Aspect of stealth games you love

[PapaGreg096]

I really like stealth games and my personally favorite aspect of them is finding different paths that not only reward with equipment or money but also gives you a bit of a shortcut

What is one or more aspects of stealth games that make you a fan of the genre

 

[Phasmal]

The moment just before someone spots you and you either take them down or slip out of sight. Makes my blood tingle.

I love that aspect of stealth games, it's just a pity I'm not very good at them. I hesitate too much, and so get spotted more often than I should.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I generally like how gameplay restrictions foster strategy and creativity. So stealth and survival horror are personal favorites.

 

[Pirate Of PC Master race]

Back stabbing. having said that, fuck moral system. I want to backstab or equivalent.

I also love perfect game - finish without being seen, kill/KO everyone, collect everything.

 

[MHR]

Alternate paths and deception

Actual stealth games give you multiple paths. Regular games with stealth mechanics throw you in a hallway with 10 bad guys and say "play how you want!"

Then there's the all too common rock throw to distract. Good stealth games give you clever things to use like creative environment distractions, disguises, illusion/tranq dart, making enemies fight among themselves, and cardboard box.

 

[Glongpre]

Being a puzzle, trying to find the solution the designers made.

Oh man, does that ever piss me off. "Hey, go nuts player! Oh wait not that way you'll be detected...Not that way either, try again!".

Jesus, just let me sneak around. Which is why Deus Ex does good stealth. Really enjoyed playing a stealth build in Human Revolution, minus the boss fight(xbox).

 

[FalloutJack]

Ambushes, of course. Every bastard in the game universe loves to do it to the player. Wouldn't you like some payback?

 

[Pirate Of PC Master race]

Jesus, just let me sneak around. Which is why Deus Ex does good stealth. Really enjoyed playing a stealth build in Human Revolution, minus the boss fight(xbox).

They added multi-solution boss battles in the director's edition, I hear. I didn't need alternative solutions though... except for that duel SMG wielder. Silenced pistol and non-lethal all the way.

I distinctly hated its lethal takedowns... It makes too much noise and gives less exp points. I thought killing was suppose to be an easy, but morally incorrect solution... But in DX:HR lethel takedowns are always more punishing.

And you can't do executions either.(shooting unconscious enemy with silenced weapon)

 

[JohnnyDelRay]

My favorite stealth games are(were) the Hitman games. And the formula I played each level was the same.
- Scope out and observe setting, enemy paths, kill options, objectives.
- Achieve clean run killing only the target, or at least making collateral look "accidental".
- Try another path to ultimate objective if it seems interesting.
- Come back armed to the teeth, guns blazing and make a mess of the place.
- Next level, repeat.

So my favorite aspect was really seeing all the cool ways you could achieve complete status, by doing it as seamless and slick as possible (disguises, traps, poison, deception etc).

 

[Chaos Isaac]

Uh, generally the fucking sweet close quarter combat animations. Iunno, they're one of my favorite parts of the later Splinter Cell games.

The interesting and encouraged use of mobility and open-paths. Sure sometimes it's a puzzle that you're meant to figure out, but sometimes it's a open ended maze with more then one way out.

NPC dialogue when they don't know what's up, or when you have them by the balls. Super fun.

 

[Dalisclock]

Being able to take out every patrolling guard without any of their friends noticing, or at least, without the alarm being raised.

"Hmmm....I haven't see my fellow guard, who was 10 feet away in the next room, for two hours. Should I be concerned? Nah, must have been rats".

Granted, in the City(from thief) they might actually have rats big enough to take out patrolling guards.

 

[LaughingAtlas]

I kind of like feeling like a monster, creeping around and picking people off one by one. The Arkham games are the only ones I can think of in which the targets respond as though being stalked by an unseen horror, but I can usually fill in the blanks with imagination anyway.

 

[Souplex]

Stealth is the act of avoiding fun.
It ruins any game it forces itself into.

 

[FPLOON]

The initial getaway with my target(s) dead and no way for anyone [still alive] to find me, let alone catch me...

Other than that, the peeping spying...

 

[Jute88]

The idea that your enemies have locked doors, installed security cameras and guards to stop you from entering their lair. And yet, by managing to overcome these obstacles, so that no one even sees you, you can tell who's actually in control of the situation. So, I'd go with a power fantasy.

 

[Chimpzy_v1legacy]

My favorite aspect of stealth? When enemies can detect your presence in other ways than just directly spotting you. By that I don't mean hearing you when you're noisy or finding the unconscious/dead bodies of their buddies. Those are pretty standard for the genre. No, I mean little touches like for example:

"Who's footprints are there?"

I might be remembering this completely wrong, but in the original Metal Gear Solid, you'd leave footprints in the snow in outdoors areas. If guard came across those, they'd speak the line above and start following the footprints. This could get you caught, but savvy players could also use it to ambush them.

I don't remember which ones (I think Escape From Butchers Bay might be one?), but some games also put enemies into the alert state if you shine your flashlight into their line of sight, even if you yourself aren't.

Stealth in games has become pretty standardised by now: stay out of their line of sight, don't make noise and hide bodies. And players have become used to this. Which is why I like little things like that. You generally don't expect them, so they can sometimes really surprise you, making the enemy AI appear much smarter than it really is.

 

[WhiteFangofWhoa]

The sensation of being deep inside enemy lines undetected.

In the guards' minds, everything is totally fine. Sure, there were a few scattered reports of an intruder being spotted, but come on, that's just some prank by the boss to keep them on their toes. There's no way that one guy could possibly get this far into the heart of their base, and even if they did, what are the chances that he or she is sneaking up behind you right now in this very room and getting ready to lunge out and snap your neck?

So, they'll come up with something else to pass the boredom. In Jedi Knight and Thief they'll talk to each other. In Perfect Dark they'll swat flies with their gun, stretch and yawn. In Metal Gear ('stay alert! The guards spotted secret agent Metal Gear!') they'll just continue to patrol or occasionally sneeze and curse the fate that brought them to Alaska.

Still waiting on the game where the guards are actually bored/lazy enough to have a card game that you interrupt. It sounds counterproductive to make them more human since you'll probably be killing lots of them, but it's also funny as hell.

 

[JUMBO PALACE]

One thing I've always liked about stealth games is you can alter their difficulty on your own so easily. No alerts runs, no killing, no guns, no gadgets, restricting your abilities/powers etc. Plus, there's just something so satisfying about making snap decisions when a guard is just coming around the corner or coming within sight of you and you pull it off and no one's the wiser.