Rockstar recognise that the violence must be a requirement of survival rather than an indulgence, and by mixing their snuff with stealth, they make horrible deeds feel necessary, cathartic and then horrible again. The executions are dirty and desperate. There's no glamour in the game and even in the most excessive moments, the camera is a grotesque voyeur rather than a fetishising framing device. The gunplay is rubbish, and the environments are ugly and repetitive by design, but still Read more: Kieron's thoughtful retrospective.
What else should I be playing if I like this: The Thief games' interludes into stealth-horror are the best example of that particular genre crossover. There are several common approaches to stealth gaming but every design must make one important decision: is a failure to stay in the shadows punished by failure, or will the player have opportunities to correct their mistakes.
If a game takes the latter approach, it can swiftly slide out of the stealth bracket altogether, as being spotted becomes an excuse to run and gun all the way to the end of a level. Styx: Master of Shadows plants its fantasy flag in the former category, demanding that every level is executed using stealth and stealth alone.
Titular character Styx does have some goblin-y gadgets to divert the attention of guards but on the whole, he relies on the shadows, and the nooks and crannies of each level to conceal him. Read more: Our Review. This is a game with a patch that unlocks extra brothels and removes the clothing from the women in those brothels.
If you can look past some of the tackiness, The Saboteur is a fine example of stealth mechanics finding expression in an open world. Where can I buy it: Origin. What else should I be playing if I like this: Velvet Assassin, which came out around the same time, is almost as tonally confused and also suffers from inferior stealth mechanics. During its prolonged development cycle, Monaco appeared to be many different things.
A top-down stealth puzzler, perhaps? An elaborate multiplayer tactical heist planner? The reality is a combination of all three possibilities. Monaco is certainly stylized — and stylish — framing its heists in the language of a chic New Wave crime film but with visuals that are Neon Vague. Information flies out of the screen thick and fast as the various characters you and your friends can control demolish walls, hack computers and flee from attack dogs. The joy is as much in the farce that ensues when everything goes to hell as in the perfectly executed plan.
Read more: Our Review and an interview with developer Andy Schatz. Where can I buy it: Steam or direct from the developer. What else should I be playing if I like this: Payday 2 is a completely different take on multiplayer heists, and both The Escapists and Prison Architect feel like alternate reality versions of Monaco, viewed from different perspectives.
Arkham Asylum is still the greatest Batman game and its unusual approach to sneaking and clobbering makes it stand out in the field of stealth games. The majority of games in this list are what we might refer to as pure stealth games, in which the player character has few tools other than those that keep him or her concealed, and Arkham Asylum is far from pure.
In between exploration of the titular institution, the game divides into two types of encounter: straight-up combat and stealth-based Predator sections.
While most stealth games concentrate on the vulnerability of the protagonist, who uses the shadows as a sort of flimsy armour, Arkham Asylum makes Batman into a thing of fear. Enemies panic as he picks them off one by one and while a burst of automatic fire can bring his crimefighting career to an end, the darkness empowers him and the temptation to toy with the final thug in an area as he jumps at every sound is almost impossible to ignore.
Notes: The storyline for Asylum and follow-up City was penned by Paul Dini, perhaps best known for his work on the much-loved Batman: The Animated series, which also shares several voice actors with the Arkham games.
What else should I be playing if I like this: The sequels are worth playing, although the lack of gadgets in the opening predator stages of the first game are the best example of the stealth at its most basic and best.
Desperados is the pinnacle of the stealth-strategy genre represented elsewhere in this list by Commandos 2. Across beautifully drawn levels, the heroes of the piece move through a hit parade of Western locations and scenarios, sneaking by, shooting and subduing the outlaws who stand between them and their bounty. The various player characters have a diverse skillset and several abilities can operate in combination to unleash new tactics.
While airborne, he can tackle enemies, defenestrating them in the process. Essentially allowing the player to rewrite the rules of a level on the fly, the Crosslink targets specific features of the building to be infiltrated and rewires their connections. A light switch can be connected to a security door, causing guards to inadvertently toggle the lock when they try to turn the lights on. Gunpoint is a game in which it is possible to trap guards within their own security rooms by confusing computer systems.
It is a game in which propulsion pants are somehow secondary to intelligent and intricate stealth. Where can I buy it: Steam , direct from the developer. Read more: Our review , and a preview. What else should I be playing if I like this: The Swindle is a faster and more chaotic 2d infiltration and robbery game.
Neon Struct looks like a working prototype for a new Deus Ex game. The visuals are beautifully minimalist, ensuring that levels are legible, and yet the locations you infiltrate are recognizable as real places. Despite its brief running time and abstract appearance, Neon Struct manages to tell a story and build a world.
But the simplicity and brevity are virtues in this case. From a few ingredients, including a superb synth soundtrack, Neon Struct delivers a delicious course of slick and stylish stealth. Read more: Our review. And a superb game.
Cameras could be fired from guns and attached to walls or ceilings to provide remote viewing of locations, and sound as well as light travelled within the environments. The Splinter Cell games can seem dated, perhaps due to their near-future now being the recent past, but Chaos Theory provides a superb collection of toys within its grim military playgrounds.
Notes: The soundtrack is the work of Amon Tobin. His jazzy album Bricolage is a stone cold classic. Where can I buy it: Steam , Uplay. What else should I be playing if I like this: There are all kinds of games in the wider Clancyverse, including the earlier Splinter Cell games, which are recommended, and the later ones, which you should read about before taking the plunge.
Action creeps in and stealth is somewhat displaced. As well as handling both the stealth and first-person melee combat well, Riddick is a fine example of how to work with a license. Extending the backstory rather than retelling a story better suited to cinema, Butcher Bay plants itself in a setting suited to the kind of close quarters sneaking, stabbing and skull-smashing that suits Riddick as a player character. The balance just about tips towards the newer Athena, and in any case you can only obtain Butcher second-hand now anyway.
Where can I buy it: GOG. Cate Archer makes for an excellent protagonist, peculiarly snooty and unlikeable in some ways, while defiant and ass-kickingly pleasing in others. The pleasure of using gadgets to approach situations in your own chosen way is immense, with a good mix of stealth, action, driving and narrative. One that really worked and impresses with its uncommon inventiveness even now. Wit, too: shooters imbued with comedy to anything like this extent were rare then, and even rarer now.
The levels are also more open, with a few exceptions, allowing for more experimentation. It's the setpieces, such as the tornado-in-a-trailer-park, that are creaking the most as age catches up with them. Spectacular at the time, some of NOLF 2's more extravagant flourishes feel like distractions rather than attractions. But the core of the game, and its predecessor, are as good as anything the wonderful Monolith have ever made.
Where can I buy it: : The rights are tied up in a knot no-one can or, more likely, wants to untangle. So second-hand's your only recourse for now. Last year, plans for a re-release were announced , but nothing's happened yet.
What else should be playing if I like this: Hitman: Blood Money does gadgets and stealth impeccably well, and even weaves absurdist and slapstick humour into its assassination vignettes. Or there's Dishonored for a more flexible and serious yet fantastical approach to the gadgety stealth shooter.
Alien: Isolation is one of the few games within the genre to model its antagonists behavior in convincing fashion, however, rather than relying on scripted events and ghost train ghouls. That equipment, and the ability to hide under furniture and in lockers, feeds into a system of sound, sight and sneaking. Where many of the games on this list are masterpieces of UI design, communicating and providing feedback in smart and stylish ways, Isolation goes the opposite route.
All of the information you need to survive is locked into that unwieldy and view-obscuring motion tracker, an in terminals that take too long to boot up and process your inputs. As well as being a superb horror game, Alien: Isolation is a wonderful example of how a stealth game can excel through a lack of communication with the player. Notes: The most notable alteration to the design of the Alien, as compared to the film, is seen in the legs.
The man-in-a-suit design didn't have the recurved legs of the game's creature but the designers realised that hiding under tables and watching humanoid legs shuffling past wouldn't be quite as creepy. Read more: Alien breaks into our games of the year calendar , Alec plays Isolation on the Oculus Rift , an Alien: Isolation creature feature , our review.
System Shock 2 is the only currently available non-guns-blazin' sci-fi horror game comparable in quality though. Deus Ex: Human Revolution improves some of the stealth mechanics and the upcoming Mankind Divided may go a cyberstep further in that regard.
The alliances you choose will change the order you visit each continental hub, and can have a huge impact on the characters you meet and the endings you unlock. This classic stealth sandbox came out 13 years ago, but still perfectly captures the thrill of being an action movie covert agent.
Chaos Theory features some exceptional level design, and a decent co-op campaign that encourages you to co-ordinate sweet simultaneous takedowns from the shadows. One of the few spy games to draw influence from the cheesy Man From Uncle meets Austin Powers s idea of a spy adventure. As the glamorous Cate Archer you fight through jump out of planes, race bikes, scuba to sunken ships and other antics you might expect from Roger Moore era Bond.
Every mission is different, and the whole adventure is played for laughs. Paranoia is an important part of being a spy. Your cover could be blown at any moment, and the consequences are drastic. In fact someone could be watching you through a high-powered scope right now.
SpyParty captures this feeling in a series of small scenes—a party in a pub, a penthouse party, a boat party spies love to party. One player plays a sniper, assessing the scene for any signs of spy-like behaviour. The other player is the spy. As the spy you have to blend in with NPCs as naturally as you can while you saunter around completing secret objectives. On the plus side you can see when the sniper is obsessed with innocent NPCs and use them as cover to plant that bug you need to win.
Infiltrate high-security environments as a group of specialists in this hybrid of stealth game, turn-based strategy and roguelike. Better still, gamers that own the previous titles can activate the Legacy Missions in Hitman 3. This not only puts all three games into one neat little package but the older missions benefit from the enhanced visuals and mechanics from the newer game. It was remastered and released again for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in and included all of the previously released DLC in one package.
Both Dishonored and its sequel Dishonored 2 give players a nearly endless amount of freedom through its cleverly designed world and levels.
Players take control of a character called Adam Jenson, an agent that has been enhanced through cybernetic augmentation. Mission and level design is fantastic and offers players lots of options and opportunities for espionage, intel gathering, sabotage, and stealth. Players can even take a non-lethal approach or instead tackle their enemies like a ruthless killer using all the tools at their disposal.
Released on iOS systems in , Device 6 is a text-based adventure and puzzle game where the protagonist Anna is trying to escape a prison island. The story seems to take a lot of inspiration from the classic s British TV series The Prisoner in tone and plot devices. Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory is often regarded as the best game in the series and this is reflected in its Metascore.
The visuals and audio production still look very good after 15 years and the story is by far the best in the series. Like its predecessor, Metal Gear Solid 2 is a high-tech espionage thriller with a science fiction twist. It was also one of the earliest games in the stealth genre to offer players a non-lethal approach despite being equipped with a variety of tools and methods to kill enemies. Released exclusively for the Nintendo 64 in , Goldeneye was and still is considered to be the best James Bond game ever made.
It offered players the choice to run in all guns blazing or use the better stealthy approach. This was made possible because of the brilliant level design and the increased challenges on the higher difficulty settings.
Furthermore, it followed the premise of the film that it was based on and made players really feel like they were the ultimate secret agent.
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