Poll: Stealth vs Going loud?

[Addendum_Forthcoming]

Stealth is boring.

Mainly because games implement it in an incredibly shitty way.

Videogame stealth is about impulse control with the assumption that the reward pays out for your patience of hugging bits of geometry. The thing is, most of the challenge is taken away in favour of hugging bits ofterrain and often with some form of perfunctory reward for playing boringly.

MGS3 was the best in the series precisely because it didn't decentivize being aggressive.

There's good ways of doing stealth games, but ifit actively revolves around you hugging geometry for half the time you'replaying and starts actively withholding rewards for you being aggressive the tedium starts piling on.

Stealth in games should be about setting yourself up to have the best kill zone, or to actually complete a level in theshortest amount of time ... not some glorified obstacle course which actively incentivizes you being slow and cautious and not taking any gambles for what should be a fun pay off of carnage or some other entertaining reward.

Shadow of Mordor had awful stealth, and say way you like ... nothing felt as badass as just wandering into a place that you know had multiple captains and just go Uruk stomping until you got to them and triggered their activity. Sure, you only get 1 XP per kill that you're betteroff just doingthe whole run-brutalize-run-brutalize-run-brutalize until you got to captains or the like ... but one again, that is fucking boring.

 

[Fijiman]

The majority of the time I'll take the sneakier approach if it's an option, but it can be incredibly fun to just go running around with explosives and a big gun every now and then. Really though it does depend on a number of factors like what I'm fighting, how many there are, what I currently have for equipment, etc.

 

[aegix drakan_v1legacy]

I'm a sneaky type of player.

I like outsmarting my foes and slowly picking them off as they run around in confusion wondering who is nicking all their stuff and knocking them out (or killing them one at a time if I'm doing an "angel of death" playthrough and putting the entire place into a panic).

I do prefer it when there's lots of movement options (Blink in dishonored) or other neat tricks to make stealth easier (The clones and alchemy in Styx Shards of Darkness), however, as pure stealth without them often turns into a Quick-save-athon which does get a little tedious if you're faced with a really hard segment.

I just really enjoy beating the enemy with careful tactics, planning, ambushes and trickery over brute force. Hell, I took it to the logical extreme with Mark of the Ninja. My preferred style in that game was using the ninja suit that terrified enemies when they saw you kill someone, and I used it to terrify the guards and force them all into killing each other with friendly fire like some kind of evil batman...Until only one remained and I granted him the mercy of eternal slumber.

If I'm in a game that supports it (and doesn't punish me for violence), however, the second I'm busted I go loud. VERY loud. In farcry 3 I crept around with a silenced rifle and pistol and the moment anyone saw me...Out came the grenade launcher and flamethrower.

 

[Azure-Supernova]

Neither, I try to silently kill everyone without ever causing an alert.

It's fun to be whispering death, slowly depopulating the level without anyone noticing.

This is and always has been my favourite approach and it grinds my gears when killing contradicts stealth runs.

 

[Dalisclock]

Sneaky Sneaky here. If I can get in and out without engaging guards and setting off alarms, hell yeah. But I'm certainly going to take out guards to thin out their ranks and help avoid getting spotted, non-lethally if possible and lethally if needed.

That's how I played dishonored and that's how I've been playing the Metal Gear series for the past few months.

Of course, if things go to shit, I'll kill everyone in my path to survive, but it feels like I've failed.

 

[bluegate]

Depends on the game.

Metal Gear Solid is always a stealth game for me, although I can get fed up if I am discovered 35 minutes in a mission.

In Assassin's Creed, for example, I just barge in and destroy everything with normal brawling because the game's combat is usually a big joke and easier done that the shitty stealth. Last game I played was Syndicate.

 

[thynguyen123]

Still like the game.

 

[Worgen]

If I have the stealth option I tend to go for it despite the fact it usually results in me enjoying the game less. I didn't really get into Wolfenstein 2 till I just abandoned stealth and went in guns blazing. Despite being hitscan run and gun actually works really really well in it since enemies aim where you were, not where you are so moving fast works well.

 

[Neverhoodian]

Stealth, but I still like to get my hands dirty in the process. Take the Spy in Team Fortress 2, for example. I got pretty good with the class over the years, to the point where my very existence could wreak havoc with the enemy team. A sapped teleporter here, a few high value targets backstabbed there, and before you know it a third of their team would start trying to hunt me down. There are few things more satisfying in gaming than successfully evading a gaggle of flailing Pyros, then going back to cause even more mayhem when they've lost you. Sometimes I could even turn the tables on my pursuers; many a W+M1 Pyro learned the hard way that the Spy has a gun as well as a knife.

 

[DarklordKyo]

When it's predominately a stealth game (Metal Gear, Hitman, etc.), I'll try to sneak, otherwise, I'll let Tien speak for me (at about five seconds in):


Though the exception to this rule is Dishonored, primarily because of that Chaos mechanic that determines whether everything ends up as either a utopia, or as a post-apocalyptic hellhole.

 

[Kyrian007]

I prefer stealth. It generally requires more skill to pull off and I'm not an "easy solutions" gamer. I prefer bigger challenges. That being said...

Is there really any game that actually gives you the choice? Every game that has the "option" of quiet or loud assault treats the "loud" option as a tacit failure. I have never played a game where the sneaky silent player wasn't given a greater reward or score or whatever than the kick the door down player. Quiet is always the "right" answer, the "better" way to play. I'm just lucky that's my preferred method.

 

[Dalisclock]

I prefer stealth. It generally requires more skill to pull off and I'm not an "easy solutions" gamer. I prefer bigger challenges. That being said...

Is there really any game that actually gives you the choice? Every game that has the "option" of quiet or loud assault treats the "loud" option as a tacit failure. I have never played a game where the sneaky silent player wasn't given a greater reward or score or whatever than the kick the door down player. Quiet is always the "right" answer, the "better" way to play. I'm just lucky that's my preferred method.

Maybe Alpha Protocol? Since you got better at things by actually doing them, you get better at being sneaky then sneaking and better at using weapons by using them.

Though AP actually had boss battles which could be very difficult if you were only geared for stealth.....

 

[Chimpzy_v1legacy]

Neither, I try to silently kill everyone without ever causing an alert.

It's fun to be whispering death, slowly depopulating the level without anyone noticing.

A particular favorite of mine too. Recently did a playthrough of Dishonored 2 where I set myself the goal of silently murdering everyone. Everyone? EVERYONE! The bloodflies and rats would've had a field day, but I systematically decimated those too.

Stealth, but I still like to get my hands dirty in the process. Take the Spy in Team Fortress 2, for example. I got pretty good with the class over the years, to the point where my very existence could wreak havoc with the enemy team. A sapped teleporter here, a few high value targets backstabbed there, and before you know it a third of their team would start trying to hunt me down. There are few things more satisfying in gaming than successfully evading a gaggle of flailing Pyros, then going back to cause even more mayhem when they've lost you. Sometimes I could even turn the tables on my pursuers; many a W+M1 Pyro learned the hard way that the Spy has a gun as well as a knife.

Nothing quite like having the enemy team running around all paranoid, spending precious seconds looking for you instead of going for the objective. And yeah, too many people forget the Spy has a gun that can take out most classes in 3 shots (or less), and that includes those playing Spy. The recent changes to Pyro flamethrowers in the Jungle Inferno update have made W+M1ing a lot more deadly tho, so gunning down Pyros has become risky if you're not outside their range, even with a Spycicle and/or Dead Ringer.

 

[Kyrian007]

I prefer stealth. It generally requires more skill to pull off and I'm not an "easy solutions" gamer. I prefer bigger challenges. That being said...

Is there really any game that actually gives you the choice? Every game that has the "option" of quiet or loud assault treats the "loud" option as a tacit failure. I have never played a game where the sneaky silent player wasn't given a greater reward or score or whatever than the kick the door down player. Quiet is always the "right" answer, the "better" way to play. I'm just lucky that's my preferred method.

Maybe Alpha Protocol? Since you got better at things by actually doing them, you get better at being sneaky then sneaking and better at using weapons by using them.

Though AP actually had boss battles which could be very difficult if you were only geared for stealth.....

Maybe so, I never played Alpha Protocol. The closest I can think of are games with token and mostly (except for one scripted time) useless stealth mechanics. Like GTA: San Andreas. Supposedly there was a stealth mechanic, but with the exception of the rappers mansion mission nobody ever really got any use out of it. Same with Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction. Supposedly there was a mechanic in which you could blame your crimes on factions if you were in a faction vehicle... but it was really unreliable. And I actually committed far more war crimes in Mercenaries on foot rather than from a car or helicopter. Stealth just didn't work, so it wasn't really a choice.