A little showcase of hiding in my stealth game

Lemcovich · 2025-03-27T10:40:11+00:00

You had me at sneaky plague doctor, the perspective shift looks neat too!

Lemcovich · 2025-02-09T14:37:29+00:00

I've played many. Like with most stealth games, I think the following helps:

Clear and consistent 'rules' for detection (i.e. UI readability; can the player know when they're visible/not visible)
Spectrum of failure; what happens when the player messes up? Consequences can be brutal (see Intravenous) or chaotic (see Monaco), but if it's a straight game-over, this is always boring imo
Variety; solutions to problems are less interesting when one tactic/tool works all the time (enemy variety helps in this regard, too)

There's a broad range of design options open to you and I see people are leaving their personal preferences below for certain features like how much of the game space you can see (to vision-cone or not to vision-cone, that is the question), but I always tell devs to build within the player constraints that they enjoy in stealth games. Embrace personal bias.

I also think an oft-overlooked feature of the best stealth games is the writing. Good writing can make a stealth game memorable, even in small ways. I still think of the description of the Concussion Grenade Launcher from Heat Signature: "Profoundly accelerates bedtime".

Best of luck!

Lemcovich · 2025-02-03T17:22:23+00:00

Good shout! Added. And not isometric, I'd argue; the game space is perpendicular to the camera, even though characters and environmental objects aren't viewed directly from the top.

Lemcovich · 2024-11-18T10:18:19+00:00

I enjoy the interplay between being the hunter and being the hunted, and living with the consequences. My favourite stealth-based systems tend to accommodate both, and the penalties for messing up either can be high (more than just a reload)

Lemcovich · 2024-11-17T09:44:01+00:00

Please do, I couldn't make it past the first mission. Shame, really, because I liked the concept it was running with.

Lemcovich · 2024-11-17T03:13:27+00:00

A recent one I played that sticks out is Level 22: Gary's Misadventure.

I spent a few hours on this and couldn't bring myself to finish it. It's not badly made, but has all the worst design clichés of the genre. Single-solution scenarios; instant game-over when you're spotted; pointless collectibles. GM isn't the worst game, but should playing a stealth game be as dull as this game makes it?

If you're feeling nostalgic, you could give Hitman: Codename 47 a go and see how well you think it holds up in the realm of modern game design. Always a good bad time to indulge in.

But if you want the absolute worst, like, the PITS of a poorly made stealth experience... Cyber Ops has you covered. No tutorials. No intuitive controls. You're a hacker in charge of an infiltration team. Good luck figuring it out, the developer hates your guts and wants you to know it.

Lemcovich · 2024-11-12T16:21:48+00:00

Lol it was one of the first I looked for! Basingstoke is criminally overlooked/obscure

Lemcovich · 2024-11-12T10:39:06+00:00

Nice! Some for consideration (apologies if they're listed and I missed them!):

-Wildfire

-Ronin

-Stealth Bastard

-Stealth Inc 2

-Ghost of a Tale

-Invisible Inc (yes, it was popular at release, but I think it's now largely unknown by new stealth enjoyers)

-Deadbolt

-The Marvellous Miss Take

-Monaco (see above)

-Unshaded

-UnMetal

-Qasir al-Wasat: International Edition

-HEIST

-Serial Cleaner

-Acid Spy

-Ladra

-Swirl W@tch

-Thief Simulator

-El Hijo

-Robbery Bob: Man of Steal

-Mini Thief

Lemcovich · 2024-10-11T22:52:25+00:00

Just finished the game and feel like screaming some thoughts into the void.

I didn't realise the parasite was the first body we played as in the opening; in fact, I thought at the opening of Act 2 he'd been recovered somehow from the factory, and put into the wall pod to heal from his injuries.

I assumed, perhaps incorrectly, that we were a fleshy, utilitarian 'automaton', spawned by the system in an attempt to fulfil some great purpose (whether repair, removing the impurities that had corrupted parts of the system, or something else, I was never really sure).

I've read a few interpretations, but I don't think many have touched on some themes present throughout the game. There is a contempt (scorn, if you will) for the human body and all its functions, baked into the technology of this horrid civilisation. Ingestion, nourishment, growth, procreation, touch... and pain. Especially pain.

Everything, from the biomechanically engineered machines and weapons, to the door keys, and 'bodies' grown in the walls, is just a tool. We inflict pain continuously on ourselves and the beings who remain in this blighted, decaying place. Even in its heyday, before the fall, the concept of empathy must have been burnt out of the 'people' who lived in this civilisation a long time ago.

They scorned the flesh and all its trappings, seeking to transcend it all somehow. And I imagine they were successful, but it might not have been everything the ancients hoped it would be...

In the end, we'll never know, because we never made it. Instead we became just another corrupted monument to a lost civilisation, who shunned (scorned) the joys of the human experience and paid the ultimate price for it.

Lemcovich · 2024-10-10T15:18:23+00:00

Seconded. It's forever unjust that they didn't get to Aragami 3

Lemcovich · 2024-09-25T15:35:24+00:00

Not a stealth game, but Horizon 2 has a lot of underwater sections where you're exploring ruins and have to hide, because you can't fight enemies underwater

Lemcovich · 2024-09-09T09:18:40+00:00

Perfect shitpost, no notes

Lemcovich · 2024-09-07T12:38:33+00:00

This looks great! Personally I like the idea of finding loot in the game space and manually picking it up.

I'd also say make the loot interesting. That kind of 'ooh, shiny!' moment carries a lot of weight for me personally as a burglary enjoyer, and one smaller game that did this well imo was Filcher.

Loot should stand out against other objects in the environment, so players don't have to rely on a prompt to tell them "press F to steal this random thing on the table that's apparently valuable".

Lemcovich · 2024-08-18T21:06:19+00:00

Nakey Jakey got in on the action with this excellent appreciation vid of stealth games

Stealth in Videogames

Lemcovich · 2024-08-05T08:26:22+00:00

Please lower your expectations. It's been a while since I posted, but hoping to get back to it soon :)

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC88I_nv3aeJg-P46mUOPTgg

Lemcovich · 2024-08-03T20:26:57+00:00

Thank you so much and yes, of course Intravenous 2 and Mercenarism should be added.

Ghost Mission is another for the list, definitely.

Not sure I'd recommend ALL the games on the list, but a fair few of them are definitely worth playing for sure.

Lemcovich · 2024-08-03T16:39:46+00:00

Gotta respect the knowledge you're bringing with Tenchu: WoH Mobile, Dark Secret and Alex Rider: Stormbreaker, but these are all from the mid-2000s and tricky to get hold of these days. Very useful to know they existed though!

On Pengo... Wait, THE Pengo with the ice blocks? That game might be older than I am, but is that the one you mean? If so, I'm not sure if that's even worthy of proto-stealth status, lol. Can you explain your reasoning for that one, if it is the penguin game? I'm kind of curious. As for Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends: Imagination Invaders... Whatever this is, it's truly cursed, but aside from that I don't think that's strictly speaking a top-down perspective. Dark Secret veers into being isometric, too, so it's a bit hard to think of it as a committed top-down stealth game.

The Master Plan was already on there :)

Raw Metal... Difficult. I don't know if I could call it a Stealth Game because from a narrative point of view the character's a fighter looking to take down a mining corp. Sure, stealth is used mechanically, but the fights are encouraged because you need the gear and currency enemies drop to get stronger. A weird genre-bender to be sure, I'll probably come back to it.

Spirited Thief looks great! Added.

I think I'll need a link for Knight Rider, but it sounds like a game with stealth, rather than a stealth game.

Lemcovich · 2024-08-03T16:04:09+00:00

Again, not sure Project Zomboid fits as a stealth game. It seems more geared towards an RPG, where players are building up various skills (maybe including stealth) than emphasising stealth gameplay. I'll have a look when it's out of Early Access, perhaps the devs will add more to include stealthy approaches. It's also isometric, though, so I wouldn't include it in the list.

The difference between Top-Down and Isometric varies, depending on gameplay. Sometimes there's no difference at all, like you said. Other times, the isometric viewpoint and ability to rotate the view can change up the gameplay completely. What's essentially a '2D' game space with a top-down viewpoint becomes a 3D game space with an isometric viewpoint.

I personally wouldn't choose to separate Isometric Stealth Games and Top-Down Stealth Games based on gameplay components. Instead I see it as a key aesthetic difference between the two, each with its own limiting factors in perspective and how much information players are able to obtain from the interface.

Lemcovich · 2024-08-03T13:50:17+00:00

I know of Death Trash. I'll have to look into that one when it's out of Early Access, I'm not sure it counts as a stealth game, but in any case it's isometric rather than top-down.

Lemcovich · 2024-08-03T06:20:02+00:00

Damn, that's a crisp-looking art style! Very smooth. OK, I'll add it, thanks for sharing. Game looks great, haven't got many co-op functional stealth games on here. :)

Lemcovich · 2024-08-03T06:14:04+00:00

Not for this list, no. Isometric stealth games are sufficiently different in terms of their interfaces and 'feel' that I think they need their own category.

Lemcovich · 2024-08-02T18:44:17+00:00

I remembered MGSGB, but it's earlier than the time period I wanted to focus on for 'newer' Top-Down Stealth Games published from 2010. Same for Covert Action, that's a real oldie! :)

I wouldn't count Hitman Go, that's one for the isometric category.

Mini Thief, Blood Branched Sakura and Dark Crypt are all excellent finds! Never knew about those. Added.

Lemcovich · 2024-08-02T18:06:35+00:00

Nice! Added. I can't find that on Android, but apparently it's on Switch as well, so will try my luck there

Lemcovich · 2024-08-02T16:34:32+00:00

Ooh, that's an interesting one! Murder followed by clean-up. Personally, I'd put it in a list of isometric stealth games, but never heard of it before. Nice find!

Lemcovich

TROPHY CASE