Best Stealth Game Ever?

[EightGaugeHippo]

Personally, Metal Gear Solid 3 Snake Eater.
While it does show its grey hair, the stealth in Snake Eater was the best of the series.

1 & 2 had an arcade like approach to stealth, ie dont walk directly into the line of sight of enemies and you'll be fine.
3 made the sneaking much more fluid.

You couldn't run right behind a guard anymore or they'll hear you, you had to adjust your camouflage to suit your environment. No radar meant you had to use your eyes and ears through the thick jungle to spot enemies (easier said than done).

It required more thought and planning on the player's part to successfully sneak through an area.

All round Snake Eater was a solid (hehe) stealth game and my favorite in the MGS series.

 

[The Last Nomad]

Metal Gear Solid and Splinter Cell are by far the best stealth series's in my opinion, particularly, MGS 3 and Double Agent for the PS2.

But I'd have to say The Last of Us has probably got one of the best stealth mechanics I've ever played, even though its not a straight up stealth game. One thing that particularly stands out is the AI. if they see you and then you lose sight of them, there is no point where they all go, "Must have been nothing" and revert back to default patrols, if they see you, or even hear you, they will not stop looking until they find you. Its great and very tense.


Also special props to Fallout 3, for allowing you to sneak up on a character and reverse pickpocket a live grenade onto them. That shit is funny as hell.

 

[Kanova]

While it may not be the best stealth game in the world, my personal favorite goes to Tenchu Z. When you boil it down, a stealth game is nothing more than a puzzle game in which the "puzzle" is figuring out how to navigate a certain environment while avoiding guards/cameras/whatever, and I've had hours of fun working out the best ways to infiltrate the enemy compounds by memorizing patrol patterns and looking for the little crack in the defenses that allows me to pick off the first unsuspecting guard and following through with a plan of attack to bring the rest of them down from that point on.

I was going to say the same thing. I loved that game, nothing like being a sneaky ninja (that is customizable) and going through a level without being seen. All 10 levels.

 

[Casual Shinji]

It depends on what you prefer I think.

I mean, is there one stealth game that doesn't throw you a bone by having enemies forget about you after a minute? Or has enemies resort to a kind of 'safety in numbers' patrol formation, so as not to be picked off one by one? Good stealth depends on good A.I., and I don't think there's any out there that really qualifies for that.

The games where I enjoyed stealth the most were Batman: Arkham Asylum/City and The Last of Us. Arkham really made you feel like a shadowy predator observing your prey. And TLoU had a great eb and flow to the stealth action, with a great role reversal of hunter versus hunted between you and the bandits.

 

[Sectan]

Of those stealth games I've actually played for more than one level (sorry Thief/Deus Ex) I'd probably have to say Dishonored. Absolutely love the level/mission design, it's just a shame that the story and acting are so unbearably dull.

Dishonored isn't a bad stealth game. I've put over 120 hours into it. Although when you're discovered it's so piss easy to climb on a rooftop and the guards magically forget about you or you just chop everyone down. Plus the powers can take a bit of the stealthy tension away when you can just magically teleport behind people. If Corvo didn't have powers the stealth would be better.

But I will have to give my vote to Thief 1/2. I just played them about a year ago so I don't have any nostalgia for them. While the control scheme was a bit...bad, the gadgets and the strategies you can use are amazing. Rope Arrow is the best damn item ever. Now if whoever the hell is making the new Thief had just remade the old one for the modern world they would have something amazing on their hands. As long as they didn't fuck it up.

 

[Dyan]

Personally? Dishonored. The stealth felt very natural and the powers kept things interesting and didn't break the flow of gameplay. Granted I haven't played that many stealth oriented games so perhaps my opinion isn't exactly the most valid. Deus Ex: Human Revolution also had a pretty good stealth mechanic even it did feel a bit to punishing if you fucked it up.

EDIT: How could I have forgotton Mark of the Ninja? Stealth-em-ups in a 2D enivironment isn't something you see often and Klei Entertainment did an awesome job on it.

 

[chaser5000]

I haven't played many stealth games but Dishonored has got me more interested in stealth games. I also want to mention Farcry 3 too, while you had the option to just run head on at the enemies with a flamethrower if you wanted too, but at least for me the stealth option was always a lot more fun.

 

[Artaneius]

Tenchu Wrath of Heaven, Metal Gear Solid 3, Dishonored, Thief 1+2, and a couple others I forgot names of.

 

[scorptatious]

Another vote for MGS3.

Yeah, controls take some getting used too, but it's definitely one of the best stealth games (and games in general) that I've played.

Few thing put me more on edge than a guard going "Huh?" and slowly walking towards my position with nothing but the sounds of the jungle playing in the background.

 

[RJ 17]

While it may not be the best stealth game in the world, my personal favorite goes to Tenchu Z. When you boil it down, a stealth game is nothing more than a puzzle game in which the "puzzle" is figuring out how to navigate a certain environment while avoiding guards/cameras/whatever, and I've had hours of fun working out the best ways to infiltrate the enemy compounds by memorizing patrol patterns and looking for the little crack in the defenses that allows me to pick off the first unsuspecting guard and following through with a plan of attack to bring the rest of them down from that point on.

I was going to say the same thing. I loved that game, nothing like being a sneaky ninja (that is customizable) and going through a level without being seen. All 10 levels.

That's my one complaint about the game: sure there's 50 levels to complete...but they take place on the same 10 maps. Still, infiltrating that restaurant is always exceedingly fun. :3

 

[teebeeohh]

thief two and mark of the ninja
thief does large areas with a shitload of options best while mark of the ninja has the best and cleanest mechanics ever.

 

[bafrali]

Mark of the Ninja since it solves the most prominent problem I had with the genre. Speed. Maybe it is my ADD or something but that game gave me the thrill of stealth witohut the dread of painfully slow gameplay.

 

[Caped Crusader]

I will actually choose Mark of The Ninja.

 

[Bostur]

There can be only two, more precisely Thief and Thief 2.
Admittedly Mark of the Ninja does a pretty good job at it as well. And it's nice to see that the genre can work in 2D as well.

AI that seems realistic is the most important aspect of stealth oriented games to me. I can't feel immersed if the game feels like, you know, a game. Little things like consistent mechanics, variety in structure, multiple approaches, user friendly controls and a viable reason for my wrongdoings/ good deeds (I.e a good storyline) are also little pieces that make the stealth experience so addicting and embody every game I've noted thus far. Some hit every point while others seem to miss a few marks. So who, in your opinion, does it best?

Yeah I think storyline and NPC dialogue is integral to the genre. Without these a game can have good stealth elements, but not become a fully fledged stealth game.
Details and physics are also very important, the world needs to feel real and behave according to expectations.

 

[FrankatronX]

Tenchu

It's got it all. Epic story, wonderously diverse levels and if you try to hack your way in, you will die.
I would personally discount the Hitman series for the ability(in the one I played anyway) to simply terminator your way through levels.
For me the experience needs to be deadly. Event the simplest guard could dispatch you because you're weapon isn't your blade, it's the shadows.
But also the two characters lends to easy replay and the items are fun to play with. All the bosses I encountered are still unforgotten as is the simple and effective playstyle.

 

[DishonoredElderSouls]

From what I have played of the first Thief, its sound design, humour, and mechanics are utterly brilliant and deserve a massive load of credit considering how ahead of their time they were.

I cannot yet give an opinion on the Hitman games, but I have all of them ready to play and will have an opinion formulated soon.

i am definitely going to disagree with Mark of the Ninja and Deus Ex: Human Revolution. Though the former felt fairly intriguing, I couldn't stand its Penny Arcade-esque guard enemies and janky controls. I didn't get far, mainly due to my frustration over how there was no clear rhyme or reason to the nature of the guards. I would hook up to a high spot only for a random alarm to be set off without any degree of light shining on me, or a guard would stand in one position for literally five minutes as I traversed the area, and the moment I would get behind him he would turn around.

And returning to what I mentioned earlier...why on Earth would Klei decide upon such an absurd design for the mortal enemies of a ninja clan? Their lines were overwhelmingly cheesy and voiced with the goofiest voice acting ever. It entirely dampened the atmosphere that the rest of the game had built up so well. If these guys were perhaps other ninjas or simply more intimidating, I could take the whole thing more seriously and actually play through it. But no, just...no.

Human Revolution was a stellar game concerning dialogue, exploring the hubs, and investigating seedy night clubs and drug dealers...but the moment it would come to sneaking through a room full of military drones, everything fell apart. it felt so wooden and stitched-together.

Generally, I enjoy taking the stealth route in games that provide you with multiple options. Dishonored is at its best when you're either avoiding absolutely everybody and not laying a single hand on another human, or dropping hundreds of feet to sink your blade into a dude's throat. The level design, lore, and mechanics are all so perfectly crafted and there's just a wonderfully dynamic feel to everything. Fantastic game no matter how you slice it.

Far Cry 3 is a *much* better game when you devote as much time to stealth as possible. It's necessary towards the beginning, but few other games have ever provided so much steady development and empowerment to the player over time as FC3. By the end you're not fighting enemies as a necessity, you are the King of the Jungle and anybody who sets foot within your domain is your very, very unlucky prey. Such a satisfying first-time experience.

Arkham Asylum was a reasonable stealth game, but Arkham City definitely set it up a notch. Gameplay became perhaps more visceral and calculating, with gun-toting enemies able to mow you down the moment you see them. There was an enormous arsenal of tools that became really fun to implement into your predatory adventures, like throwing ice grenades at a dude and then ziplining at him and kicking him in the face.

They may be stat-based, sure, but the stealth components of Oblivion and New Vegas are superbly entertaining, particularly NV. Once you reach a certain level in Oblivion you can repeatedly sneak attack an enemy without being detected, and the variety of weapons and approaches in New Vegas cement it as the most viable RPG playstyle I've ever taken on.

EDIT: Improved overall use of vocabulary. I can hardly believe I pride myself on my writing abilities.

 

[Rariow]

For a bit of an unconventional answer, Amnesia: The Dark Descent. It has the perfect atmosphere for stealth, and the stealth itself is simple but well executed.

For a "pure" stealth game, not a horror game with slight stealth elements the best I've played is probably Hitman: Blood Money (though it's the only one in the series I've experienced). An insane amount of freedom, creative environments, and I think the focus on deceit and planning rather than simple "stay out of sight" gameplay is both more realistic and considerably more engaging than a traditional stealth experience a la Thief or Metal Gear.