Influential Stealth Games Worth Playing Just For Their Importance To The Genre

Stealth has been and continues to be a major part of games such as Star Wars Outlaws, which takes inspiration from multiple games of the past. Today, stealth is as commonplace as action-oriented games, from horror to science fiction, taking from many games that remain significant many years later.

Certain games have invented or utilized stealth in impactful ways that games still use as inspiration. Whether it is through how the character traverses, environmental mechanics to hide the player, or the programming of NPC enemies, they would pave the way for how future games would play or execute certain concepts.

10 Return To Castle Wolfenstein

The Title Aptly Describes A Game That Harks The Original

Most Wolfenstein games allow players to go in guns-blazing and take out Nazis, with the stealth approach being an option. Return To Castle Wolfenstein remained a first-person shooter but returned to the stealth approach of the original game for the Commodore 64, making the title quite apt, utilizing lean functions and sneaking through castles and fortresses.

There certainly are sections in Return To Castle Wolfenstein where gamers can have fun with all kinds of action in the World War II setting, but stealth is mandatory in many others. B.J. Blaskowicz is not a super soldier, so much of the game is spent crouching and crawling through enemy territory to accomplish the mission and, for a 2001 title, it is still known for being a difficult yet fun experience.

9 Alien: Isolation

The AI Of The Xenomorph Makes Stealth The Ultimate Challenge

Though Alien: Isolation is far from the first stealth horror game, it was revolutionary due to its titular antagonist. The Xenomorph has never been more scary, because Creative Assembly invented advanced artificial intelligence for the creature that allowed it to learn as the player progresses, getting smarter and adept at figuring out players' tactics.

As a result, Alien: Isolation is never an easy game to play, even when replayed for a fifth or sixth time. Stealthily moving through Sevastopol Station remains as intense over ten years later as it was in 2014. Combined with it being a well-made sequel to Ridley Scott's Alien, any fan of horror should give Alien: Isolation a try.

8 Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six

An Authentic Squad-Based Tactical Shooter

• Developer: Red Storm Entertainment, Rebellion Developments
• Released: August 21, 1998
• Genre: Tactical first-person shooter

The original Rainbow Six was anything but an action first-person shooter like Call Of Duty, with the player having to plot out the entire route that the team will take in each level. First-time players learned fast that Rainbow Six is not a pick-up-and-play kind of game, as it will require patience and likely more than one restart to figure out every inch of the map and enemy location.

The slower pace of the original Rainbow Six is a drastic difference from what gamers are used to today with games such as Rainbow Six: Vegas or Rainbow Six: Siege, which mixes tactics into a more action-oriented game. However, it is important to see where those games originated and how far the series has come since.

7 Batman: Arkham Asylum

Batman's Predator Gameplay Was A Major Focus Of The First Game

On top of being a pivotal superhero game, Batman: Arkham Asylum made quite an impact when it came to stealth gameplay. Throughout the journey on Arkham Island, Batman is not an indestructible war machine, but a skilled man relying on his tactics and gadgets to survive, forcing the use of covers, vantage points, and moving through vents to take out Joker's thugs one by one.

Related

7 Batman Games With The Best Stories, Ranked

There a number of Batman games that players can enjoy featuring thrilling storylines and boss battles that are very entertaining.

Posts 4

By  Mukul Dutt

Batman: Arkham Asylum did feature the Freeflow Combat that fans became familiar with, but future games in the series would focus less and less on stealth. Meanwhile, Arkham Asylum would make the Predator segments a major part of the story, with the player having to get creative with Batman's movies, especially when thugs would change tactics and mentalities throughout encounters.

6 Assassin's Creed 2

Improved From The First Game In Nearly Every Way

While a case can be made for the first Assassin's Creed, it does suffer from being the first game in a long-running franchise that aged poorly. Assassin's Creed 2, on the other hand, remains a pivotal part of the franchise, being the root of everything that followed, from the parkour traversal system to the stealth-based assassinations.

Even when Assassin's Creed games went in wildly different directions, the DNA of Assassin's Creed 2 was always present. That includes stealth, with Ezio being rather easy to kill, so the player is forced to stay out of combat as much as possible, using distractions, crowds, and hiding spots to evade enemies.

5 Hitman: Codename 47

Agent 47 Debuted In A Very Realistic Assassin Simulator

Where a lot of stealth games are larger than life and don't rely on realism, the Hitman franchise makes the player have to think like an actual modern-day assassin. Whether it's the original Hitman: Codename 47 or the reboot, Hitman punishes the player for not taking everything into account when taking on missions, moving through crowds, and eliminating targets.

Hitman: Codename 47 games feature NPCs that will expose Agent 47 if the player does not do certain things like properly hiding bodies, wearing the right disguises, or even just moving at the right pace. Hitman would end up being a pinnacle of stealth games that would inspire other games, including Assassin's Creed, to an extent.

4 Deus Ex

The Original Walked So The Reboot Games Could Run

While Deus Ex is more famous today for the reboot series, the now-iconic franchise began with the 2000 original that paved the way for the 2013 game. On top of having an intriguing RPG plot in which players control a superpowered cyborg named J.C. Denton, Deus Ex featured a heavy focus on rewarding players for taking the optional stealth approach.

Related

16 Best Cyberpunk Games

The Cyberpunk genre never seems to get old as everyone loves the idea of looking into the future, and these are the best examples of it in video games

Posts

By  Megan Smith

Similar to Hitman, Deus Ex features smart enemies that will detect when gamers make mistakes. So, it is best to plot out actions, utilizing a lot of gadgets and proper tactics to keep from being spotted, which includes being able to move the bodies of eliminated enemies, hacking into machines,

3 Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell

Makes Gamers Truly Feel Like Super Spies

With Michael Ironside voicing Sam Fisher, Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell, which was originally intended to be a James Bond game, shook the gaming world by creating smooth and exhilarating secret agent gameplay that spawned another massive franchise for UbiSoft.

Even official James Bond video games have never allowed players to feel like a spy, as Splinter Cell did. As Sam Fisher, it's all about using the darkness, high-tech gadgets, and patience to the player's advantage, which combined with a story of thrilling espionage results in a game so iconic, that fans are still anticipating the arrival of the announced remake.

2 Metal Gear Solid

Hideo Kojima Made It Like An Espionage Movie

One of the games that put Hideo Kojima on the map as a stellar video game director, Metal Gear Solid, took what was experimented with on the NES and completely overhauled it for a classic for the PS1. At that time, very few games matched the cinematic quality of Metal Gear Solid, whether it was cutscenes or the camera angles used as Snake sneaks through locations.

In many ways, Metal Gear Solid changed the landscape of gaming, both from storytelling and gameplay perspectives. Hideo Kojima's name would become synonymous with the series, and he would only improve with each entry, including Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, which is often considered the best in the franchise.

1 Thief: The Dark Project

Invented Many Common Stealth Mechanics

Most games focusing on stealth have a more linear structure, while Thief: The Dark Project utilized a quasi-open level structure that allowed experimentation and traversal to accomplish missions. It was also one of the first games to utilize shadows as a stealth mechanic, allowing Garrett to hide from guards and other foes.

From the story to the gameplay mechanics to even the character animations, Thief: The Dark Project was so far ahead of its time, that future stealth games including Assassin's Creed, Hitman, and Splinter Cell would build on what Thief established as a foundation. With multiple sequels and a reboot, Thief is arguably one of the most important games for stealth.

More

6 Great Stealth Games You Can Play In First-Person

Stealth games can offer players some of the most immersive experiences in video games, with their often unforgiving mechanics that build anticipation.

Posts

By  Austin Clark