With the latest Thief game out tomorrow, Paste Magazine takes a look at the best stealth games of all time.
Half-Life 2 art director and Dishonored designer Viktor Antonov has died aged just 52.
One of my biggest art heroes. His work and vision were truly one of a kind, and he’s been a huge inspiration to my own work. Such a heartbreaking loss.
Remember seeing Dishonored for the first time when it released, fell in love with the art style straight away, so striking! And because of it, still holds up and will for years to come, RIP Viktor
Yep I remember seeing some of the earliest concept art for Dishonored and hearing that the art director of Half-Life 2 was working on it and being excited.
And you are absolutely right, each of those games (HL2 and Dishonored) has a distinct art style that stands the test of time.
So sad to hear this. I absolutely love the Dishonored series and love the world and art style. It looks great and unique. I'm still hoping for a Dishonored 3
WolfEye Studios president and co-founder of Arkane Studios Raphaël Colantonio has said Dishonored and Prey fans “will be happy” with his new studio's next game.
Ouch, already placing a sales cap on this is potentially bad as these games never seem to sell all too well. Hopefully the budget is in check so no one gets laid off after launch.
Fuck yeah. Even if it’s just a spiritual successor I want more titles like Dishonored in terms of art style, design and gameplay
Salman From Tech4Gamers writes "Once a big deal in gaming, stealth gaming, all about sneaking around, planning, and staying cool under pressure, seems to have faded away."
"The decline of the stealth genre can be traced back to several factors. One big problem is that many games today sacrifice stealth for more action-packed scenes.
Even titles labelled as “stealth” often turn into loud shootouts soon after starting. The emphasis has shifted from sneaky strategies to just charging in and shooting, with stealth almost forgotten."
And that's what disappointed me the most about MGS4. While still a good game, it largely abandoned it's stealth roots that made the series so compelling. Since, I've gotten my stealth fix from the likes of TLOU, Hitman, and less popular tiles like Shadow Tactics.
Hmm, MGS4 had the same liberties as all prior MGS games. You could do a complete stealth no kill run in mgs4 with no issue. While also giving a large array of gameplay variations that enhanced the experience.
No MG game except Revengeance has not been able to have complete stealth runs.
@Lexreborn2
True, there were indeed non lethal runs in MGS4. Perhaps I used the wrong wording, but I was more so referring to the 'guns blazing' aspect of the gameplay. This was something that wasn't easily accomplished in the prior games of the series. One reason being that you had limited ammo. In MGS4, you had virtually all the arsenal and ammo you'd ever need early on in the game by way of Drebin points. This alone made stealth all but unnecessary, and resulted in a much easier game than previous entries. That's what the article's alluding to.
@DaReapa
You could go guns blazing even in MGS1, I know 'cause I sucked at stealth at the time and I still beat that game by simply going gung ho on the lowest difficulty and replaying multiple parts over and over 'till I eventually made it.. And it was never the case that the games simply allowed you to just play Rambo instead of a spy with no punishment, you always had a much harder time trying to be a one man army on higher difficulties than just being furtive, so it was always very much stealth first and foremost, the supposed appeal to action in MGS4 was never an issue, they added more weapons and tactics which made all out war a more viable option in some parts but not all of the game and never the ideal course of action. In fact MGS4 have, just like all other MGS games (even the open world unfinished mess that was MGS5), a score system which will rank your run and the point system, like always, favored stealth, non-lethal approaches... Not only the rank/emblem is tied to playing stealth, the game had multiple item unlocks and trophies which you could only ever get by playing it furtively... Hardly anything required you to play guns blazing.
So can we please stop making bullshit up about MGS4 already? I don't know if you were mad the game skipped your platform of choice in favor of the PS3 or if it devalued your life achievement of beating a silly game by being a little more accessible or whatever else was the issue, but it was some 15 years ago, it's time to let go of this whole they abandoned stealth bullshit, they never did that, in fact, it was the second best stealth mechanics in the entire franchise, behind only MGSV, which allowed an even more complex stealth system (and even more open combat too if you wished, because that's what the increasing technology of different generations allowed) but I would argue MGS4 still took more advantage of their stealth mechanics than MGSV ever realized (largely because of open world vs linear structure, but still...). Yes, you could play like a normal shooter action adventure, but you could even more easily had played it like one of the best stealth action games ever. If you choose not to, that's on you.
MGS 4 most certainly did not abandon its stealth roots. As someone who got pretty much every rank you could achieve in that game. I can assure you, that is not the case.
In my opinion as far as modern stealth mechanics and freedom of approach I think V is the best we’ve had so far
Interesting, I would however add that I think part of the decline in interest in many recent stealth games, Assassin’s Creed as a prime example, has been that instead of the stealth play being the fun, it’s been RPG’d as a character choice akin to playing as a mage or a thief with all the same drawbacks and things which turns many players away (upgrade grinding, obscure overly complex skill and equipment upgrade trees). One thing about MGS, Splinter Cell, early Hitman and early Assassin's Creed etc was that they were games you picked up and played with the game the feature, not supplemental to homework hidden in the pause menu.
The novelty has worn off for 'pure' stealth games. They are too tedious. I personally like a good mix.
What a terrible list with the ranking inside the article being even more skewed.
Dishonored and Batman over MGS3??
The biggest joke is Chaos theory at Number 10. What a crap list.
My top ten:
1. Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater
2. Metal Gear Solid
3. Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory
4. Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriot
5. Thief: The Dark Project
6. Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow
7. Tenchu: Stealth Assassins
8. Dishonored
9. Siphon Filter
10. Hitman: Absolution
It's hard to put an Assassin's Creed or an Arkham game on the list.
Im not even going to say anything, this is a fucking insult