Stealth Games, Yay or Nay

[Gamerforlife]

Anyone have any new thoughts on the genre since last this thread was updated? I'm growing more interested in these games of late. Hitman Abolution looks really interesting and Mark of the Ninja is one of the best titles I've played this year.

What about you Dishonored fans? Thoughts? Is the genre improving? Or stuck in neutral? I thought Mark of the Ninja was a brilliant step forward, perhaps doing stealth in 2D better than it's ever been done before.

I've played so many action games over the years. Part of me is getting kind of sick of them. I would really like to try some more stealth games in 2013. I want games with more finesse and I want games that give me some freedom to decide how I complete a stage. I'm kind of tired of doing everything a forced way put in place by designers. Mark of the Ninja gives you some freedom to get through stages how you choose to, and Hitman Absolution seems really big on that too

[J T]

Anyone have any new thoughts on the genre since last this thread was updated? I'm growing more interested in these games of late. Hitman Abolution looks really interesting and Mark of the Ninja is one of the best titles I've played this year.

What about you Dishonored fans? Thoughts? Is the genre improving? Or stuck in neutral? I thought Mark of the Ninja was a brilliant step forward, perhaps doing stealth in 2D better than it's ever been done before.

Good bump. Since this thread was last up top, I've played a few new stealth games. Stealth Bastard was as really stylish and fun 2D stealth game. It's free, so check it out.

I also played through Deus Ex: Human Revolution. I loved that game quite a lot, and largely played it in stealth. It has an advantage over other stealth games in that if I ever got tired of sneaking around, it was always possible to shoot the place up instead. Having that freedom made the rest of the stealth more enjoyable, in part because it was always my choice.

Hotline Miami felt like a stealth game for inpatient people. You have to avoid alerting guards, and strategizing about how to enter a room, but you'll never wait more than a few seconds and then you suddenly have to move blazingly fast.

More recently, I've been playing the little know Qasir al-Wasat. It's like A Link to the Past and Prince of Persia had a stealthy baby. It managed to maintain more of a sense of mystery and intrigue than many other stealth games I've played, and I appreciate it for that.

I still need to play Mark of the Ninja, as well as spend some more time in the classic stealth games like Thief and Splinter Cell, which I've only played tutorials of so far. I think I'm finding that I like this genre when it doesn't force too much waiting. Waiting can build tension, but if it's not done right, then it just feels like it's trying your patience in an effort to be realistic rather than an effor to be an enjoyable gaming experience.

[Menegrothx]

I would really like to try some more stealth games in 2013. I want games with more finesse and I want games that give me some freedom to decide how I complete a stage. I'm kind of tired of doing everything a forced way put in place by designers. Mark of the Ninja gives you some freedom to get through stages how you choose to, and Hitman Absolution seems really big on that too

Thief 4 is currently under development but it wont come out untill the next generation afaik. If we're lucky we might get it in 2013.

[Gamerforlife]

I still need to play Mark of the Ninja, as well as spend some more time in the classic stealth games like Thief and Splinter Cell, which I've only played tutorials of so far. I think I'm finding that I like this genre when it doesn't force too much waiting. Waiting can build tension, but if it's not done right, then it just feels like it's trying your patience in an effort to be realistic rather than an effor to be an enjoyable gaming experience.

Mark of the Ninja is good about that. You never have to wait. With the various tools at your disposal, objects in the environment to interact with, and the different ways to move around a stage, you can create opportunities rather than waiting for them to present themselves like other stealth games. Once you get some offensive tools in your disposal and learn to use fear against your enemies, the game really starts to move at your pace

EDIT: More and more I think about it now, Mark of the Ninja may actually be my favorite game of 2012 so far. I don't think anything else I played this year made me feel like more of a badass than that game did.

[Haoie]

Big thumb up from me.

Although pure stealth isn't really what goes for the stealth genre anymore.

[Thierry Henry]

Next to survival horror type games, stealth based games are right up there as one of my favorite genre of video games.
And I can better enjoy a genre of game even if I'm not a huge fan of it, if it incorporates some well executed stealth elements in the game-play.

[Nemoide]

I haven't played the Metal Gear Solid games yet, but overall I'm not a fan of stealth. I want ACTION, not carefully planing ahead and hoping nobody sees me.
I really liked Beyond Good & Evil but I also killed pretty much everyone in the stealth parts and still found it less enjoyable than the rest of the game; because I really don't like just sneaking!

[ExedExes]

Good to see this thread brought back because I have some thoughts.

My first exposure to any sort of a true stealth element had to be the first Shenmue game sneaking around to find Warehouse No. 8 at night. I did NOT enjoy that because I got caught so many times the bum had to give me all sorts of help outside of a "what's wrong with you man it's been 3 weeks already and the guy you're looking for probably isn't there anymore you owe me 20 more cans of coffee". That turned me off a bit.

Then I tried a few games in the Hitman series on the PC and really enjoyed those.

Then I finally got a Gamecube and tried out Splinter Cell. That to me was a perfect stealth game. Not too difficult, yet you're required to do all the quiet moving and shooting that one would expect. Then I just noticed that even Rainbow Six 3 had a First Person Stealth level in my FPS game. I'd love to get a cheap copy of MGS The Twin Snakes next. I think I'll get more into this genre.

[Menegrothx]

Then I finally got a Gamecube and tried out Splinter Cell. That to me was a perfect stealth game. Not too difficult, yet you're required to do all the quiet moving and shooting that one would expect.

It's been quite some time since I played Splinter Cell so my memory might not serve me that well, but from what I remember it's far from a perfect stealth game. The levels were way too linear and there was always just one predetermined path and solution to every problem. Hitman is nice but Thief 2 is sadly still the best game in the stealth genre for two major reasons (this goes for all three of the games, but both T1 and T3 have flaws)
1. The levels are huge, sprawling, believable and unlinear.
->There's no one telling you how to do things and there's no hand holding either
->You have multiple ways to solve most problems and most important items and places can be accessed from multiple directions via different methods (like in Deus Ex)
->Exploration is rewarded, eavesdropping on conversations and reading books+diaries often reavels you some secrets you wouldn't have noticed otherwise

2. Combat is not prohibited (*). If a guard spots you, it's not game over. In fact you can kill everything if you wish to do so. You can play the game in different ways and if you want to kill every one, including totally innocent bystanders, you're allowed to do so. The best and most intense moments always come from when you're about to get caught and you have to improvise. You can actually do speed runs of levels where you just run past guards, alerting every one and still manage to beat the mission. But you can also do ghost runs where you dont attack or alert anyone to the point that no one even knows you visited that art gallery or bank and stole everything they had. There are very few moments where you are simply required to murder some one in order to advance to the next area.

*Although on certain missions and on harder difficulty settings there are objectives like "dont attack unarmed civilians" and "dont kill any one"

[winds]

I'm bittersweet about the genre. The first metal gear was one of my favourite games (gotta be in my top 10, I would think). However Metal Gear 4 for example turned me right off. Besides the fact that it took about 30 minutes to even get into the game, due to the installation + updates and further installs, then the long cinematic intro, what really ticked me off was when I finally got to start playing, I was seen by a guard while tranqing another guard, which forced me to hide under a truck for about 5 minutes while the alert status went back down to 0. Immediately after that was finished, the guard I tranqed woke up and was immediately alerted again. 10 minutes of just hiding under a truck really turned me off to continue playing. Maybe I just wasn't good at the game, but 10 minutes wasted of staring at an exhaust while hiding under a truck just wasn't fun for me in the slightest. I guess they were going for some sort of realism but in my opinion it would have benefited greatly from having reduced Alert times. That being said, watching someone else play the game who's good at it was a treat . I don't think i'd go back to that game.
Hitman Absolution looks pretty fun though.