Poll: Best stealth game you've played

[toxic_waster]

I have been enjoying some old stealth games from my collection since lately i have been bored with the whole GOW2 and COD4 multiplayer stuff, and it made me wonder why there are so few of these great genre.

So, what is your favorite stealth game/series to this day,and why? what made it so enjoyable?

mine has to be either the Thief series, or a not well know game called "XIII".

 

[Scolar Visari]

Chaos Theory bro. That game was the last and greatest Splinter Cell as far as I'm concerned.

 

[Brainbomb]

Huge fan of Hitman. You really got to be creative

Hehehe, XIII. So few people know about that one. And there's no sequel...

 

[GRoXERs]

If you're playing it correctly, Fallout 3.
The stealthiness itself may not be all that impressive, but...
Reverse pickpocketing 'nades onto people is just too much fun.
Especially when they're actively looking for you, you sneak up, plant, then they turn around and say "Huh. My ears are playing tricks on me ag- *BOOM!*"

 

[toxic_waster]

Chaos Theory bro. That game was the last and greatest Splinter Cell as far as I'm concerned.

ah, i owned Chaos theory, i have to say personally, it didn't really catch my attention. yes it looked nice back on the PS2, and the amount of gadgets you were giving (sticky cam, shocker thing, etc) was cool, it just wasn't my favorite.

Huge fan of Hitman. You really got to be creative

Hehehe, XIII. So few people know about that one. And there's no sequel...

blood money was an excellent game, although rather short, the story-line really grabbed you into the danger that agent 47 was getting himself into, i hope it gets a sequal.

and yes XIII was meant to get a sequel since it did say to be continued at the end, not to many people bought it, so funding went down the drain.

If you're playing it correctly, Fallout 3.
The stealthiness itself may not be all that impressive, but...
Reverse pickpocketing 'nades onto people is just too much fun.
Especially when they're actively looking for you, you sneak up, plant, then they turn around and say "Huh. My ears are playing tricks on me ag- *BOOM!*"

i didn't think of fallout 3 as much of a stealth game, i guess i didn't play like that, and since the originals weren't, but i guess it sort of does count as one.

 

[The Madman]

Thief, easy.

It's the only game to ever make me feel like I was genuinely being stealthy. MGS is more of an action game, let's be honest here, and Splinter Cell is the sneaky equivalent of a corridor shooter with it's very strict and linear way to get past every scenario.

Hitman employs the disguise mechanic more than anything, which while clever isn't really stealth, although it is ridiculously fun. And, well, never actually played Sly Cooper so I can't comment on that one.

Thief is the only true stealth game. The only one where you are given an objective and then are set loose upon a map to explore and plot as you see fit. The only one that doesn't strictly enforce stealth or impose stupid 'If you're seen restart the level' mechanics, and yet the gameplay is so suited towards stealth and the concept so integral to the base game itself, you'll be sneaking anyway. And if you're spotted? Drop a flash bomb, knock the sod unconscious while he's blinded, and drag his unconscious form to a quiet corner where you hope he wont be discovered. Or you could kill him, but the hardest difficulty enforces no kills and honestly, fighting guards is never a good idea. Especially not if they've got an archer.

You're a thief, not a warrior after all. Garrett can only take a couple hits before he's down. Medieval bullet sponge he is not!

 

[RavingPenguin]

Theif series, Please see Yahtzee's review of "Theif: The Dark Project" for reasons why.

 

[MBurner 93]

Bet half the people who voted for Thief only voted because of Yahtzee's rants. And it kicks ass!

 

[Tattaglia]

I lurve the Hitman series more than anything. Thief is second best, only because it didn't allow you to have a massive amount of firepower concealed within your clothes. And there's nothing more awesome than dressing up in a clown suit and going to town on the entire neighbourhood with a knife.

 

[Avatar Roku]

Chaos Theory bro. That game was the last and greatest Splinter Cell as far as I'm concerned.

Yeah, Chaos Theory is on my Top 5 Games Ever list. It even would be if the gameplay was bad (it isn't), just for the conversations between Sam and Grimsdottir.

 

[The Madman]

Bet half the people who voted for Thief only voted because of Yahtzee's rants. And it kicks ass!

I squealed like a girl when he did that review. More press is a good thing.

Also there are rumors that the studio working on Deus Ex 3 are also making a new Thief game. And if that's the case then with any luck they saw that review and remembered just what it is that makes Thief great and why we love it so much.

I'm terrified they're going to go with the 'stealth games don't sell' approach and try to modernize the gameplay in some stupid and arbitrary way, in the process ruining everything that made the original games so great while all but spitting on the series past.

You know, like Bethesda did with Fal... *Is murdered by pitchfork wielding fanboys*

 

[Brainbomb]

Hitman employs the disguise mechanic more than anything, which while clever isn't really stealth, although it is ridiculously fun. And, well, never actually played Sly Cooper so I can't comment on that one.

While the bit about the disguise is true, you also had nigh absolute control over methodology, with the situation and opportunities present themselves relative to your actions.

Further, a stealth game ia a game in which you avoid detection. Sure, it's not always dark, but Hitman fits the bill.

 

[ae86gamer]

To me Thief was the best

 

[Lios]

Thief 2
Ghost Recon (the FIRST one, which is the only GOOD one. Thanks for ruining an epic game Ubisoft.)
Hitman 2
Metal Gear and Splinter Cell halfway...

 

[Bored Tomatoe]

Splinter Cell chaos theory is one of my favorite games of all time, and it was one of the finest stealth games I've ever played.

 

[The Madman]

While the bit about the disguise is true, you also had nigh absolute control over methodology, with the situation and opportunities present themselves relative to your actions.

Further, a stealth game ia a game in which you avoid detection. Sure, it's not always dark, but Hitman fits the bill.

Sorta. In no way am I saying Hitman is a bad game, I LOVE Hitman and its plethora of ways to kill people in amusing ways. But at the same time it presents itself less as a stealth game and more as a sort of puzzle game. You search around finding the right suits to get into the right places, where (If you play the game like I tend to!) you search to try and find the proper 'combination' where you can kill the enemy and make it seem like an accident. Or at least kill him in such a way that you're safely away before anything is discovered.

And that's not so much stealth as puzzle gameplay in a way. It's the payoff, seeing your master plan go into action (You replaced the actors gun with a real one so he shoots your target during the stage rehearsal for example. All while you watch from the balconies snickering to yourself!) that makes it all totally worth it.

That's the way I see it!

 

[ZZ-Tops89]

Some of the SAS missions in the COD4 SP campaign had amazing stealth elements. Also, in multiplayer go to any tdm server with fewer than 20 people with a silenced, uav jammer, and dead silence class, and you'll be able to knife people from behind easily.

 

[Brainbomb]

While the bit about the disguise is true, you also had nigh absolute control over methodology, with the situation and opportunities present themselves relative to your actions.

Further, a stealth game ia a game in which you avoid detection. Sure, it's not always dark, but Hitman fits the bill.

Sorta. In no way am I saying Hitman is a bad game, I LOVE Hitman and its plethora of ways to kill people in amusing ways. But at the same time it presents itself less as a stealth game and more as a sort of puzzle game. You search around finding the right suits to get into the right places, where (If you play the game like I tend to!) you search to try and find the proper 'combination' where you can kill the enemy and make it seem like an accident. Or at least kill him in such a way that you're safely away before anything is discovered.

And that's not so much stealth as puzzle gameplay in a way. It's the payoff, seeing your master plan go into action (You replaced the actors gun with a real one so he shoots your target during the stage rehearsal for example. All while you watch from the balconies snickering to yourself!) that makes it all totally worth it.

That's the way I see it!

Well, yes, you do use disguises a bit, but there are also a number of times when I had to evade patrols of guards/witnesses for some reason or another.

Also, this depends largely on your definition of stealth, which, I think it is good to point out, is the act of acting secretly or without being noticed. The whole bit about hiding in the shadows is largely connotative, not an actual definition.