Poll: Stealth or Combat? Your preference.

[Piorn]

I like predatory stealth games, so naturally, when I'm given the option to sneak, I do, but still kill a lot of enemies.
Or, some well choreographed half-stealth, like what you can do in FarCry 3 with some mines, takeouts and animals. 10 seconds panic and it's over.

 

[Shamanic Rhythm]

I love stealth. It's the satisfaction of setting up a perfect infiltration, silent takedown or exfiltration that makes the longer game time worth it. The most fun I've had in various MMOs has been playing as stealth characters.

But there's nothing worse than awkward, forced stealth.

 

[Evonisia]

A like a little combination of both. Usually I'll just instantly reset because you're punished for combat (talking about you Dishonoured). I do love stealth on its own, though. Even in multiplayer I'll try the quieter option (my second most played class in TF2 is the Spy, for example).

FarCry has quite broken stealth, but I do like the stealth-turns-into-full-blown-gunfights idea in the game.

 

[StriderShinryu]

This is always a tough question for me because while I really like the concept of stealth in games, I'm usually so bad at it that I end up not liking it when I'm actually playing. There have been so many stealth games that I'll buy on concept alone and then quit two levels in because I just can't get into playing the way they want me to play.

Then, on the other hand, as a long time fighting game fan, I love well executed combat in games. Even if it's just a bog standard brawler, if it has well done fairly deep combat I'll end up at least playing it through.

So, in theory? I probably prefer stealth or at least the option for stealth. In practice? I end up preferring combat in the majority of cases.

 

[Johnny Impact]

Depends on the game.

For instance, my friends and I play a lot of Payday 2. Some jobs are fast or easy enough that stealth is a good way to go. Other jobs are VERY difficult to stealth. Our philosophy is to take stealth as far as we can, then go loud with no regrets. Feels like more of an accomplishment to get in and out without killing anyone but it can't happen that way every time.

 

[kitabatake12]

I love to be hidden... pick my targets and never be seen, it's harder than entering a house on the front door killing everyone. But where is the fun?

 

[Dirkie]

It really depends on the game, sometimes it's more fun going all out gun blazing the Painkiller way, other games do stealth a bit better, like Deus Ex HR.

 

[babinro]

Guns a blazin!

I'm not opposed to entering into a situation with stealth and then going all out though. This is often how things went in Oblivion and in Deus Ex Human Revolution. Group of 8 people? 2-4 might go down with stealth and then I'll finish things off in a shoot out either through personal errors, disinterest in studying more walking routes, or just wanting to mix up the game play.

 

[Unia]

Depends a lot on the backdrop of a given situation. Breaking into a museum? I'll stealth around, the guards are just random Joes making a living. Infiltrating the base of some cartoonishly evil faction hell-bent on world domination? I'm going to bring all the explosives I can scrounge up, at most set them up stealthily before breaking out the minigun. In other words I play a role. Imagine that.

 

[Drejer43]

I'll give you a lazy answer. Which ever is more enjoyable in the game im playing. Wolfenstein dont really have fun steatlh mechanics, but take dishonored for example. In that game I find combat and steatlh to be equally enjoyable.

 

[Poetic Nova]

It all really depends on the character. If his/hers background is stealth related I stick to that kind of gameplay. Vice versa aswell. I vote for indiffirent but I do like both styles of gameplay.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

I prefer the combat approach, mostly because I usually lack the patience for stealth. That being said I did enjoy playing as the Xenomorph and the Predator in Aliens Vs Predator (2009).

 

[Bernzz]

I don't mind action games at all, but if the game gives me an option I'mma try to stealth. Dishonored was fun, just slitting throats.
But I'm murderous, so I'll try to stealth kill every enemy in the room. Heh.

 

[Harkat283]

Stealth by far is generally the most fun for me though I have to kill every damned person I see, before casually strolling back through an area collecting stuff and minding my own business in the safe knowledge that everyone has been murdered.

Though if it comes down to getting into a guns blazing fire fight I like to have the option to try and fight my way out, my biggest gripe with any stealth games is an instant fail state where spotted.

 

[Someone Depressing]

If it's possible, I'll play a stealth-based character, bonus points for pacifism.

If the game has shit stealth, I will still do that, mostly to see just how much they fucked it up.

 

[johnnyLupine]

I enjoy being both sneaky and I'm precise when I can be, If a game tells me a to take out a single target then I get in there and take out that only that target when the games mechanics allow it, Skyrim might have been a good recent example of this despite sometimes feeling cheap as I have occasionally had to exploit both the stealth mechanics and the enemy ai to actually succeed it. Dishonoured was a better example. Dishonoured was glorious.

On a side note, despite otherwise being a reasonable game I grabbed the wrong end of the stick when first playing killzone shadowfall. Id skipped most of the last console generation and so killzone was a title I was not really familiar with. I received a copy alongside my ps4 and the first two missions appeared to give you the option to sneak by completely undetected. I was given a radar system to track enemies, allowed to play with a grappling hook which I'd hoped could be used to take advantage of terrain and gain a decent vantage point. I was careful and took my approach slowly and was punished for it.

Being (repeatedly) punished wasn't the thing which bugged me the most, I chose the path of least resistance because I thought I was just out of touch with console gaming and needed practice, what really annoyed me was when the game dangled a big shiny hook in front of me and gave me a reason to try a stealthy approach again only to snatch it away. I was behind enemy lines and practically defenceless, a degree of subtlety had already been reintroduced and I was busy hiding when I overheard a couple of guards chatting to one another while on patrol, just like anyone might to make it through another day at work. The gauntlet was laid down, those guards would not die. I would to pass through my captors to reach a retracted bridge and no one would die unless absolutely necessary. It took a few attempts to make it and my reward for this success was a noise which attracted all of the guards to my position as the bridge opened back up. Clearly this was not how the game was supposed to be played.

 

[Something Amyss]

I do what I'm in the mood for and what works in the parameters of a game. Sometimes the combat is awful and I avoid it like the plague. Sometimes the stealth is horrible so I might as well run in and shoot. Sometimes they're both bad and I wonder why I'm playing. But basically, no preference.

 

[Frankster]

Depends on the game but overall I lean towards the combat approach.

How fun the stealth mechanics are is also a big factor, but in most cases I tend to start off stealthily only to go loud when I mess up, so in the end becomes a combination of both.

 

[Nieroshai]

I prefer stealth combat over stealth or combat. I get a thrill from being able to avoid detection right up until I'm within range, then swiftly taking out the target and sliding into ambush for the halfwit who's next in line. For this reason, I feel Metal Gear Solid is more fun than Splinter Cell even though realism is lacking. I like being a ninja badass who can flow through a base unseen, the option to drop everyone or not leave a trace entirely my choice. Not that I don't like Splinter Cell, but the unseen variables and glitches make it nearly impossible to go unnoticed without save-scumming.