Stealth Games: Where Did They Sneak Off To?

Much like real-time strategy titles, stealth games have fallen out of the spotlight over the past few years. While explosive, multiplayer-oriented shooters have only proliferated in the last decade or so, it’s not often that we get a high-profile dedicated stealth game.

The latest ones we’ve had the chance to play included Metal Gear Solid V: Phantom Pain, Alien: Isolation, Hitman 2, Dishonored 2, and the decidedly less marketed AA game Echo. All of these are great in their own right, of course, but we’ve got to wonder: why aren’t there more stealth games around?

Our answer is actually not what you might expect at first. But before we get to the core of the argument, we should take a look at the wider context of things. More specifically, we will be dealing with the matter of genre consolidation.

What are Stealth Games, really?

Stealth games are a very particular sort. Other games slowly ramp up in how bombastic they are until the very end. On the other hand, a well-balanced stealth release will instead grow more complex with each encounter. Of course, if the player is good, they will get through any given “puzzle” silently and without alerting whatever sentries there are, but what if they’re bad at it?

It’s no secret that, for every player thoroughly enchanted by its gameplay mechanics, AI, and atmosphere of the original Thief games, there were two or three who couldn’t stand how punishing it was. Hitman 2: Silent Assassin, too, was a ridiculously masochistic experience in some regards. Enemies were going into high alert as soon as 47 would begin to jog in their general vicinity. Moreover, in these games (and many others, such as the older Splinter Cell entries), being seen was equal to being killed.

With limited offensive options at their disposal, or even an adequate control scheme, players could not afford getting caught. Compare that to Dishonored 2, Splinter Cell: Blacklist, or Phantom Pain. All of these provide you with ample opportunities to take down enemies. Clearly, older stealth games are a far more punishing experience.

For as long as you could hide in shadows, cower behind corners, or stick to the facade and costume you’ve got, you were in your element. As long as you had the upper hand, the game world was your oyster. However, when the enemy shone a flashlight in your general direction or noticed that the last guy in his detachment turned into a bald, barcoded, staggeringly-handsome-yet-all-too-creepy silent dude, it was over.

Whether you enjoyed this sort of gameplay was entirely dependant on your personal preferences. That said, we don't think their appeal was anything but niche.

Contemporary Stealth Games

Modern stealth games oftentimes subvert the aforementioned tropes entirely. In Dishonored 2, you have so many tools at your disposal that the game is essentially a stealth-flavored sandbox. This is incredibly empowering and feels great, but is a far cry from the likes of Thief. Sam Fisher, similarly, can now tag and eliminate entire squads of enemies in one smooth motion. Stealth purists may scoff, but the key thing is that generally speaking, what happened was a paradigm shift of sorts.

Previously, stealth games were precisely just that - stealth games. Upgrading them with advanced movement options, gadgets, weaponry, and contextual gameplay cues turned them into a more forgiving, yet far more playable genre. Virtually every modern stealth game we’ve mentioned still provides everything you need for a full, stealthy playthrough, but the fact that they also offer louder and more dynamic gameplay options shouldn’t put old-school stealth aficionados off.

Going back to the matter of genre consolidation, it’s not particularly difficult to notice that stealth has infiltrated every other game genre there is. Nowadays, it’s harder to find a shooter that has no stealth elements than otherwise! Though some games might not offer dedicated visibility and noise meters, that doesn’t mean stealth functionality hasn’t crept into them.

More often than not, we’re talking about fairly rudimentary features such as those found in Far Cry, but even then you get rocks to throw around and bushes to hide in. It’s interesting to see one of the most hardcore game genres making its way into the mainstream in such a manner.

The average AAA now most likely offers at least some type of stealth functionality. This means that dedicated stealth games need to adapt. Quite simply, a game such as the original Thief could never work today.

Experimental implementations and interpretations of Stealth

In Echo, the AI "records" the player’s behavior and then applies it to the innumerable doppelgangers that are out to get them. The game itself is fairly simple when it comes to core gameplay mechanics, but this twist elevates it to an experience worth discussing. Mainstream games have spoiled us with extreme player agency, mobility, tools, and more. To the point where playing without some sort of edge feels dull. Modern stealth games don't need to outright remove powerful abilities to ape their predecessors. Instead, developers need to cleverly balance them!

To summarise: though genuinely good stealth games are few and far between, and though they often offer more aggressive gameplay options than some might wish for, this doesn’t make them less worthy of our attention. Quite the opposite - the fact that a game can offer two entirely valid, yet different approaches should be celebrated!

Stealth features have started to appear virtually everywhere we look. From RPGs to turn-based strategies, from shooters to action-adventures. It seems that stealth has evolved from being a dedicated genre to becoming an essential feature in too many games to count. If that’s not impressive, we don’t know what is.