).
3) Mark of the Ninja is a highly addictive game with major replay value. It took me 14 hours to complete it the first time through, and I intend on replaying it once again on new game+ mode in the future.
Hopefully, all of the aforementioned reasons will sway you to spend some money in steam to purchase a game that has certainly left its "mark" on me. Please don't think me insane for adamantly urging you to acquire this game instead of letting it sneak past some gamers unnoticed. I recommend picking it up immediately, but if you want to wait until it goes on sale in the steam store that's fine too. I doubt it will let you down regardless :)
In short, Mark of the Ninja gets a well-deserved 10/10 (ninja) stars in my book, and I'd like to thank Klei Entertainment for allowing me to play through this utterly amazing story.Show moreShow less
13.9 hours at review146 people found this helpful
Not recommendedSteam player
PC Steam Owners get Free upgrade? Well, I didn't get the free upgrade. Want's me to pay $5. How about, no? Don't shaft people on you're wordShow moreShow less
6.6 hours at review19 people found this helpful
Source: original Steam user reviews. Helpful votes are an archived snapshot, not live data. Last collected: 08/15/2026.
