Current Events > List games that have a good balance of believable and fun stealth mechanics?

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We like to joke how absolutely unaware guards are and how illogical their reactions to an obvious intruder in video games. But even if it were technically possible, believable and realistic stealth mechanic might not be very fun or accessible.

So, what games strike a good balance of believable and fun stealth mechanics?

Splinter Cell Chaos Theory

Splinter Cell

Theif was always good for this to me. Primitive Ai not withstanding.

only stealth game i ever had fun with was the first dishonored

Thief and Thief 2.
Tenchu series, especially Wrath of Heaven

If we're only talking about believability in terms of guard awareness/behavior, then it's going to be games where your character is really OP to compensate, like Dishonored and Batman Arkham.

The Last of Us Part II
Deus Ex: Human Revolution

I did a (mostly) stealth run in CyberPunk 2077 and had a blast.

Completely broken if you use quickhacks and just drop overheat and overload on enemies while hiding in a corner, but the maps for missions are generally laid out to where it's really rewarding to do basic distractions and sneaking around behind obstacles and through holes in enemy patrols.

Kim_Seong-a posted...

I did a (mostly) stealth run in CyberPunk 2077 and had a blast.

Completely broken if you use quickhacks and just drop overheat and overload on enemies while hiding in a corner, but the maps for missions are generally laid out to where it's really rewarding to do basic distractions and sneaking around behind obstacles and through holes in enemy patrols.

Having the ability to identify enemies through walls and headshot them for millions of damage without them even knowing youre there was fun.

boxoto posted...

Deus Ex: Human Revolution

The only issue I have with dxhr is how you magically become part of the cover from the opposite side once you stick to the wall. Like, you know the guy should easily spot you on your waist high cover from where he's standing. Breaks the immersion for me. If ever they they remaster / remake it I hope they make waist high covers a bit higher and Jensen not go fully on wall edges.

This isn't an issue with old school splinter cells. I've also been replaying Tenchu 2 on PSX and just recently learned you can drag and loot bodies, something I never knew before, and I played it to 100%. That's 3 campaigns and a bonus level

mgs

Dishonored

Killmonger posted...

Dishonored

Dishonored is great, but the preachy nature of it pisses me off. Oh hey, heres all these kickass abilities and tools to kill people with including one that disintegrates bodies on death, the stealth game dream but dont use them or the world gets all shitty and you get the bad ending!

Why does every stealth game except Thief and Tenchu do shit like this?

go Spy in TF2

Metal Gear Solid 5

First time I saw them using night vision and sending up flares to counter me doing missions at night I about shit a brick. Still some of my favorite stealth gameplay

Kingdom Come: Deliverance had some pretty cool stuff for stealth play

Arkham

boxoto posted...

The Last of Us Part II
Deus Ex: Human Revolution

Hard disagree on Deus Ex: Human Revolution.

It was the first game I've played where the enemies had a painfully obvious patrol path and it made the stealth absurdly easy.

And I have screenshots of the body count I got with a silenced pistol as enemies kept going up this one staircase to investigate dead bodies. At some point I was hoping they would just ... try a different path, but they didn't.

This second point is what makes it hard to say most stealth games have a "realistic" system to them, because I remember similar flaws in games like Ghost Recon: Breakpoint/Wildlands and some of the Assassin's Creed games (though I think in... Odyssey or Valhalla the enemies would at least try to sound an alarm if they started seeing too many bodies).

Hexenherz posted...

It was the first game I've played where the enemies had a painfully obvious patrol path and it made the stealth absurdly easy.

It's funny how unprofessional the guards are in most games of this type. My security training included such advice as "vary your patrol times and routes." Specifically in case someone was watching for a pattern.

Hexenherz posted...

tbh, it has been a long time since I've played it.

I guess that I remember liking how the game allowed for different builds, and I conflated that with how I felt about the execution of the stealth aspect.

Skyrim

Dark_Arbron posted...

It's funny how unprofessional the guards are in most games of this type. My security training included such advice as "vary your patrol times and routes." Specifically in case someone was watching for a pattern.

Funny you mention that, I am reminded of the recent Hitman games and how a lot of the mission mastery boils down to memorizing the NPC behaviors and routes. Which is fun in its own way but yeah, very predictable.

Hexenherz posted...

This second point is what makes it hard to say most stealth games have a "realistic" system to them, because I remember similar flaws in games like Ghost Recon: Breakpoint/Wildlands and some of the Assassin's Creed games (though I think in... Odyssey or Valhalla the enemies would at least try to sound an alarm if they started seeing too many bodies).

That's what I loved so much about MGSV. The guards are often super careful when going to investigate things. They'll radio HQ before investigating noises or strange sightings, so the alarm will raise if the guard doesn't report again after. I've had guards scare the shit out of me by entering a building I was hiding in from a direction I didn't see them take on normal patrols. I never felt like I could just go through the motions in that game

Arkham Asylum

Gwynevere posted...

That's what I loved so much about MGSV. The guards are often super careful when going to investigate things. They'll radio HQ before investigating noises or strange sightings, so the alarm will raise if the guard doesn't report again after. I've had guards scare the shit out of me by entering a building I was hiding in from a direction I didn't see them take on normal patrols. I never felt like I could just go through the motions in that game

I love how the guards execute a room clearing in MGS2. The next game took a step back in that regard by making the guards just magically know where you are as long as the alert counter is up.

A great stealth game makes it so that going loud is far harder and more annoying than being stealthy. Dishonored fails at this because it's far easier to go around shooting everything with your noisy pistol and running around swiping your sword at everyone than it is to be stealthy.

Hexenherz posted...

It was the first game I've played where the enemies had a painfully obvious patrol path and it made the stealth absurdly easy.

And I have screenshots of the body count I got with a silenced pistol as enemies kept going up this one staircase to investigate dead bodies. At some point I was hoping they would just ... try a different path, but they didn't.

Intelligent AI would do things like constantly spin around in circles or camp in a cul-de-sac literally forever. To make stealth fun they have to dumb things down a bit. The fact that your vision is always limited in these games means everything needs to be made a lot more systematic and obvious, because you can't just flick your vision around or endlessly use your environment like in real life. It's still a simulation.

sfcalimari posted...

Intelligent AI would do things like constantly spin around in circles or camp in a cul-de-sac literally forever. To make stealth fun they have to dumb things down a bit. The fact that your vision is always limited in these games means everything needs to be made a lot more systematic and obvious, because you can't just flick your vision around or endlessly use your environment like in real life. It's still a simulation.

Also it would be hard to balance a game where the guards have realistic vision. Any line of sight you give them would be game over, unless in thick fog. But daytime? Theyre seeing you from hundreds of meters away, not in a tiny blue cone.

ArsGoetia posted...

only stealth game i ever had fun with was the first dishonored

I love how in the second one you can have somebody just find a torso with no head, arms or legs attached and theyll shout out, Come quickly! Somebodys feeling unwell!

Mark of the Ninja

Sly Cooper, maybe?

PraetorXyn posted...

Dishonored is great, but the preachy nature of it pisses me off. Oh hey, heres all these kickass abilities and tools to kill people with including one that disintegrates bodies on death, the stealth game dream but dont use them or the world gets all shitty and you get the bad ending!

Why does every stealth game except Thief and Tenchu do shit like this?

Am I really the only one bothered when a stealth game punishes you for killing enemies? It seems like most of them do it. The later Deus Ex games, the first 3 or 4 Splimter Cells, etc., I think I remember them all giving you lower ratings or something for killing enemies. Dishonored is downright preachy about it.

I dont think Thief did (cant remember) but Im the highest difficulty in Thief its basically possible to kill human enemies either. But you can blackjack every enemy and pile the, up in one room and it wont punish you, and thats good enough for me.

PraetorXyn posted...

Dishonored is great, but the preachy nature of it pisses me off. Oh hey, heres all these kickass abilities and tools to kill people with including one that disintegrates bodies on death, the stealth game dream but dont use them or the world gets all shitty and you get the bad ending!

Why does every stealth game except Thief and Tenchu do shit like this?

Whats the point in having choices if there are no consequences?

Glob posted...

Whats the point in having choices if there are no consequences?

Whats the logic in the world going to shit because you killed guards without being detected and made their bodies disappear instead of knocking them out and piling the bodies in a corner?

more dead bodies = more rats to feast on them, which means the plague would further spread.

Priere posted...

Splinter Cell Chaos Theory

always this

I hate stealth games in general, one I actually enjoyed was a semi obscure one that had you control a massive orc brawler and a stealthy goblin assassin called: Of Orcs and Men.

Not a super long game, but a pretty decent AA title. Later they made a sequel focusing on the goblin stealther Styx, but I haven't played that one.

Siphon Filter 2 was underrated in terms of stealthplay.

Wind Waker

boxoto posted...

more dead bodies = more rats to feast on them, which means the plague would further spread.

With the power I was talking about, there are no bodies. They literally disintegrate on death.

PraetorXyn posted...

Whats the logic in the world going to shit because you killed guards without being detected and made their bodies disappear instead of knocking them out and piling the bodies in a corner?

Ill grant that it makes you disproportionately influential, but lots of games/stories do that.

However, even if the bodies disappear, those people are still gone forever. You dont think loads
of people vanishing might have an impact on the remaining populace? Especially with rumours of a masked assassin circulating?

oh yea, I don't know why it ended up being that way for you.

during my first (and only) playthrough, I also had that ability, and towards halfway to the end of the game, I killed almost every enemy I could, and still ended up with the good ending.

maybe it's because I took the non-lethal route for some of the contracts.

edit: at post 41

SOCOM 1 & 2.

Oh yeah and Ghost Recon: Wildlands

Glob posted...

Ill grant that it makes you disproportionately influential, but lots of games/stories do that.

However, even if the bodies disappear, those people are still gone forever. You dont think loads
of people vanishing might have an impact on the remaining populace? Especially with rumours of a masked assassin circulating?

Considering that most of the interactions we see with guards are them bullying and tormenting the civilians? A positive one, if any.