As I mentioned in a previous blog, I love sniping. I love everything leading up to the shot as much as taking the shot itself. Selecting a location, the waiting, selecting a target… The methodical approach is entirely suited to my personality. As such, games with similar elements are also a major plus. Both the Thief and Hitman series reward careful, calculated play. The sense of superiority to be gained for moving around a level undetected is, for me, second to none.
So why is it that we have such a lack of stealth games? Sure, all manner of games allow stealth play, many even enforce badly designed irritating set piece stealth sections, but there are few truly stealth based games. I am talking about games that are entirely designed around the process. The one essential item that every stealth game needs, and very very few actually have, is a Thief style visibility meter. Every game I play where it is even vaguely popular, I play a sneaky role. The problem is, with no indication of your actual hiding capability (I was going to say hideyness, that should be a word), the process is rather unsatisfying, tauntingly close, yet falling short, like stale cake. A great many games suffer from stale cake syndrome, Fallout 3, Farcry 2, Mass Effect to name a few. All have, theoretically, the ability to play an assassin type character, silenced weapons, stealth skills, Farcry 2′s stealth outfit upgrade. Yet none of them, and every other game you can think of like them, actually gives any indication how well hidden you are.
It is all abstract. Not even an estimate or a probability, you can only guess at the whole process. I saved up 40 diamonds to buy the stealth upgrade in Farcry 2, I was told it made me harder to see. But by what factor? Am I 50% harder to see? 200%? It is an entirely arbitrary element that really leaves one rather dissatisfied. Fallout 3 is the same, I got to 100 stealth as soon as possible, but what does that actually mean? So many games fall flat on this basic point. SO many games throw in stealth sections, or even just vague nods to it, an acceptance that there are such lofty ideas as subtlety, but no more, like Halo 3′s ‘snipers, stay out of their sight’ warning. Fine, but they see you regardless the moment you enter the section, it is lip service, no more. Something that ought to be appropriate, but the protagonists can’t really be bothered with. One suspects they themselves played one too many forced sneak sections in video games.
Perhaps one reason these experiences feel so hollow is down to realism. Games allow people to be more than they are, heroes, villains, badasses. Players prod buttock and take names. Hordes are gunned down, buildings scaled, princesses rescued. Yet it is easier to hide in real life than in a game. You can move your character to crouch in a bush, but does it actually screen you at all? In real life you would have a pretty good idea, but in games, you have no idea if those textures even register in terms of line of sight. Certainly the most effective way to snipe enemies, I found this to be the case in MAG in particular, is to take advantage of terrain pop up. I recall one level in MAG attacking an enemy base where I knew enemies were camping on a scrub covered hillside. It was hard to see the dark shapes among the dark bushes, so I crawled backwards a foot, and all the shrubs disappeared, leaving a series of prone dark prone figures on a bright green utterly bare hillside. I made a huge number of kills that round…
This kind of issue is noticeable often. You might be crawling through overgrowth, feeling confident playing Farcry for example, when some enemy NPC shoots you from 200 metres away through a number of intervening objects. Likewise I find far too many shooters in which enemies know exactly where you are at all times. You may be able to sneak into a room, but if you are detected, they know precisely where you are for the entire encounter, right until the last one falls twitching. Enemy reinforcements rushing into the area also somehow know your exact location. You go for a stealth kill, the shot just misses, the target swivels to face you as though you were being followed by neon signs and a marching band. It feels as though enemy soldiers are some kind of hive mind connected to a network of CCTV cameras that would make the FBI blush.
Because of this continued lack, I am willing to try anything that attempts to overcome these issues. I very much enjoyed Sniper Elite on the PC. It had a great many issues, but at least it made an effort, a step in the right direction. Likewise I will at some point pick up Sniper: Ghost Warrior. Sure, it has been universally panned, but I will give it a go nonetheless (when it is nice and cheap, anyway). What I want to see therefore is visibility meters in all games with a stealth option. Rip the idea bodily from Eidos Studies, because you know what? It works. I want an immersive, tense experience, not some arbitrary coin toss. I want AI that reacts appropriately. All these are what makes a stealth game worth playing.No game is perfect, and even Thief had its’ moments, such as when I concealed myself in a dark corner, waited for a guard to pass, leapt out blackjack raised, and brought it crashing down upon his head. The guard remained strangely unfazed. I sprinted into a different room and cowered in full expectation of imminent alarms. The guard, wearing a metal helmet, simply said ‘what was that?’ and continued on his rounds…
A knife in the Dark
This blog is well hidden
Perhaps one reason these experiences feel so hollow is down to realism. Games allow people to be more than they are, heroes, villains, badasses. Players prod buttock and take names. Hordes are gunned down, buildings scaled, princesses rescued. Yet it is easier to hide in real life than in a game. You can move your character to crouch in a bush, but does it actually screen you at all? In real life you would have a pretty good idea, but in games, you have no idea if those textures even register in terms of line of sight. Certainly the most effective way to snipe enemies, I found this to be the case in MAG in particular, is to take advantage of terrain pop up. I recall one level in MAG attacking an enemy base where I knew enemies were camping on a scrub covered hillside. It was hard to see the dark shapes among the dark bushes, so I crawled backwards a foot, and all the shrubs disappeared, leaving a series of prone dark prone figures on a bright green utterly bare hillside. I made a huge number of kills that round…
This kind of issue is noticeable often. You might be crawling through overgrowth, feeling confident playing Farcry for example, when some enemy NPC shoots you from 200 metres away through a number of intervening objects. Likewise I find far too many shooters in which enemies know exactly where you are at all times. You may be able to sneak into a room, but if you are detected, they know precisely where you are for the entire encounter, right until the last one falls twitching. Enemy reinforcements rushing into the area also somehow know your exact location. You go for a stealth kill, the shot just misses, the target swivels to face you as though you were being followed by neon signs and a marching band. It feels as though enemy soldiers are some kind of hive mind connected to a network of CCTV cameras that would make the FBI blush.
I can see you...
Raawr
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