Poll: Stealth: forced or optional

[JayDub147]

I like stealth that isn't forced, but gives you incentives for being stealthy, like Deus Ex.


Now, which one of you is going to reinstall it?

 

[Wicky_42]

I'd like it if there was always the option of stealth - a realistic reaction by the AI to your presence, rather than the 'not fighting'/'killing player' AI that's pretty characteristic of most shooters these days (a step up from the olden 'hunting player magically through divination' single AI state)

If I'm behind a pillar in the dark, no-one should know I'm there. Makes sense.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

I like games where using stealth isn't strictly necessary, but is a huge advantage, and you'll be harshly punished for failing, such as Metal gear solid. I like the way you can fight your way back to sneakiness though, it flows better than simply restarting.

this. i freaking hate games where they magically hear you fart or something and you have a game over, which is horseshit, more then likely you have a gun or knife or something so you should have the opportunity to fight your way out of it and back into stealth

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

Batman:AA's stealth is optional? What Godmode cheat did you use?

I've only played one game where optional stealth actually worked; Dark Messiah of Might and Magic. If you solely focus on the sneak skill, you can hide in moderately-dark areas to basically be invisible to people right in front of you. You could call it easy-mode, but it was a nice reward for the focus.

i didn't see this till after i posted, but you are 100% correct, i figured i could beast through some parts since i was batman after all which resulted in a HELL FUCKING NO, that game is based purely on stealth on when the designer implemented it.

 

[Slayer_2]

I like optional stealth, but forced stealth is just irritating. Honestly, I usually end up going guns blazing in games with optional stealth (Hitman: Blood Money).

 

[park92]

ummm mgs 4 was NOT a stealth game

 

[Zinaxos]

Sorry but, Tenchu Z!

 

[Oomii]

If stealth is a big part of the game, then I think Batman did it right, have it where if your seen, its not game over, and you still can survive if you go back to hiding. Not using stealth should just be hard to do, but it should also be possible to do everything out in the open. If stealth is equally affective as going in guns blazing, a guns blazing approach is almost always easier since it requires no plan ( obviously there are exceptions to everything I just said).

 

[Teddy Roosevelt]

After playing Splinter Cell: Conviction which, I feel didn't handle the stealth well, I've become curious as to what people on the Escapist feel on stealth, should be an optional method in order to pick off enemies or avoid a fight altogether? Or should it be the only way win with all other options most likely resulting in death. And another question: if you were a game designer, how exactly would you handle stealth in a games?

The first Splinter Cell, I feel, did an excellent job with the stealth. I haven't played any of the others, but I know that that one did. I beat the game, and there were challenges aplenty.

 

[fanklok]

Optional, but if you can't do it right, don't do it at all. I loved stealth in Oblivion and Fallout 3---it was a viable way to play a character.

Not so much in Morrowind, where it was handled badly.

Blasphemy. In what other game can you sneak through a well lit, heavily guarded anything in black armor and not attract the attention of anyone even if you stand right in front of them and they walk into you?

Optional for me, I fucking hated the first Splinter Cell game because of how stealthy you needed to be. "Okay Sam you need to infiltrate this heavily guarded NATO building, but you can't kill anyone. Oh yeah you only have 4 shocky things and there are 30 guys between you and the extremely well lit surrounded by guards entrance." Fuck that I gave up and traded it in.

And what was up with the grabbing dudes every time I tried it Sam just stood behind them breathing down their necks like some kind of stalker then they turn around scream something in their native language and open fire. Then I gotta kill everybody and hide the bodies, which takes forever.

 

[AMMO Kid]

I do enjoy a bit of stealth but you need the ability to fight if you fuck things up. Otherwise it's just a glorified game of hot chocolate and very boring.

you can do that in SC:Conviction

 

[AwesomeExpress]

I think it really depends on the game, if you're talking about forced stealth, cause some games handle that really well, and some don't. Other games, when it's optional, don't put it to its full potential, and that can have a bad effect, but other games where stealth is optional do it exceedingly well. I think I'd prefere optional, but I'm not opposed to forced either.

 

[WorldCritic]

I think it really depends, but I do like it better when it is optional.

 

[Zetablade]

I personally like stealth games but when it's done WELL. Take MGS2 for example. When you are sneaking around getting rations from under tables it's very tense when the guards step in front of the table looking for you. My point is stealth should be implemented so that the environment is tense and if you try to go Rambo on everyone you get owned.

 

[Generator]

While it depends on the type of game, I personally prefer stealth as an option. I think that Assassin's Creed II did a good job of this, as many missions were meant to be stealth, but it wasn't necessarily the only way you could beat them.

 

[The Lost Big Boss]

Slowly pick off enemies one by one. Having their friends walk up next to their still warm body, knowing I am lurking in the shadows. Pluck... Pluck... Pluck... I turn off the lights and the last two people are standing back to back not knowing what to do. "I'll go for help!" Their last words as I make sure the other guard hears his last friend take that final inhale when I stab him in the lungs. All alone in a dim lit room, with the enemy knowing his impending doom I grab him by his hair and savor his last quiet moments as he pleas not to kill him. Then while he is whispering franticly to me I slit his throat, letting his body drop to the floor as I walk away and climb out the window.

OT: I love stealth when it works with the game itself. Uncharted =/= stealth game
Splinter Cell= Above comment/personal fantasy

 

[PrimoThePro]

If the game is about stealth, then it is highly counterproductive to make it optional. So it should be completely up to the game premise.

 

[Theron Julius]

I'm all fine with either, but what really gets me is stealth sections in games that previously had no stealth elements. It's always the same infuriating thing. Enemy you can't kill or remove is patrolling an area that you have to get past. So, you are forced to go through a tricky and annoying path while praying to god you were fast enough not to be seen. I simply detest them. They always savagely murder whatever kind of flow you were getting before the section.