Greatest Stealth Game of All Time?

Rules:

• No Trolling, hating, name calling etc
• Both Stealth elements and gameplay mechanics should be considered.
• Games that don't force you to engage in combat should be prioritized.

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Back in 90s I played Metal Gear Solid and it blew my mind. It had great story telling, decent gameplay, nice music etc. It was also getting a lot of press coverage and it deserved it. Same year we had another game that I didn't play long after the release of it. I heard about it from people talking on internet. The game didn't receive as much coverage as MGS did but after playing it even long after its initial release, I realized that the game was far ahead of its time and used much better tech than MGS. That game was Thief: The Dark Project.

I've never played a game as immersive as this one. When I played it, I really felt like Master Thief. The game sucks you into its world pretty quickly and has aged incredibly well. Those who haven't played it,,, I strongly recommend you guys to pick up "Gold Edition" of it from Gog.com,,, you won't regret it. The game also featured one of the best anti heroes I've ever seen in a game.

Sound quality is top of the line. Different surfaces produce different sounds. Walking on metal alerts enemies more than walking on a carpet for example, so you have to watch your steps while approaching someone. You get a lot of gadgets to use and the game features a great storyline. At no point it forces you to fight bosses or kill enemies. And the game never takes control away from you. Cutscenes play at the beginning of every mission then you enter a level and then everything happens in real time; No cutscenes, no scripted events, no markers telling you where to go etc.

The game never leaves its first person view, which takes immersion to a whole new level. Main protagonist "Garrett" doesn't speak much during the mission itself but when he does (during key moments), it sounds so badass. The game also featured light and dark system that later inspired Splinter Cell games (hide in the dark, stay away from the light). Thief: The Dark Project also received two sequels, Thief 2: The Metal Age and Thief 3: Deadly Shadows. Thief 2 improved gameplay mechanics further and introduced bigger environments but it lacked compelling storyline that the first one had.

Deadly Shadows was dumbed down but overall despite its technical shortcomings and glitches, it was still a great game. Deadly shadows concluded the trilogy very well and offered a great story like the first one. While many consider Metal Age the best in the series,,, my own personal favorite is the first one and I crown it as the greatest Stealth game ever created.

What about you guys?

Thief.

Anything other than Splinter Cell Chaos Theory is wrong.

That would be my second pick. Thief existed before Splinter Cell and it inspired it as well (in some areas). But that's definitely a good answer considering it is top of the line stealth game. Bravo!

I would go with Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow and Chaos Theory if my answers count that is.

Hitman Blood Money.

There is so much replayability in finding all the different ways to kill the target within the mini sandbox.

Now these are some very good answers. All of them are among my most favorite games of all time. Hoping for Hitman 6 to take inspiration from Blood Money.

Riddick Escape From Butcher Bay

Dues Ex

Penumbra Black Plague (I guess its really survival horror, however you sped the whole game trying to not be detected by enemies)

Deus ex human revolution is an absolute masterpiece of a game

Thief: The Dark Project, SPC: Double Agent, MGS 1, and Hitman 2: Silent Assassin.

Thief II: The Metal Age, SPC: Chaos Theory, Hitman: Blood Money and MGS 3: Snake Eater.

Thief 2: Metal Age. Anything else shouldn't even be considered.

first 3 splinter cell games for xbox..nothing comes close to being as awesome and they hold up very well today.

They're more like stealth action strategy games, but I loved sneaking around in Commandos games.

@TheHighWind: Thief is pure stealth. :)

Man,,, those were the days. Spent so much time with Commandos: Men of Courage. Excellent game.

One more game didn't receive as much coverage as MGS1 was Tenchu: Stealth Assassins in 1998.

I am intrigued. You make me want to try thief but I just wanna ask if it is nostalgia that is affecting your decision? I mean even now I still feel that Prince of Persia: Sands of Time was a masterpiece of a game but I doubt I'd like it if I tried it right now. I'd feel the kick from all the good memories but that would be about it. So can u confidently say that I would like Thief as compared to modern stealth games? Or is it just because you had such good memories with it in the past? Oh and my answer to this thread would be Blacklist.

Splinter cell pandora tommorrow and splinter cell chaos theory

Nope. As I said, I played Thief long after it was released. I played it only few years ago. So, it's definitely not nostalgia. The game is THAT good.

Tenchu. Nothing else comes close.

Thief/Thief 2. By far some of my favorite games of all time, too

I played thief 2 last year and it became one of my favorite game of all time. And about SC:Blacklist if its only multiplayer then I agree.

thief 2

This came to mind for me...

i know, not full stealthy, bla bla, the fact that you can play through anyw ay you want, ignoring the stealth doesn't change the fact that it is a great game and has awesome stealth should you choose to play it like one.

There you go.

@Cloud_imperium: That's really awesome to hear. But its going to be hard to get a legal copy or download :(

@Gamerno6666: Didn't like the single player? I thought it was excellent and very stealthy. If its on Perfectionist its even better than Chaos Theory imo. It's got everything CT had minus some minor stuff like noise meter and light meter which imo arent that important. Better AI, awesome gadgets, ability to ghost through everything except some setpiece moments which imo is a small complaint.

http://www.gog.com/game/thief_gold

You can also buy entire series for 19 dollars (see left side of the page)

I didn't even finish the single player cause I was enjoying the co-op and the multiplayer too much. And also those stealth maps were awesome to finish in solo.

@Krelian-co said:

i know, not full stealthy, bla bla, the fact that you can play through anyw ay you want, ignoring the stealth doesn't change the fact that it is a great game and has awesome stealth should you choose to play it like one.

Man if mgs is not a stealth game i don't know what is.

Splintercell chaos theory/blacklist, Dishonoured, mgs, deus ex hr.

Honestly, I think Thief 2 is the better game.

They're both leagues ahead of other stealth franchises, but Thief 2 had better mission designs and more interesting scenarios than Thief 1.

I'd also like to give Hitman Blood Money an honourable mention. It's one seriously excellent stealth title.

Despite being 17 years old, these games still offer more immersion and better Stealth gameplay than modern games. Which is sad TBH. These days devs cater to wider audiences so everyone and their grandma can play games. Look at new Thief reboot. They tried to make everyone happy and ended up with a mess.

@Cloud_imperium: yeah but tbh these are people that need to feed their families. They can't afford to appeal to a niche audience like us. Not many people have the patience to play a stealth game. After a hard day of work most people just wanna sit down and play something brainless like fifa or cod.

The most fun for me is Mark Of The Ninja. First of it had very clear rules and they were communicated well to me as the player. That meant it never, ever felt unfair. Then there was a good selection of gadgets for manipulating the enviroment and enemies. The leveldesign was great, offering multiple paths and strategys. You had precise control of your character which meant there was no annoying detection because you got stuck on a box or something.

favourite of all time has to be chaos theory, followed closely by probably thief 2 in second place.

it wasn't just the awesome stealth mechanics and the great gadgets that made chaos theory so good, it was the superb free roam level design that puts so many modern games to shame, the brilliant character dynamic between sam, lambert and grim in your ear piece throughout, the subtle, atmospheric sound track and effects, the dry witted dialogue and excellent voice acting, the fantastic espionage scenarios and the amazing atmosphere the lot combined to create - it just ticked all the boxes for me. i really don't like how the series has turned out since. now that ironside is gone along with so many of the cool features from the early splinter cell days, the latest game just feels watered down, bland and generic to me.

also honourable mentions go to dishonored, which i think is the best stealth game of recent years, crysis which was so much fun to play predator style cloaking in the jungle picking off the koreans one by one and alien isolation, which had some surprisingly excellent stealth mechanics and a brilliantly tense atmosphere. i really enjoyed the switch from the usual hunting from the shadows stealth gameplay style to being hunted from the shadows

And that my friend is the main problem... I agree but the problem is, publishers don't want to make something smaller. They don't want to make 10 million dollar game and get 40 million in return. They want to spend 100 million and get 800 million in return. That's the problem.

Making games for niche market (core gamers) is still profitable but not profitable enough compared to annual games like COD, Assassin's Creed etc (as you said). And that's very sad TBH. It's just like movies... I rather watch something like Children of Men instead of Transformers.

@Macutchi: Glad I am not the only one who thinks that way. While I liked Blacklist and it was a lot better than Conviction but to me it still felt like typical last gen Action game just like many others. I'm not a huge fan of new direction that they took post Double Agent.

I am not a fan of Greatest _____ All Time titles but Mark of Ninja and Dishonored were my recent favourites. I wished all stealth games offered a 100% non lethal route. Dishonored was the first game that I have played that offered this and I believe Mark of Ninja also offers this feature. The current Thief game was just not good. I haven't played the old ones but is something I may consider in the future.

@nini200 said:

Tenchu. Nothing else comes close.

this and thief

@nini200 said:

Tenchu. Nothing else comes close.

All of the Tenchus or a specific one?

@nini200 said:

Tenchu. Nothing else comes close.

Forgot about old Tenchu.

My friend, new Thief was heartbreaking. It's not even 10% as good as original trilogy.

Hitman Blood Money !

Splinter cell series , Dishonored, Deus Ex HR, Crysis, Assassins Creed series etc

me neither. not sure why they decided to kill of lambert who was such an important part of the previous games. there was no going back from that. incidentally the original xbox / ps2 had a different version of double agent to the 360/ps3/pc which is much closer to chaos theory in style. for fans of the series it's definitely worth checking out.

@Pedro the new thief was a shambles. don't let it put you off the previous games

Yeah man. I always thought that Lambert was shot by fake bullet because even when you shoot him in the head, he speaks about stopping the bomb. Was surprised to see him dead in Conviction TBH. Either that scene was executed poorly or they decided to change the direction after DA.

@Cloud_imperium: It depends on what you mean by stealth game.

As a pure stealth game Thief, Dishonoured is top of its class.

As a action stealth you have Metal Gear Solid and Splinter cell and hitman above all else.

And in a class of its own you have Payday 2 where the stealth elements is top notch.

I haven't played many stealth games to say my comment should even amount to anything. But if I was to go with one I'd say Hitman Silent Assassin. Haven't played Blood Money.

Many great games have been mentioned, so no need for me to name them again :) So my pick will be:

Styx - Master of Shadows.

Great stealth game, set in an awsome environment :)