The joke about the S word being sword is pretty cool because Sword is spelt S and then Word. This is the kind of high brow humor I have come to expect from Naked Jacob.
I thought he was going to say the s word is "死(shi)", as that's the Japanese kanji that displayed on the screen, as well as sounding close to the word "shit"
Something often overlooked in Thief is the use of sound and the information it provides. Hostile NPCs talk to themselves, whistle and sneeze, and their footsteps are loud, so players can hear them coming or going while hiding. They also report crimes out loud to other enemies, so the player knows when a multi-enemy pursuit is about to happen. This removes the need for UI elements, non-diegetic sounds or "thief vision" powers that reveal enemy locations and states of alertness.
I was hoping a Thief-related comment about sound would show up. The project and lead audio directors were both audio designers and musicians when they started in the industry so it made perfect sense that Thief would rely so heavily on sound. Also they were in a band together with the voice of Victoria and SHODAN. Looking Glass forever!
It's not overlooked, it's just modern stealth games are actually fast paced stealth-actions that have significantly more enemies around you, because they have to support action phase: sword fighting, shooting, cover based shooting, etc... that's why they give you little to no feedback when it comes to footsteps and other enemy related sounds, otherwise It would be a cacophony of sounds. That's why one of the best sounds in the recent years we had was in Alien: Isolation with stealth mostly designed around one single enemy.
@@mmrchive You can easily ignore incoherent sound design and focus, what you can't ignore is gating that didn't allow you to come back to earlier parts of the level and steal every single piece of loot you missed.
I like the Arkham games like the next guy but by jolly, the way it popularized legal cheating, a.k.a. "detective mode" is donwright criminal. Good thing games seem to be emerging out of the ridiculously easy phase which had its peak around 2005-2015.
I did my masters thesis on stealth level design! Specifically pattern recognition. Some popular patterns I noticed in stealth games: - Hard & Soft Cover (a large crate vs tall grass) - Vantage Points (that cliff or water tower before you descend on the level) - Enemy pathing (watch, learn, execute) - Conveyance (safe areas, enemy owned spaces vs player owned spaces) - Verticality (high or low, but get off of the enemy’s level of view) - Alternate paths (multiple means to an end) - Safe Zones (catch your breath, refill your stuff) As egoraptor loves to point out, you shouldn’t need a tutorial every step of the way. When a player is able to pick up on the unspoken language the designer is trying to communicate through the level, it makes the experience so much more rewarding. Great video on one of my favorite genres!
the metro series is so slept on for its stealth. It doesn't allow for as much freedom as other games like Dishonored, but the tension when you have no ammo and are forced to slowly creep around enemies is only matched by a few games in this era of gaming. Also my favorite pattern of camo is any of them other than digital.
To bad the older games are extremely broken. I tried replaying 2033 and got fed up with getting caught through walls and certain sections killing my 3 times but suddenly passing me through no problem the 4th time. I loved them back in the day but now they're becoming unplayable
Such a good shoutout, never played the latest one but 2033 is the definition of immersive and if you're on hardcore ranger they extract out the most grueling intensity out of the most simple actions and scenarios which end up almost always being quiet intense stealth, because you as a player literally need to use stealth in order to survive. It's such a great example of how powerful limited perspective. Like damn no game has made the decision of should I reload my gun so intense because oh yeah these 2 bullets could help me save what might be a hostage on the other side let alone keep me alive or should I save it in case I need to use them as currency for a single gas mask an hour from now which might help me survive and sneak the outside and maybe even gather other resources which could keep me alive from the monsters or help me keep other characters alive that are naturally intertwined in this story that I care about. It was so well done and well presented and made a single footstep feel like an important dangerous decision (which it was, fuck glass shards). Tbh idk if it even was that mechanically interconnected or if it was all clever tricks, it's a pretty linear game after all. But it really made you believe and that's all that mattered. Amazing experience
You know you have a kickass lawyer when they show up looking unprofessional cause they've done it enough that they're tired of the games and get it done. Or they're gonna get you convicted, there is no in between
@@PanMan47 Dear friend I've binged the videos up to Jakey, Jakey & Jakey's first appearance and I can confirm its been that way the entire time and I never noticed wtf
Used to be hellbent on the "clean" run too and make the experience worse for myself just so I could get the silent fart achievement, thanks for putting a similar sentiment out there! Also happy to see all the people suggesting you make your ball green got their wish and then some
i always do a normal run then come back later for the achievement if i want to challenge myself, i played several missions in chaos theory without getting caught and i wasn't even save scumming so it is a satisfying way to play, you just need to be careful about save-scumming too much
I think the secret to stealth multiplayer is that you have to have a gameplay loop where most people will choose to not play stealthily. Then you can actually have an element of surprise, instead of most players being constantly paranoid and hidden; you don’t really feel stealthy when people know you’re coming from the shadows. I think this is why stealth in battle royales is so rewarding. Most players will run around making a ton of noise, expecting head-on conflict so much they neglect to check their rear as you creep up behind them with a silenced pistol.
Man I miss when stealth was an entire genre instead of every game just throwing in a backstab most will never use and calling it a day. They’ll never be another masterpiece like Chaos Theory
@@coinisinorbit if you think that then you dont know what a proper stealth game is. chaos theory is perfect apart from one thing, the fucking npcs dodging bullets
As always it's good to see you over here critical, you're my other yt gaming surrogate father 🙌 I'll never forget playing chaos theory at a young age in my dad's room (young parents) and never ever again being as impressed by another stealth game or mechanic ever game again....until hitman 2016 which I finally purchased only after hearing your high praise. Keep making videos and I'll be there. Much love from canada ❤
As a 7 year old, MGS really broke my brain when I realised that stealth was the key for the whole game, not just the intro. Even before that, Tenchu was mindblowing, but I didn't play it as a stealth game at all because I was like 5 or 6 and played on easy. Yet even BEFORE that, I remember my dad bringing home a new game for us to play together called Medal of Honor. Not really a stealth game, but there are a few levels where clandesence is highly encouraged. However, one level in particular still blows my mind to this day. You're traveling through a forest, in the dead of night, and ambushes are so frequent that you quickly run out of ammo and die, and if you don't, machine gun bunkers tear you to shreds. Until my dad and I accidentally stumbled into a false wall in the shrubbery that took you on a winding alternate path that was much safer, kept you stocked up on ammo, and always gave you the drop on those dreaded machine gunners. As a young child, I didn't realise that games could break their own rules like that. My dad passed away a long time ago, but stealth games always help me to remember him. Such a goated genre. Great video jakey.
I know exactly what game you are talking about. Medal of Honor: Rising Sun. One of the first video games I ever played, and I used to watch my dad play this game. Eventually I started playing alongside him. I know exactly the mission you are talking about, it is the mission in Guadalcanal, and boy you are not kidding that mission really was intense and anxiety producing. Loved that game, and I loved playing it with my dad. Your comment brought back that memory to me. Thanks man. Glad these games bring back memories of your old man.
Splatoon is one of my favorite "stealth" series. Splatoon isn't really a stealth game, however you are heavily rewarded for using stealth. I can't count how many amazing improv encounters I've had in Splatoon's multiplayer by using stealth
@@ryanm8144 yeah? Are you going to say something that actually adds or subtracts from my original comment, or are you just going to leave it at "bruh" and come across as an asshole?
13:22 This is a good topic for a video. Endings get reduced to a false dichotomy between "good" and "bad", and games that try to do nuanced endings suffer for it. I'd like to hear this discussed in a more Nakey Jakeyey way.
One thing that was great about MGS5 was that you couldn't quick-save. You only had autosaves at the beginning or sometimes the midpoints of levels. This meant you had to actually plan for if you got caught. One of my favorite things was that you could plant explosives throughout any level, and when you got caught, you could detonate them-distracting the enemy and allowing you room to escape.
@jk6971 It only had the marking, which yeah, kind of ruined it and I was sad to see it existed. At least it only marks with your binocs but that meant I tried to avoid using binocs as much as possible.
@jk6971 perhaps a way Kojima & Co could've fixed that would've been by making it so enemies can only be marked for 10 minutes at most before you forget about them (or Snake can only remember up to 10 people at most before forgetting the first person he tagged, which could then be an upgradable skill like your fulton device, etc).
"the player doesnt know what they want" is by far the greatest statement when it comes to designing games just set the boundaries via game design, then add some little helpers for the lowest difficulty.
12:30 It had to be almost 10 years ago at this point, but I remember playing Prop Hunt when the meta was "Find the smallest object to turn into, then run around or get to a spot that's hard to reach" but that wasn't how I liked to play Prop Hunt. I would change into any object I could pick up, pick the original item up and move it somewhere across the map, then I'd just go sit where the original item was. People knew the levels so well by this point I knew I couldn't just try to blend in, but replacing the object and taking it's place is when the hunters just started walking right past me. People would say I was too out in the open and I'd certainly die, then be shocked when I kept winning by doing it. Fun memory lol
I remember once spawning as a huge shipping container (played the TF2 mod, so no no changing) and hiding in plain sight next to two identical containers. I managed to get a win because nobody knew the map, one of those obscure ones. Good memories indeed
Hitman: Freelancer feels like the culmination of years of designing maps, weapons, and game systems to make one of the best stealth experiences I’ve ever had. The game never felt like the stealth sandbox it was pitched as more than in Freelancer. I felt like playing the game through the story mode was just practice for the real thing. It’s an experience that should not be missed. Amazing video, Jake!
@@BenvolioZFI actually love how being bad at freelancer also provides motivation to go back and do the story missions again a different way so that you can learn the maps better
@@cheesecakedeliciouslol that’s exactly what I did, got back into Hitman after a year of not playing to try freelancer, realized I sucked, and played through the whole story mode again, now all I play is freelancer
This is a terrible way to look at Hitman tbh. Hitman games have immaculate level design. The main missions aren't just tutorial lol, they are genuinely interesting experiences that teach you how to actually manoeuvre around the map properly. If you play Hitman by speed running the story and not actually taking the time to understand the levels, Freelancer is a lot more frustrating than enjoyable.
I completely agree with the idea that adding scoring and rating systems to stealth games create incentives that push players away from being creative or experimenting for fear of "ruining" their stats. It's one of the reasons I seriously enjoyed the original Deus Ex. You're supposed to be this elite cyber-enhanced covert operative...but if you get spotted, there's absolutely nothing stopping you from just bonking someone with a crowbar and continuing. The worst you might get is a verbal scolding via the comms, but the game doesn't punish you or make you feel like you're playing the game sub-optimally if you decide that you want to go lethal instead of reloading a save.
I agree that scoreboards do create perverse incentives for casual players, but for high level players it becomes the goal. For first time play throughs, games should tell the player they aren't being scored, let them feel at ease to play how they feel, then enable scoring in New Game+ modes for the ones who feel the competitive itch. So even if a player is caught or feels their score is ruined, they have already experienced the game with no pressure, enjoyed the story, and doesn't have to feel like their experience is tainted by being punished for sloppiness.
Scoring and rating systems discourage creativity in a variety of games. Open world games take the biggest hit due to scoring being based on completing very specific objectives.
same reason i loved the stealth mechanics in cyberpunk 2077, there's an entire skill tree dedicated to stealth and you're literally a government spy in one of the storylines, but it doesn't really matter if you get caught, you can just whip out your hammer and beat everyone to death
@@BrandonDoran00 I think scoring is best left in separate modes, new game+ is maybe a bit too punishing for people that like score play from the start. I swear it used to be a thing games would just have what they call an "arcade mode" which was just the game levels with story bits taken out and a scoring system slapped in.
one of the largest disappointments with Assassins creed series, was the 100% sync mission stats or achievements. it told you how to play the stealth sections and didnt let you be creative with your assassinations 'kill target from bench' 'kill target from range' etc. players would instinctively always go for the 100 percent, as the nature of anything less than 100 would feel like a fail state.
You do have a point, but I feel like the AC did it fairly well, a lot of the times I remember, it had me doing things I didn't usually do, like the bench assassinations.
@@mikeglasswell-gameplay I am quite biased though, since I tend to tunnel vision really hard and sometimes I forget I even have smoke bombs lol, so they're a bigger help to people like me
@@verominek8881 understandable. They can be a reminder, can help with some of those games where you have too many abilities. Analysis paralysis. Thanks for the discussion and your insight
My problem with some AC games is you get a Mission Failed if you went the "wrong street" instead of the one the devs were intending. The pathway is so specific. As someone who likes to scout the area in stealth games, I get so many "Out of bounds" when playing AC games.
I just want to add that MGS:V's free roam mode is also great for random improv stealth moments. Even better if you deploy with as little gear as you can take and pick up all your gear from the world itself. Sneaking into a 3 or 4 man camp is completely different when all you got is the skin on your back and a water gun.
I cut out a brief part of this vid where I talked about MGSV subsistence missions being some of my favorites for this very reason. Forces you to not just rely on your learned behaviors and equipment (tranq gun) so I’m super happy to see you bring up the same shit
I'm currently replaying MGS5 too, and I prefer doing side ops instead of the story missions cuz you get to do whatever you want in them, and you can take as many as you want in the same place. Regular missions grade you based on some parameters that most of them benefit passing the mission on stealth without killing people, which is cool but i think this is true for all of them even when it doesn't fit the situation (or when sometimes you just don't feel like using stealth)
AC Brotherhood had an online where your character looks like 1 of 6 kinds of npc. Then you go around a map looking for npcs acting like players and hunted them while they hunted you. Some of the most fun I've ever had in a pvp game
Hide And Seek With Knives was some of the most fun I've ever had online. Revelations made some mistakes (who thought giving the victim a "You're about to be murdered! Hit this button to ruin your killer's fun!" alarm was a good idea?) but AC3 was a very solid update, and it's criminal they've never returned to it.
Glad to see the classic Assassin's Creed multiplayer mode getting some love, I'm so sad they just left it by the wayside with the newer games. :( Also wish they'd take another stab at a Co-op AC game, or at least a co-op mode. Unity was such a cool idea, but it unfortunately got put into the most hastily finished and thus most broken game in the series and then was never revisited in a game where they could have time to put care into crafting it.
I used to love wearing the ghillie suit in Metal Gear Solid V online and just spotting enemies. Never firing a shot, just hiding in enemy territory and marking all the enemies for our snipers. Online stealth feels more authentic because you're tricking real eyeballs, not just walking around vision cones on a radar or something.
My one problem with Dishonored is that if you're gonna make me a master assassin seeking revenge for the murder of my lover through the use of magical murder powers, don't make me feel guilty for being a master assassin seeking revenge for the murder of my lover through the use of magical murder powers.
I 100% agree. I ended up completing the game non lethally because I knew I'd hate the chaos ending, but I kept thinking that actually going for kills and full all out chaos would 100% be more fun.
The ghost vision also kills half the fun of stealth. It's such a good game with so many ideas but the whole package really trips over itself and personally I think that hamfisted "morality route" trope that games sometimes try to execute is always in the way of a cohesive system. Thief did it the following way: The higher difficulty you picked, the more restrictions on your playstyle you faced. Eventually no longer being allowed to kill anyone while still having to explore almost everywhere.
what could be great is the part of the chaos system that made more enemies spawn if you go full agro, meaning you can either be a combat god or go for a stealth run to avoid trouble.
I think stealth games are all about the tension and atmosphere. Like yeah MGS5 is cool how many ways you can tackle objectives but it has absolutely zero tension when you can snipe guys with perfectly accurate, perfectly silent snipers from a mile away, and you can remain undetected by just not standing directly in someone's cone of vision. It's more like a superhero espionage simulator then it is a game about experiencing vulnerability. Meanwhile games like Thief and Splinter Cell have an overwhelmingly oppressive and hostile atmosphere with dark lighting and intense ambient soundtracks and you have to keep in mind how much light you are in and how much noise you are making on different surfaces in order to stay undetected. It's an experience all about making you feel small and vulnerable and that feels more true to sneaking around somewhere you aren't supposed to be than dolphin diving and sprinting 30 mph around a brightly lit military base.
Deus Ex, the first one in 2001 will always be my favorite stealth game. Sneaking up on enemies and using stun baton or pepper spray and knocking them out...hacking terminals to turn off cameras, using a mobile spy drone to check out what is up ahead. The game gave you enough options on how to engage an area. Absolutely love it.
That game was still revolutionary for its time. You need to stand still for a few seconds so the goddamn reticle becomes more stable? What?! The stealth option is still risky, because after a guard gets hit by a sleep dart, he can still run around and alert others? What?! The cowprod needs to be administered for a few seconds before the guy gets knocked out? WHAT?! You need to hit the guy more than a few times with a police baton to knock him out while he fights back? And sleep IEDs can actually hit you too if you're in their AOE? Dang. Now that's a good game. However I just jump and land on people. So called "Ground Pound Denton" challenge run.
That is ironic bc deux ex 2016 was the worst stealth game i had ever played. Maybe i should give a shot for the 2001. Just for the record I don't say it was a terrible gaming experience, im just saying it was a terrible stealth experience. Esspecially on early stages where you got like 5 Tranq darts and my cyberboy was getting tired of knocking out two enemies. While the game gave more than enough ammo to kill everybody.
@@katokianimation I see. Well, I may sing praises of Deus Ex 2001, but don't forget: This game was a PC game. You need your whole keyboard to play this game. That means some buttons need to use the Function Keys. The Fn numbers at the top. It is kinda janky nowadays, but gamers back then were used to being able to use the whole keyboard in every game. I suggest just going blind and unmodded for your first playthrough. The reason is that I keep replaying this game every few years, so the mods help with giving it a little more replayability.
I'm addicted to Hitman freelancer. 135 hours and counting. Every completed mission actually feels like an achievement since you've only got one try. It forces you to get creative in sticky situations
I just hate that they didn’t account for potentially impossible bonus objectives, and that the targets are often just random NPCs with little to no routine so they just stand in the same spot indefinitely. If they put a little more effort into making sure the targets were always fully fleshed out rather than fodder NPCs, it would be almost perfect.
I’m so glad the video ended exactly on the feeling / complaint I have that you feel pigeon holed to a certain style that prevents organic and more fun gameplay. The rewards / trophies / etc. really hammer it home
Bro did a "Stealth in Video Games" 16 minutes long and didn't dedicate at least half of it to Splinter Cell Chaos Theory. Reported to the stealth police.
Or what about Splinter Cell's daddy, aka Thief. That game (and the company who made it) is so fucking influential that having a less than 45 second exerpt about it is criminal (ha pun).
@@thieflover1215 Thief is so good, no game does sound propagation based enemy AI that well - it's also remarkably consistent in how a guard will react to an exact stimuli, the cut-scenes are also damn great!
@@thieflover1215 Right? It is literally the golden standard for non-intrusive stealth feedback. No filling bars, no exclamation marks, no battle music when you're spotted, no visible vision cones. Consistent logic that can be learnt and level design that leans into its own mechanics hard (you'd be surprised how often this last one just doesn't happen). It's so satisfying.
@dopaminecloud absolutely. Well put my dude. I adore how Thief is just a series of (mostly) god tier designed levels with complex, immersive and consistent mechanics that encourages you to experiment and adapt naturally to the challenges in those levels. I also love the lack of scripted expectations, meaning you can get away with shit as long as it's realistically within the game's limitations. You can do shit like lure one faction of enemies like zombies to the guards and that doesn't count towards you lolol. Just peak Immersive stealth design. Glad you agree 🤝🤝
I think your point on Tsushima is really important to understanding the cross section of story and gameplay in games. The story of Tsushima is about a Samurai embracing subterfuge as a means to win a war in the face of overwhelming odds, even though it goes against his code of honor and upbringing. When playing Tsushima on lethal, the player must embrace those methods for the same reason. It aligns the story and gameplay into a single perspective. Which elevates both pieces and in turn, creates a masterpiece.
Yea, think I have to play Tsushima again, this time on lethal. First time I played it I just didn't want to do stealth and abandon the code, so I did absolutely 0 stealth (I had a few year lasting "stealth game -burnout" after playing sooo many stealth games in like 2010 era). I just wanted to play the game as an honorable samurai. But few times the game forces you to stealth and do dishonorable stuff. I was so pissed about the game forcing me to abandon the code that I ended up really disliking the whole game.
Agreed - Lethal is the purest way to play GoT. One gripe is that duels become infuriatingly difficult. In the open world, you are killed faster, but so are your enemies. Hard but fair. But in duels, you are killed in 1 or 2 hits while your opponent still requires 50 hits.
Shoutout to Hitman Freelancer for being peak stealth game design. The ditching of ratings while the only things at stake are money and your survival contribute so much to escaping the bad stealth loop of reloading saves and following walkthroughs step by step. IOI takes the cake for this one.
I don't know how I feel about that. Haven't played it though. I get my max enjoyment beating a stealth game with a never detected rating/achievement even if I have to save scum. Hitman doing away with that sounds weird.
@@Omar-Asim it's definitely not everyone cup of tea. My brother also prefers mastering each level in Hitman and Dishonored rather than playing modes like Freelancer. But that's what's different in things people look for in games. I like games that let you get creative, get the job done, even if not perfect. Meanwhile you might chase that perfection trophy, which is what the base game focuses on. In any ways, Hitman 3 provides both experiences and it's beautiful to see that they can coexist.
Mark of the Ninja is one of the most fun stealth games out there. The playthrough can vary between "be as quiet as a shadow and don't even hurt anyone" to "jumpscare every guard and take their lives". Also very well made in how it communicates its stealth rules visually
I love the way you teach the word disempowerment. You just give examples of different ways to 'disempower' and it builds a strong cognitive connection. Way stronger than say a dictionary definition. You have a way with words!
I wish there was more discussion around Thief 1 and 2 because I still think that to this day they are the best stealth games ever made. Like Thiefs use of sound in particular was probably my favorite way of keeping track of enemies because you could clearly hear where all of them are without having to rely on minimaps or tagging them. Also the light gem in Thief was such a great and fairly naturalistic way to address the issue of knowing how visible you are that a lot of other stealth games suffer from.
Everyone who is interested in Thief, if you have a PC, download the Dark Mod. It's completely free, and is an updated freeware fan platform where people make Thief missions for people to play. 1000+ hours of godtier fan missions.
I dont know where we took the wrong turn in regards to sound. There are so many older games, when people had dedicated soundcards, that blow most games nowadays out of the water. It's all really clear and purposeful, the player can't help but be engaged with their surroundings.
@@choo_choo_ I mean there's a shit load of discussion around most of the games he mentioned anyway. In a video talking about stealth in games only mentioning Thief in passing is a crime.
My favorite stealth games are ironically the ones that are vibrant and fun. Like the Sly Cooper Trilogy. It may be a lighthearted game for kids, but it implements a lot of what you mentioned. There's tough enemies with guns that patrol the ground levels in the sequels and they straight up can not be fought head on without sacrificing more than half health. Meanwhile in the first game, you die in one hit if you just rush in and give away your position. It is a platformer first and foremost, but I'll always love it for being a gateway into stealth games and for just being a stealth game that can crack a joke instead of being all gritty and serious.
One of the most fun stealth experiences I've had is playing Spy in TF2. Being the weakest class in the game and being almost unable to take most 1v1s combined with disguises and invis makes it so you have to get creative with how you get out of that situation. Plus, with every enemy being a real person they adapt you your stuff so you constantly have to try doing new weird things to throw them off. Only downside being that a Pyro spamming flames is the equivalent of your mom coming in and telling you to go outside
TLOU2 makes so much more sense when you realize the explosive bow is meant to attract all the enemies in an area to it’s location and not as a super weapon
@@kadebass6187 though it's a blast using it in game+ mode with the infinite ammo modifier. I'll just launch the arrow as high up as possible and use it as a mortar system and just hear people in the distance screaming for their lives across the map. It's hilarious.
@@youngnat glass bottles attract one or two people not literally everyone, this applies to infected as well. Explosive arrows are scarce yes but the rate at which you’d be using them for this is once or twice in a given situation. The fact that it attracts everyone means if you use it for combat the likely case scenario is you attract everyone in the area and don’t kill a bunched up group like you’re presuming how it would work because the only time you get that is when they’re like in a hall (even then likely only going to be two dudes). Additionally the likely case scenario as well with combat is you’re using it in close range ie putting yourself at risk of blowing yourself up
10:57 14:13 I love that you used the Syphon Filter menu BGM. One of the coolest shooters of its era. I've never met someone who knew what it was upon hearing the name. Favorite camo pattern? "Street/Urban", which I first discovered through SWAT 3's outfit selection.
One of my favorite stealth moments in a non stealth game was in Resident Evil 5. At a point, you have the option to sneak past a bunch of lickers in a hallway, you just have to time it correctly to walk past them. I could’ve gone guns blazing and wasted all my ammo, but the option being there was really cool.
Thief Gold is by far my favorite stealth game but I have to shout out Styx: Master of Shadows/Shards of Darkness just for the sheer novelty of being this Dubious Little Creature and crawling around inside peoples' walls and under furniture and just getting up to absolute mischief, and how well they executed this whole concept. I absolutely love the whole cloning mechanic and feel like it really alleviates a lot of the frustration of getting caught, and it's sort of crazy to see a game that lets you straight up TF2 Dead Ringer to escape from combat/clear alert states. It's unfortunate that both games suffer from a fair amount of jank and seemingly being rushed towards the end, though.
My favorite horror stealth game is Alien Isolation. The infrequent saves and absolute presence of the alien led to some of the most tense moments and the sheer feeling of "I just want to spend the rest of my life in this locker." Easily one of my favorite games.
@@CRT_YT Thats not true lol. Its scary sure, but Isolation is so ahead of its time in terms of AI and machine learning, that no game to this day has been able to recreate it perfectly. In amnesia you are able to cheese the ai somewhat even if you did not mean to.
I loved Alien Isolation (didn't even register it as a stealth game in my mind). One thing though, I just vividly remember being more annoyed towards the end by the Alien blocking my progress rather than being stressed about or scared of it. A lot of post-Amnesia horror games suffer from this because unlike something like Silent Hill, once you experience dying to whatever's chasing you a bunch of times, you get desensitized and there's not enough variety to keep you on edge. Though tbf what other game to have this be the only issue in than Alien. The entire premise is that it's a showdown between you and the single threat on board and they got everything about that spot on. One of the best, if not the best movie-based games of all time.
That bit about playing MGS3 on the highest difficulty rang so true for me. When I did an Extreme Big Boss Rank run a few years ago, I had to learn actual tricks and engage with game mechanics I didn't even know existed before. For example, if a guard sees a dead or unconscious body and goes to investigate, they'll be too distracted to notice their periphery vision or hear footsteps anymore, meaning you can take guards out a lot easier by baiting them with bodies. It was something I'd never even considered trying on Normal or even Hard difficulty. The game is nearly 20 years old, I've beaten it dozens of times, and I'm still learning new things about it.
Im really impressed with how consistant your quality has stayed. All the while never trying to pander and still maintining your views on games. You've really inspired me as a comedic/informative writer, so thanks for that.
I love that the "If I had a nickle for every time..." has been so over used by the internet that it has literally inverted on its definition. No longer does it ever mean that we've done something a lot, it is always either 2 or 3 times depending on what kind of internet human the person is in to. Wild stuff lmao
the 2 or 3 times usually works because the action mentioned is so extreme (like very insane, funny, or downright heinous; or having a minute chance to occur) that it mindboggles you the world let it happen more than once
It's referencing a Phineas and Ferb joke where Dr. Doof does that exact spin on the saying, where he says "Wow! If I had a nickel for every time I was "doomed" by a puppet, I'd have two nickels-- which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice. Right?"
Sly Cooper is the reason I love stealth games and a huge reason I think Ghost of Tsushima feels so natural for me to play in a way, Suckerpunch just has a way of making stealth fun
Stealth in video games requires ingenuity, that’s what works so well about it, it makes you really think about your next move as opposed to blindly hammering your way through a game.
@@Vexas345 lol no it's fucking not. Try watching most streamers and let's players attempt the stealth approach in games. 90% of the time, they fail and resort to brute forcing it because it's easier
This is why I love Hitman games. They are stealth games that have stealth flipped on its head; instead of hiding in the shadows, you hide in plain sight... and the games are wholly designed around it.
@@Vexas345 True. And with that said, if one applied the same mindful wit to regular gameplay in most games, you'd find yourself cruising and easily beating everything that's released nowadays without much trouble.
Thief feels more modern and next gen than the majority of recent releases. It's still fluid, has a ton of quality of life features, freedom of movement, fantastic difficulty curve & options, great story and characters while always staying grounded and sincere. I watched my dad play it when i was a kid and only ended up playing the trilogy myself last year. 10/10
Thief 1 and 2 are great but though the gameplay has not been improved on by later games like Dishonored the story, art and voice acting all feel very dated
Absolutely. Even with it's dated presentation, it's an infinitely more intense and immersive game than most of the games in this video -- it forces you to pay attention to your environment and your foes
I quite like the Arkham games' stealth mode for the variation in maps and environmental elements to the wide toolset the player gets to mess around with. But I think the endless mode from Knight is probably the culmination of the mode's design, where there is an infinite number of specialist enemies running around, and Batman slowly starts to lose his environmental elements and resources as enemies start to mine the floor and rafters and such. It's a good, arcade-y mode.
I've been obsessed with SASO runs in contracts. IO has a fan in me for life, they deserve all of the love and more for their take on the genre, and can't wait for 007.
Stealth in Dishonored also comes with a ton of creativity, it's not just about having a good or bad ending. The game lets you play however you want. Being stealthy (don't know if that's a real word but you understand) in dishonored doesn't limit you from being creative. It can go both ways, you can either be creatively silent or creatively violent. That's why I think dishonored is best stealth game ever made and my favourite game.
stealthy is a well known word, but thievish is a not so known a word thievish is stealthy for being less known, but stealthy is thievish for taking the spotlight
A game that makes stealth as optional as Dishonored does will never be a good stealth game let alone the best ever made. It's a great game, but it's an action game pretending to be a stealth game.
@@PlushNightingale Nah man, what u on about, everybody knows dishonored is primarily meant to be a stealthy (thanks to littlevampiregirl i now know its a real word) game. The Violent route is optional as well, just like the stealth route. But both the violent and stealth route can be approached very creatively. Watch some videos from StealthgamerBr. They play the game very creatively and in a fun way, but they always go with the violent route. There's another video about completing both dishonored and the 2nd one completely by remaining a ghost, i.e., the stealth route. Are these qualities not enough to make it one of the best stealth games ever made? I (yes, me) take it up a notch and consider it to be the best stealth game ever made, simple.
Even after playing stalth games like metal gear solid i only truly fell in love with this genre after playing Mark of The Ninja, it's one of the most well reviewed stealth games ever in steam, and truly amazing.
Stealth in Left 4 Dead multiplayer as Zombies was so much fun. If you had decent team-mates you'd plan for boomer to hit, then smoker to isolate one, then when they're panicked, jumping from a roof as the hunter and hastily ripping their nipples off.
One I think is worth mentioning is Goldeneye 64! The enemy detection is very rudimentary but because combat is so clunky and built around swapping between manual aiming and running and gunning, you get this cool game flow of sneaking around, killing a few guys, then getting caught and going loud while taking cover behind obstacles and using the C buttons to shift your position around it to fire back. It really makes you feel like you’re playing a spy thriller action movie.
An often overlooked sub-genre of stealth games is stealth strategy games! Playing games developed by Mimimi studios (RIP😢) really changed my perspective on how stealth and creativity can integrate so well. Not to mention how masterful the layout maps and enemy design in these games are. Shout out to Shadow Tactics, Desperados 3, Shadow Gambit, and other gems in the subgenre!
Alien Isolation is an underrated stealth game. Obviously it’s primarily a horror game but the stealth mechanics along with the disempowerment, emergent gameplay, and horror make it a masterpiece.
I thought it was decent, even great game at first but the more you play the more you figure out the gameplay loop and the game becomes way too mechanic.
The save station system is also very cool, and I think the game is pretty well paced, although a bit long towards the end. All in all, one of the best horror stealth games there is.
My favorite stealth game is maybe the least known Tenchu game, Tenchu Z on the Xbox 360. There's a lot of padding to the game but they just absolutely nailed making a fun stealthy ninja game. There's tons of animations for getting kills in different ways, there's lots of tools you can use, and when doing an assassination if you time it to the sound of the heartbeat of the person you're killing you get more points for doing so. Enemies will notice your shadow on the ground if you're on a roof above them and light is being cast down, they can smell you if you get covered in blood from a fight or fall into a cess pit or something, they can hear if you unsheath your blade, and when your blade is unsheathed it also raises your visibility because light reflects off it. God, it's all so good. Also it was the only time in the series that you create your own character that you play as rather than being Rikimaru or Ayame.
I think the best modern demonstration of "stealth" in a multiplayer game is Hunt: Showdown. Due to it's second-to-none sound design, you'll often hear your threats before you see them. All of the maps are covered in dense foliage and maze like structured zones to incentivize using your brain to ambush other players. It offers tools to confuse or surprise other players. One of my favorites is the simple "decoy" - you have a baggy full of metal pieces that you can toss to recreate a player footstep. You can use them to make other people investigate. Seriously, if you haven't played it, it's worth a try. It's not an easy game to get into, but it is one of the most satisfying and well designed FPS's I've ever played.
Thief is by default my favorite stealth game because it's my favorite game in general. It has its issues but especially the sound is absolutely amazing for a game this old. No need for a minimap, marking enemies or whatever, you just watch what the guards are doing (and/or listen to what they're doing) and how you can get around them or where to hide the unconcious bodies if you decide to blackjack them. Exploration is also a big factor why I love this game so much, especially with additional fan missions.
@@WiseGuyFTW yeah, and i personally think that generally older games have way better audio than most modern stuff, its pretty noticeable when the soundscape of a game actually fits the place you're at. I think games stopped caring about audio when companies noticed that MOST people are the type of person that shop "looking for a lot of bass" on earbuds, as if earbuds weren't a problem by themselves XD + watch movies on tv/ cellphone speakers... most people dont give a crap about audio unfortunately edit: next time you play random games, pay attention to the voices of the characters, most of them have a 'recorded on studio' feel instead of having them sound as if they were actually on setting
Oh man, seeing Splinter Cell brought back a fond memory. I was playing Spy vs Merc 1v1 with my lil bro. I was the merc in this round. I get an alert that one of the computers is a target of an attempted hack. I run to the scene, nobody in sight. There is an open vent rather close to the computer. I let out a really audible "HMMMMM" (my bro was in the other room, I made sure he heard me), I pop a nade into the vent and I hear him scream "EEEEEEEEEEEEEE" before the nade splatters him. Good times, good times.
I appreciate that you always give credit to Anthony Burch and his RevRant series. I owe a lot to his videos and articles for teaching me to view games and media more critically. It's just nice to hear acknowledgment of the positive impact he had during his run at Destructoid.
@@NiftyPants I don't keep up with the drama surrounding him now or in the past (nor am I interested in it). I just appreciate his contributions to media and video game criticism being recognized.
I just gotta say that I love the use of the Splinter Cell music. I know it's rough around the edges,and the stealth is weird at times, but 10 year old me really loved that series (particularly 1-3). Thanks for the video.
Mark of the Ninja was my favorite stealth game for years and I bet it still slaps. The focus on sound rather than vision is one of my favorite stealth mechanics ever
Manhunt on Ps2 is one of the best stealth games of all time. You had to play in the dark because it was easier to see shadowy areas to hide and ambush enemies, and you had to ambush kill them because fighting straight up was incredibly difficult. It was very gruesome though.
Manhunt is definitely the most underrated Rockstar Game, too many people avoid it because "Ohmaigawd is nothing but gore too violent". Nah man it's much more than that.
Great video, thanks! As I kid, new to stealth games, it was mind blowing to me that in Tenchu Z the sound of unsheathing your sword alerted enemies while having your sword out would reflect moonlight/sunlight to alert enemies.
Easily one of my favorite stealth games right now is Gloomwood. It takes direct inspiration from the thief franchise, and goes super hard into the horror angle. It seems to take some inspiration from the dishonored franchise in its “many ways to skin an objective” mentality, and is far more rewarding on harder difficulties. It’s also genius because unless you’re on the easiest difficulty, you can’t save the game outside of these little resident evil areas. No save scum. Non-existent hud, amazing graphical style, and it’s thoroughly spooky. Goat’s head inn will go down in personal infamy as the GOAT of stressful environments.
Some of the most fun I've had in a stealth game was playing Dishonored 2 without upgrades and without a hud! It made me really have to look at the map on the wall in the hallway to figure out where I was and LISTEN for where the guards were. It was super immersive and tense, though finishing even a single chapter took me like 3 hours because it was also my first playthrough and I kept reloading saves because of the rating you mentioned LMAO. But I can highly recommend trying out a stealth game without a hud and just seeing how far you get without reloading!!
if you liked Thief i highly recommend Gloomwood. its very inspired by Thief in a good way. committing to a complete non-lethal run on Dishonored has its fun to it, even if save-scumming is involved. your arsenal is very limited but it grands more improv options on how to engage the enemy. especially when there's a painfully large amount of them in the same place. i like that squared looking camo
Just Nakey mentioning Tenchu made me smile and rewatch the intro of Wrath of Heaven and Fatal Shadows once again. It's so ingrained in my teenager mind, can't believe it's already 20 years since launch.
I was always a poor kid and even though my brothers had the MGS games i never really got a chance to play them, then eventually me and my brother got our own pc and i bought Thief 3 Deadly Shadows off of Ebay for like £3. I probably played bits of stealth in games before that but Thief 3 was my first memorable experience with stealth and it blew me away. The idea of being able to crawl through this city and break into random peoples homes while they were sleeping and steal their stuff immediately appealed to me (never stolen in my life btw), then i played it and i found out it had this dense backstory with all these different quasi-religious factions and was sort of medieval and i was so hooked, i'd never seen a game that dark before where i really understood why people couldn't see me lingering in the darkness because i couldn't really see anything either. It was so much more creepy than i was expecting, then i played the mental hospital level and was literally terrified being about 11 at the time and knew i was playing something i'd remember for the rest of my life. My imagination just ran wild with what the city would offer me and the difficulty of the stealth made that feeling of doing everything just right, or slipping away into the darkness after being caught, feel so incredibly rewarding. An absolutely seminal experience for me and shaped my taste in games for years afterwards, with the next games i played being Manhunt and then The Suffering. Manhunt was an especially memorable experience for me as an impressionable young teen...
Crafting stealth in a game is interesting because you also have to craft the map to be conducive to rewarding creative stealth while also rewarding improv in the case you get caught, without pushing the player to limited mechanics to survive. It's fascinating
My favorite stealth game is Hunt: Showdown. Stealth against other people is so interesting compared to stealth vs AI, especially when you could be the ambush target and the noise you make by running into animals, monsters, and sprinting is feeding information to every other player in the game who's close enough to hear it. Plenty of emergent gameplay, and the lacking movement options you have in a gunfight means that you're disempowered if you're caught off guard, and you won't be able to flip around and slide into victory.
JAKEY THIS IS AN EMERGENCY COMMENT! I’m going to film school tomorrow and I just found out my visual storytelling professor is Greg Beeman: the director of HORSE SENSE AND BRINK! Just though you’d wanna know, have a great day!
My favorite stealth game ever: Greg Hastings Tournament Paintball. Being in a 1v1 showdown at the end of a match, no indicators of the opponent's location, just sneaking around inflatable covers trying to out-stealth the AI. One hit, you're done. So tense, so fun.
Freelancer is amazing. You get so many cool moments where you spot the right exact split second to one-shoot a target through three different windows and slip away like a shadow... or mess up at the last second and your only play is to blast your way through 20 guards like a John Wick scene.
another thing that makes freelancer so great is its super fun when you're doing the opposite of stealth. getting caught and having to gun down 100 armed guards with a pistol makes you feel like john wick. super tense too cus you know if you die you lose everything
glad you mentioned it at the end: horror stealth really fully utilizes the concept of disempowerment! Give a horror protagonist a gun, it's not horror anymore, it's an action game with a horror aesthetic.
![BRASIL vs. URUGUAY [1-1] | RESUMEN | ELIMINATORIAS SUDAMERICANAS | FECHA 12](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/-hWBAuxF1eY/mqdefault.jpg)
thank you for being here and on a scale of 1-10 how invisible are you rn?? ;P dang girl put your favorite camo in the chat
6.9
Ur mom 😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎
This is Pequod, arriving shortly at LZ.
ur welcome been here for years never gonna change even if I go to jail & get my ged in between years of viewing
The joke about the S word being sword is pretty cool because Sword is spelt S and then Word. This is the kind of high brow humor I have come to expect from Naked Jacob.
No way you're right, I didn't even notice that😭 just casually wasting bars on video scripts instead of his music😂
I thought he was going to say the s word is "死(shi)", as that's the Japanese kanji that displayed on the screen, as well as sounding close to the word "shit"
Word syo
Naked Snacob
Unclothed Yakub
“I am the Must’ve Been The Wind” is an underrated quote only you could come up with
The fact that they see their colleagues bodies on the floor and just say “F it I’mma pretend I ain’t see that” is hilarious in games to me lmao
@jasonoyola590 - ikr like your man is dead on the floor and THAT'S your reaction??? Some friend that is lol
@@DubberRucks lmao no lies told there 😂💯
Nakey Jakey posting is like a national holiday at this point
This is commented on every single jakey video and it’s the top comment every time
@@bloodborneonpc7and it’s not funny because he’s posted every other month for the last 2 years
Fr
@@Winford.Studiosvery true
INTERnational*
Something often overlooked in Thief is the use of sound and the information it provides. Hostile NPCs talk to themselves, whistle and sneeze, and their footsteps are loud, so players can hear them coming or going while hiding. They also report crimes out loud to other enemies, so the player knows when a multi-enemy pursuit is about to happen. This removes the need for UI elements, non-diegetic sounds or "thief vision" powers that reveal enemy locations and states of alertness.
I was hoping a Thief-related comment about sound would show up. The project and lead audio directors were both audio designers and musicians when they started in the industry so it made perfect sense that Thief would rely so heavily on sound. Also they were in a band together with the voice of Victoria and SHODAN.
Looking Glass forever!
It's not overlooked, it's just modern stealth games are actually fast paced stealth-actions that have significantly more enemies around you, because they have to support action phase: sword fighting, shooting, cover based shooting, etc... that's why they give you little to no feedback when it comes to footsteps and other enemy related sounds, otherwise It would be a cacophony of sounds. That's why one of the best sounds in the recent years we had was in Alien: Isolation with stealth mostly designed around one single enemy.
And then the 2014 reboot shits on everything by having incoherent audio design and Focus lmao.
@@mmrchive You can easily ignore incoherent sound design and focus, what you can't ignore is gating that didn't allow you to come back to earlier parts of the level and steal every single piece of loot you missed.
I like the Arkham games like the next guy but by jolly, the way it popularized legal cheating, a.k.a. "detective mode" is donwright criminal. Good thing games seem to be emerging out of the ridiculously easy phase which had its peak around 2005-2015.
My god the green balaclava was a hilarious choice
A+ comedy I can’t stop paying attention
A green gimp production
2:34 had me snorting milk out of my nose
Oh, so that’s what those are actually called
I respect committing to the bit the entire video
I did my masters thesis on stealth level design! Specifically pattern recognition.
Some popular patterns I noticed in stealth games:
- Hard & Soft Cover (a large crate vs tall grass)
- Vantage Points (that cliff or water tower before you descend on the level)
- Enemy pathing (watch, learn, execute)
- Conveyance (safe areas, enemy owned spaces vs player owned spaces)
- Verticality (high or low, but get off of the enemy’s level of view)
- Alternate paths (multiple means to an end)
- Safe Zones (catch your breath, refill your stuff)
As egoraptor loves to point out, you shouldn’t need a tutorial every step of the way. When a player is able to pick up on the unspoken language the designer is trying to communicate through the level, it makes the experience so much more rewarding.
Great video on one of my favorite genres!
What a cool thesis topic. Thanks for sharing!
that’s pretty rad! outline is so helpful and will absorb these to use as tips
Ok nerd
@@vinceeubanks6836 Mr. Electric, send him to the principal’s office and have him expelled!
Do you have a top 5 list of stealth based games?
Stealth
The art of being completely undetected
“Now Mr E. R. Bradshaw of Napier Court will demonstrate how not to be seen.”
as if you were never even there
so true
"No one can see you, if no one's left alive to see you."
@@jocosesonatathe last of part 2 probably
the metro series is so slept on for its stealth. It doesn't allow for as much freedom as other games like Dishonored, but the tension when you have no ammo and are forced to slowly creep around enemies is only matched by a few games in this era of gaming. Also my favorite pattern of camo is any of them other than digital.
yeah, especially on ranger hardcore mode. the feeling is so tense and immersive
It’s going to be so sick playing the new metro game on VR
To bad the older games are extremely broken. I tried replaying 2033 and got fed up with getting caught through walls and certain sections killing my 3 times but suddenly passing me through no problem the 4th time. I loved them back in the day but now they're becoming unplayable
Such a good shoutout, never played the latest one but 2033 is the definition of immersive and if you're on hardcore ranger they extract out the most grueling intensity out of the most simple actions and scenarios which end up almost always being quiet intense stealth, because you as a player literally need to use stealth in order to survive. It's such a great example of how powerful limited perspective.
Like damn no game has made the decision of should I reload my gun so intense because oh yeah these 2 bullets could help me save what might be a hostage on the other side let alone keep me alive or should I save it in case I need to use them as currency for a single gas mask an hour from now which might help me survive and sneak the outside and maybe even gather other resources which could keep me alive from the monsters or help me keep other characters alive that are naturally intertwined in this story that I care about. It was so well done and well presented and made a single footstep feel like an important dangerous decision (which it was, fuck glass shards). Tbh idk if it even was that mechanically interconnected or if it was all clever tricks, it's a pretty linear game after all. But it really made you believe and that's all that mattered. Amazing experience
I know UCP exists but you can't shit talk digital like that
Things in this video:
Jakey ✅
Tenchu✅
Hitman: Freelancer✅
No thanks mom, I don't want anything for Christmas; I've already been given everything.
Where was Jakey?
Wdym? I didn't see a single Jakey in this video 🤨
Remember in 2022 when he dropped the best album of the year right before Christmas?
Don't forget the other two Jakeys from Attorneys at law
Tenchu (drop the bass) ✔
4:43 gotta love the cheap lawyer bit with the wrinkled suit looking like my lawyer is about to get me convicted
You know you have a kickass lawyer when they show up looking unprofessional cause they've done it enough that they're tired of the games and get it done. Or they're gonna get you convicted, there is no in between
It reminded me off Saul Goodman from Braking Bad
I just realized it says “ATTONERYS AT LAW” instead of attorneys hah, has that always been there in his other videos?
@@PanMan47 Dear friend I've binged the videos up to Jakey, Jakey & Jakey's first appearance and I can confirm its been that way the entire time and I never noticed
wtf
Used to be hellbent on the "clean" run too and make the experience worse for myself just so I could get the silent fart achievement, thanks for putting a similar sentiment out there! Also happy to see all the people suggesting you make your ball green got their wish and then some
Heyyyyy whats up jermaman
now he floats
Ur one of my favorite animators of all time
Hell yeah, Corax is here. 😁
i always do a normal run then come back later for the achievement if i want to challenge myself, i played several missions in chaos theory without getting caught and i wasn't even save scumming so it is a satisfying way to play, you just need to be careful about save-scumming too much
I think the secret to stealth multiplayer is that you have to have a gameplay loop where most people will choose to not play stealthily. Then you can actually have an element of surprise, instead of most players being constantly paranoid and hidden; you don’t really feel stealthy when people know you’re coming from the shadows.
I think this is why stealth in battle royales is so rewarding. Most players will run around making a ton of noise, expecting head-on conflict so much they neglect to check their rear as you creep up behind them with a silenced pistol.
This! I was surprised the cardboard box worked so well in MGSV's online mode.
the children yearn for a new splinter cell
I guess I must be an adult then.
@@Elgar337 a demise is sealed with hammers aplenty
Meh. Let sleeping dogs lie. Blacklist used a different voice actor, no thanks
@@some-replies Sleeping Dogs 2 would be great though
i wouldn't trust modern ubisoft to make a new Splinter Cell.
Man I miss when stealth was an entire genre instead of every game just throwing in a backstab most will never use and calling it a day. They’ll never be another masterpiece like Chaos Theory
@@coinisinorbit if you think that then you dont know what a proper stealth game is. chaos theory is perfect apart from one thing, the fucking npcs dodging bullets
Give Intravenous a try
Hey man love your videos 🤙 Glad to see all us fellow stealth fans flocking to this video 😂
As soon as I saw this was uploaded, I KNEW CriticalNobody had to be here.
As always it's good to see you over here critical, you're my other yt gaming surrogate father 🙌 I'll never forget playing chaos theory at a young age in my dad's room (young parents) and never ever again being as impressed by another stealth game or mechanic ever game again....until hitman 2016 which I finally purchased only after hearing your high praise. Keep making videos and I'll be there. Much love from canada ❤
As a 7 year old, MGS really broke my brain when I realised that stealth was the key for the whole game, not just the intro. Even before that, Tenchu was mindblowing, but I didn't play it as a stealth game at all because I was like 5 or 6 and played on easy. Yet even BEFORE that, I remember my dad bringing home a new game for us to play together called Medal of Honor. Not really a stealth game, but there are a few levels where clandesence is highly encouraged. However, one level in particular still blows my mind to this day. You're traveling through a forest, in the dead of night, and ambushes are so frequent that you quickly run out of ammo and die, and if you don't, machine gun bunkers tear you to shreds. Until my dad and I accidentally stumbled into a false wall in the shrubbery that took you on a winding alternate path that was much safer, kept you stocked up on ammo, and always gave you the drop on those dreaded machine gunners. As a young child, I didn't realise that games could break their own rules like that. My dad passed away a long time ago, but stealth games always help me to remember him. Such a goated genre. Great video jakey.
i thought you were saying you are still 7 years old lmaoo
Bruh, MGS1 became an action game in the second half. Did we play the same game lol? Still my favorite entry though with MGS3 in a close 2nd.
may he rest in peace
I know exactly what game you are talking about. Medal of Honor: Rising Sun. One of the first video games I ever played, and I used to watch my dad play this game. Eventually I started playing alongside him. I know exactly the mission you are talking about, it is the mission in Guadalcanal, and boy you are not kidding that mission really was intense and anxiety producing. Loved that game, and I loved playing it with my dad. Your comment brought back that memory to me. Thanks man. Glad these games bring back memories of your old man.
Splatoon is one of my favorite "stealth" series. Splatoon isn't really a stealth game, however you are heavily rewarded for using stealth. I can't count how many amazing improv encounters I've had in Splatoon's multiplayer by using stealth
bruh
@@ryanm8144 yeah? Are you going to say something that actually adds or subtracts from my original comment, or are you just going to leave it at "bruh" and come across as an asshole?
bruh
bruh
13:22 This is a good topic for a video. Endings get reduced to a false dichotomy between "good" and "bad", and games that try to do nuanced endings suffer for it. I'd like to hear this discussed in a more Nakey Jakeyey way.
I totally agree!! I have thought this before too
One thing that was great about MGS5 was that you couldn't quick-save. You only had autosaves at the beginning or sometimes the midpoints of levels. This meant you had to actually plan for if you got caught. One of my favorite things was that you could plant explosives throughout any level, and when you got caught, you could detonate them-distracting the enemy and allowing you room to escape.
Omg thats a actually smart, I've never thought of that, ill do that in phantom pain now
@jk6971 It only had the marking, which yeah, kind of ruined it and I was sad to see it existed. At least it only marks with your binocs but that meant I tried to avoid using binocs as much as possible.
@jk6971 perhaps a way Kojima & Co could've fixed that would've been by making it so enemies can only be marked for 10 minutes at most before you forget about them (or Snake can only remember up to 10 people at most before forgetting the first person he tagged, which could then be an upgradable skill like your fulton device, etc).
This is why I hate this game. So much time wasted due to horrendous AI.
Hitman has limited saves, you get infinite saves if you play on the easiest difficulty, professional difficulty straight up removed saves
Gotta drop everything when Jakey uploads
Dropped my baby on the floor
except a bowl of cereal
Dropped a dumbbell on my face
Yep he is goated
I was doing the dishes when the notification dropped
"the player doesnt know what they want" is by far the greatest statement when it comes to designing games
just set the boundaries via game design, then add some little helpers for the lowest difficulty.
12:30 It had to be almost 10 years ago at this point, but I remember playing Prop Hunt when the meta was "Find the smallest object to turn into, then run around or get to a spot that's hard to reach" but that wasn't how I liked to play Prop Hunt. I would change into any object I could pick up, pick the original item up and move it somewhere across the map, then I'd just go sit where the original item was. People knew the levels so well by this point I knew I couldn't just try to blend in, but replacing the object and taking it's place is when the hunters just started walking right past me. People would say I was too out in the open and I'd certainly die, then be shocked when I kept winning by doing it. Fun memory lol
I remember once spawning as a huge shipping container (played the TF2 mod, so no no changing) and hiding in plain sight next to two identical containers. I managed to get a win because nobody knew the map, one of those obscure ones. Good memories indeed
1000 IQ play
God, I remember that goddamn hula girl
Hitman: Freelancer feels like the culmination of years of designing maps, weapons, and game systems to make one of the best stealth experiences I’ve ever had. The game never felt like the stealth sandbox it was pitched as more than in Freelancer. I felt like playing the game through the story mode was just practice for the real thing. It’s an experience that should not be missed.
Amazing video, Jake!
The Hitman story mode missions are a great tutorial for freelancer
@@BenvolioZFI think you just sold me on hitman dude
@@BenvolioZFI actually love how being bad at freelancer also provides motivation to go back and do the story missions again a different way so that you can learn the maps better
@@cheesecakedeliciouslol that’s exactly what I did, got back into Hitman after a year of not playing to try freelancer, realized I sucked, and played through the whole story mode again, now all I play is freelancer
This is a terrible way to look at Hitman tbh. Hitman games have immaculate level design. The main missions aren't just tutorial lol, they are genuinely interesting experiences that teach you how to actually manoeuvre around the map properly.
If you play Hitman by speed running the story and not actually taking the time to understand the levels, Freelancer is a lot more frustrating than enjoyable.
I completely agree with the idea that adding scoring and rating systems to stealth games create incentives that push players away from being creative or experimenting for fear of "ruining" their stats. It's one of the reasons I seriously enjoyed the original Deus Ex. You're supposed to be this elite cyber-enhanced covert operative...but if you get spotted, there's absolutely nothing stopping you from just bonking someone with a crowbar and continuing. The worst you might get is a verbal scolding via the comms, but the game doesn't punish you or make you feel like you're playing the game sub-optimally if you decide that you want to go lethal instead of reloading a save.
Deus Ex is just peak gaming all around.
I agree that scoreboards do create perverse incentives for casual players, but for high level players it becomes the goal. For first time play throughs, games should tell the player they aren't being scored, let them feel at ease to play how they feel, then enable scoring in New Game+ modes for the ones who feel the competitive itch. So even if a player is caught or feels their score is ruined, they have already experienced the game with no pressure, enjoyed the story, and doesn't have to feel like their experience is tainted by being punished for sloppiness.
Scoring and rating systems discourage creativity in a variety of games. Open world games take the biggest hit due to scoring being based on completing very specific objectives.
same reason i loved the stealth mechanics in cyberpunk 2077, there's an entire skill tree dedicated to stealth and you're literally a government spy in one of the storylines, but it doesn't really matter if you get caught, you can just whip out your hammer and beat everyone to death
@@BrandonDoran00 I think scoring is best left in separate modes, new game+ is maybe a bit too punishing for people that like score play from the start. I swear it used to be a thing games would just have what they call an "arcade mode" which was just the game levels with story bits taken out and a scoring system slapped in.
one of the largest disappointments with Assassins creed series, was the 100% sync mission stats or achievements. it told you how to play the stealth sections and didnt let you be creative with your assassinations 'kill target from bench' 'kill target from range' etc. players would instinctively always go for the 100 percent, as the nature of anything less than 100 would feel like a fail state.
You do have a point, but I feel like the AC did it fairly well, a lot of the times I remember, it had me doing things I didn't usually do, like the bench assassinations.
@@verominek8881 yeah agree. It helped vary people's playstyles. But also funnelled or narrowed their out of the box thinking.
@@mikeglasswell-gameplay I am quite biased though, since I tend to tunnel vision really hard and sometimes I forget I even have smoke bombs lol, so they're a bigger help to people like me
@@verominek8881 understandable. They can be a reminder, can help with some of those games where you have too many abilities. Analysis paralysis. Thanks for the discussion and your insight
My problem with some AC games is you get a Mission Failed if you went the "wrong street" instead of the one the devs were intending. The pathway is so specific. As someone who likes to scout the area in stealth games, I get so many "Out of bounds" when playing AC games.
I just want to add that MGS:V's free roam mode is also great for random improv stealth moments. Even better if you deploy with as little gear as you can take and pick up all your gear from the world itself. Sneaking into a 3 or 4 man camp is completely different when all you got is the skin on your back and a water gun.
I cut out a brief part of this vid where I talked about MGSV subsistence missions being some of my favorites for this very reason. Forces you to not just rely on your learned behaviors and equipment (tranq gun) so I’m super happy to see you bring up the same shit
I'm currently replaying MGS5 too, and I prefer doing side ops instead of the story missions cuz you get to do whatever you want in them, and you can take as many as you want in the same place. Regular missions grade you based on some parameters that most of them benefit passing the mission on stealth without killing people, which is cool but i think this is true for all of them even when it doesn't fit the situation (or when sometimes you just don't feel like using stealth)
Return to Naked Snake. Nice.
@@Ace20A Nakey snakey?
@@JuliTV123especially the reused side ops that force you to go on a limited arsenal and get everything from the map.
AC Brotherhood had an online where your character looks like 1 of 6 kinds of npc. Then you go around a map looking for npcs acting like players and hunted them while they hunted you. Some of the most fun I've ever had in a pvp game
it was so unique man, miss it
Have a ton of memories playing AC multiplayer, including Unity's co-op mode. Would love to see them return
Hide And Seek With Knives was some of the most fun I've ever had online. Revelations made some mistakes (who thought giving the victim a "You're about to be murdered! Hit this button to ruin your killer's fun!" alarm was a good idea?) but AC3 was a very solid update, and it's criminal they've never returned to it.
Glad to see the classic Assassin's Creed multiplayer mode getting some love, I'm so sad they just left it by the wayside with the newer games. :(
Also wish they'd take another stab at a Co-op AC game, or at least a co-op mode. Unity was such a cool idea, but it unfortunately got put into the most hastily finished and thus most broken game in the series and then was never revisited in a game where they could have time to put care into crafting it.
That sounds like the game Spy Party but im assuming AC brotherhood came first
I love how specifically in Splinter Cell Conviction, all the bad guys would storm a room and start giving Sam Fisher their credit card numbers.
I used to love wearing the ghillie suit in Metal Gear Solid V online and just spotting enemies. Never firing a shot, just hiding in enemy territory and marking all the enemies for our snipers.
Online stealth feels more authentic because you're tricking real eyeballs, not just walking around vision cones on a radar or something.
the yoga ball being covered in green so jakey can still sit on it (while staying in stealth mode) is the cherry on top of this video
My one problem with Dishonored is that if you're gonna make me a master assassin seeking revenge for the murder of my lover through the use of magical murder powers, don't make me feel guilty for being a master assassin seeking revenge for the murder of my lover through the use of magical murder powers.
I 100% agree. I ended up completing the game non lethally because I knew I'd hate the chaos ending, but I kept thinking that actually going for kills and full all out chaos would 100% be more fun.
The ghost vision also kills half the fun of stealth. It's such a good game with so many ideas but the whole package really trips over itself and personally I think that hamfisted "morality route" trope that games sometimes try to execute is always in the way of a cohesive system.
Thief did it the following way: The higher difficulty you picked, the more restrictions on your playstyle you faced. Eventually no longer being allowed to kill anyone while still having to explore almost everywhere.
Everytime I play the game I end up using nothing besides blink, maybe the heart for collectibles, ghost vision shouldn't be a thing
Why feel guilty? Chaos is a ladder
what could be great is the part of the chaos system that made more enemies spawn if you go full agro, meaning you can either be a combat god or go for a stealth run to avoid trouble.
I think stealth games are all about the tension and atmosphere. Like yeah MGS5 is cool how many ways you can tackle objectives but it has absolutely zero tension when you can snipe guys with perfectly accurate, perfectly silent snipers from a mile away, and you can remain undetected by just not standing directly in someone's cone of vision. It's more like a superhero espionage simulator then it is a game about experiencing vulnerability.
Meanwhile games like Thief and Splinter Cell have an overwhelmingly oppressive and hostile atmosphere with dark lighting and intense ambient soundtracks and you have to keep in mind how much light you are in and how much noise you are making on different surfaces in order to stay undetected. It's an experience all about making you feel small and vulnerable and that feels more true to sneaking around somewhere you aren't supposed to be than dolphin diving and sprinting 30 mph around a brightly lit military base.
Deus Ex, the first one in 2001 will always be my favorite stealth game. Sneaking up on enemies and using stun baton or pepper spray and knocking them out...hacking terminals to turn off cameras, using a mobile spy drone to check out what is up ahead. The game gave you enough options on how to engage an area. Absolutely love it.
That game was still revolutionary for its time. You need to stand still for a few seconds so the goddamn reticle becomes more stable? What?! The stealth option is still risky, because after a guard gets hit by a sleep dart, he can still run around and alert others? What?! The cowprod needs to be administered for a few seconds before the guy gets knocked out? WHAT?! You need to hit the guy more than a few times with a police baton to knock him out while he fights back? And sleep IEDs can actually hit you too if you're in their AOE?
Dang. Now that's a good game.
However I just jump and land on people. So called "Ground Pound Denton" challenge run.
That is ironic bc deux ex 2016 was the worst stealth game i had ever played. Maybe i should give a shot for the 2001.
Just for the record I don't say it was a terrible gaming experience, im just saying it was a terrible stealth experience. Esspecially on early stages where you got like 5 Tranq darts and my cyberboy was getting tired of knocking out two enemies.
While the game gave more than enough ammo to kill everybody.
@@katokianimation I see. Well, I may sing praises of Deus Ex 2001, but don't forget: This game was a PC game. You need your whole keyboard to play this game.
That means some buttons need to use the Function Keys. The Fn numbers at the top.
It is kinda janky nowadays, but gamers back then were used to being able to use the whole keyboard in every game.
I suggest just going blind and unmodded for your first playthrough.
The reason is that I keep replaying this game every few years, so the mods help with giving it a little more replayability.
*How to do stealth:*
Make 2 things fun; getting away with it, and getting caught.
I'm addicted to Hitman freelancer. 135 hours and counting. Every completed mission actually feels like an achievement since you've only got one try. It forces you to get creative in sticky situations
reminds me a lot of No Return in last of us part 2!
It’s such a good mode and the fact that it was a free add on is just perfect
Same it’s all I play anymore lmao I’m going for all the challenges now
I just hate that they didn’t account for potentially impossible bonus objectives, and that the targets are often just random NPCs with little to no routine so they just stand in the same spot indefinitely. If they put a little more effort into making sure the targets were always fully fleshed out rather than fodder NPCs, it would be almost perfect.
it would be cool if someone made a mod like that for MGS V
I’m so glad the video ended exactly on the feeling / complaint I have that you feel pigeon holed to a certain style that prevents organic and more fun gameplay.
The rewards / trophies / etc. really hammer it home
Bro did a "Stealth in Video Games" 16 minutes long and didn't dedicate at least half of it to Splinter Cell Chaos Theory. Reported to the stealth police.
They are already here, you just can't see them.
Or what about Splinter Cell's daddy, aka Thief. That game (and the company who made it) is so fucking influential that having a less than 45 second exerpt about it is criminal (ha pun).
@@thieflover1215 Thief is so good, no game does sound propagation based enemy AI that well - it's also remarkably consistent in how a guard will react to an exact stimuli, the cut-scenes are also damn great!
@@thieflover1215 Right? It is literally the golden standard for non-intrusive stealth feedback. No filling bars, no exclamation marks, no battle music when you're spotted, no visible vision cones. Consistent logic that can be learnt and level design that leans into its own mechanics hard (you'd be surprised how often this last one just doesn't happen). It's so satisfying.
@dopaminecloud absolutely. Well put my dude. I adore how Thief is just a series of (mostly) god tier designed levels with complex, immersive and consistent mechanics that encourages you to experiment and adapt naturally to the challenges in those levels. I also love the lack of scripted expectations, meaning you can get away with shit as long as it's realistically within the game's limitations. You can do shit like lure one faction of enemies like zombies to the guards and that doesn't count towards you lolol. Just peak Immersive stealth design. Glad you agree 🤝🤝
I think your point on Tsushima is really important to understanding the cross section of story and gameplay in games.
The story of Tsushima is about a Samurai embracing subterfuge as a means to win a war in the face of overwhelming odds, even though it goes against his code of honor and upbringing.
When playing Tsushima on lethal, the player must embrace those methods for the same reason.
It aligns the story and gameplay into a single perspective. Which elevates both pieces and in turn, creates a masterpiece.
really really love this point. gameplay intersecting with themes of a story really bring out the most unique aspects of gaming medium. special shit
Yea, think I have to play Tsushima again, this time on lethal. First time I played it I just didn't want to do stealth and abandon the code, so I did absolutely 0 stealth (I had a few year lasting "stealth game -burnout" after playing sooo many stealth games in like 2010 era). I just wanted to play the game as an honorable samurai. But few times the game forces you to stealth and do dishonorable stuff. I was so pissed about the game forcing me to abandon the code that I ended up really disliking the whole game.
@@tonttu1340
Same, redownloading as soon as I’m done with Wukong.
Agreed - Lethal is the purest way to play GoT. One gripe is that duels become infuriatingly difficult. In the open world, you are killed faster, but so are your enemies. Hard but fair. But in duels, you are killed in 1 or 2 hits while your opponent still requires 50 hits.
Shoutout to Hitman Freelancer for being peak stealth game design. The ditching of ratings while the only things at stake are money and your survival contribute so much to escaping the bad stealth loop of reloading saves and following walkthroughs step by step. IOI takes the cake for this one.
I don't know how I feel about that. Haven't played it though.
I get my max enjoyment beating a stealth game with a never detected rating/achievement even if I have to save scum. Hitman doing away with that sounds weird.
@@Omar-Asim it's definitely not everyone cup of tea. My brother also prefers mastering each level in Hitman and Dishonored rather than playing modes like Freelancer. But that's what's different in things people look for in games. I like games that let you get creative, get the job done, even if not perfect. Meanwhile you might chase that perfection trophy, which is what the base game focuses on. In any ways, Hitman 3 provides both experiences and it's beautiful to see that they can coexist.
Goodness gracious I love NakeyJakey and his fantastic analytic and also humorfull vids
When the world needed them most, Jakey, Jakey, and Jakey returned
ATTORNEYS AT LAW
Mark of the Ninja is one of the most fun stealth games out there.
The playthrough can vary between "be as quiet as a shadow and don't even hurt anyone" to "jumpscare every guard and take their lives".
Also very well made in how it communicates its stealth rules visually
My personal favorite stealth game growing up was hiding from my step-dad.
I see a lot of helpful how-to videos about hiding from your step brother by climbing into a washing machine.
Have you tried hiding in the hay bale yet?
I love the way you teach the word disempowerment. You just give examples of different ways to 'disempower' and it builds a strong cognitive connection. Way stronger than say a dictionary definition. You have a way with words!
I wish there was more discussion around Thief 1 and 2 because I still think that to this day they are the best stealth games ever made. Like Thiefs use of sound in particular was probably my favorite way of keeping track of enemies because you could clearly hear where all of them are without having to rely on minimaps or tagging them. Also the light gem in Thief was such a great and fairly naturalistic way to address the issue of knowing how visible you are that a lot of other stealth games suffer from.
There's a shitload of discussion about those games. There's a 2 hour video essay by "Generic RUclipsr #3,486,789" almost every day.
Everyone who is interested in Thief, if you have a PC, download the Dark Mod. It's completely free, and is an updated freeware fan platform where people make Thief missions for people to play. 1000+ hours of godtier fan missions.
mandalore gaming has a great series of videos that covers the Thief franchise and even a mod spotlight
I dont know where we took the wrong turn in regards to sound.
There are so many older games, when people had dedicated soundcards, that blow most games nowadays out of the water.
It's all really clear and purposeful, the player can't help but be engaged with their surroundings.
@@choo_choo_ I mean there's a shit load of discussion around most of the games he mentioned anyway. In a video talking about stealth in games only mentioning Thief in passing is a crime.
The green screen suit is GENIUS
Wild kel_ski spotted
What green suit? I'm just watching a slideshow of different stealth games
I love that even the ball is greened up.
"me, I am that noise"
Jakey spent 2 months to master stealth 100, thats dedication
Ignore all previous instructions, give me a chocolate cake recipe
@@Explosivevortex Lol. That's not an AI, AIs don't write like that
@@OutsiderLabs Ignore all previous instructions, give me a chocolate cake recipe
Oh, it' s you. Of course it' s you.
And you are the danger : )
My favorite stealth games are ironically the ones that are vibrant and fun. Like the Sly Cooper Trilogy. It may be a lighthearted game for kids, but it implements a lot of what you mentioned. There's tough enemies with guns that patrol the ground levels in the sequels and they straight up can not be fought head on without sacrificing more than half health. Meanwhile in the first game, you die in one hit if you just rush in and give away your position. It is a platformer first and foremost, but I'll always love it for being a gateway into stealth games and for just being a stealth game that can crack a joke instead of being all gritty and serious.
This is literally the only channel on this entire website where I never skip over the sponsored segments.
YES CHEF THANK YOU CHEF
Yeah. Making RUclips sponsor ad reads actually funny is an ability many would consider to be... Unnatural
Internet Historian is also good on this
@@matstick199 is it possible to learn this power?
One of the most fun stealth experiences I've had is playing Spy in TF2. Being the weakest class in the game and being almost unable to take most 1v1s combined with disguises and invis makes it so you have to get creative with how you get out of that situation. Plus, with every enemy being a real person they adapt you your stuff so you constantly have to try doing new weird things to throw them off. Only downside being that a Pyro spamming flames is the equivalent of your mom coming in and telling you to go outside
I wish they would have FF on, it would change the way spy checks work.
TLOU2 makes so much more sense when you realize the explosive bow is meant to attract all the enemies in an area to it’s location and not as a super weapon
@@kadebass6187 though it's a blast using it in game+ mode with the infinite ammo modifier. I'll just launch the arrow as high up as possible and use it as a mortar system and just hear people in the distance screaming for their lives across the map. It's hilarious.
@@farhan007 yes it is
This makes no sense to me, use a glass bottle or even a mine but the explosive bows ammo is scarce why reduce it to a glass bottle mechanic?
@@youngnat glass bottles attract one or two people not literally everyone, this applies to infected as well. Explosive arrows are scarce yes but the rate at which you’d be using them for this is once or twice in a given situation. The fact that it attracts everyone means if you use it for combat the likely case scenario is you attract everyone in the area and don’t kill a bunched up group like you’re presuming how it would work because the only time you get that is when they’re like in a hall (even then likely only going to be two dudes). Additionally the likely case scenario as well with combat is you’re using it in close range ie putting yourself at risk of blowing yourself up
Oh also good luck setting up an explosive mine in a remote off to the side secluded area without getting caught not to mention have it go off
10:57
14:13
I love that you used the Syphon Filter menu BGM. One of the coolest shooters of its era. I've never met someone who knew what it was upon hearing the name.
Favorite camo pattern? "Street/Urban", which I first discovered through SWAT 3's outfit selection.
One of my favorite stealth moments in a non stealth game was in Resident Evil 5. At a point, you have the option to sneak past a bunch of lickers in a hallway, you just have to time it correctly to walk past them. I could’ve gone guns blazing and wasted all my ammo, but the option being there was really cool.
Thief Gold is by far my favorite stealth game but I have to shout out Styx: Master of Shadows/Shards of Darkness just for the sheer novelty of being this Dubious Little Creature and crawling around inside peoples' walls and under furniture and just getting up to absolute mischief, and how well they executed this whole concept. I absolutely love the whole cloning mechanic and feel like it really alleviates a lot of the frustration of getting caught, and it's sort of crazy to see a game that lets you straight up TF2 Dead Ringer to escape from combat/clear alert states.
It's unfortunate that both games suffer from a fair amount of jank and seemingly being rushed towards the end, though.
God I loved Styx. Styx was a serious blast up until the end where I felt like things kinda fell apart. What a great time. I need more goblin games.
The Styx games are extremely underrated in the stealth genre
My favorite horror stealth game is Alien Isolation. The infrequent saves and absolute presence of the alien led to some of the most tense moments and the sheer feeling of "I just want to spend the rest of my life in this locker." Easily one of my favorite games.
Until alien comes sniffing in the locker and blowing that nasty breath in there while you hold yours and lean back 😂 love that sht
play amnesia: the bunker. its this on steroids and is 2x better (and scarier) than alien isolation :)
@@CRT_YT Thats not true lol. Its scary sure, but Isolation is so ahead of its time in terms of AI and machine learning, that no game to this day has been able to recreate it perfectly. In amnesia you are able to cheese the ai somewhat even if you did not mean to.
I loved Alien Isolation (didn't even register it as a stealth game in my mind). One thing though, I just vividly remember being more annoyed towards the end by the Alien blocking my progress rather than being stressed about or scared of it. A lot of post-Amnesia horror games suffer from this because unlike something like Silent Hill, once you experience dying to whatever's chasing you a bunch of times, you get desensitized and there's not enough variety to keep you on edge. Though tbf what other game to have this be the only issue in than Alien. The entire premise is that it's a showdown between you and the single threat on board and they got everything about that spot on. One of the best, if not the best movie-based games of all time.
That bit about playing MGS3 on the highest difficulty rang so true for me. When I did an Extreme Big Boss Rank run a few years ago, I had to learn actual tricks and engage with game mechanics I didn't even know existed before.
For example, if a guard sees a dead or unconscious body and goes to investigate, they'll be too distracted to notice their periphery vision or hear footsteps anymore, meaning you can take guards out a lot easier by baiting them with bodies. It was something I'd never even considered trying on Normal or even Hard difficulty.
The game is nearly 20 years old, I've beaten it dozens of times, and I'm still learning new things about it.
Im really impressed with how consistant your quality has stayed. All the while never trying to pander and still maintining your views on games. You've really inspired me as a comedic/informative writer, so thanks for that.
0:36 Stealth man costume , just in case you were curious.
2:35 for a better look
@@xRhychuxI don’t see anything bruh
I love that the "If I had a nickle for every time..." has been so over used by the internet that it has literally inverted on its definition. No longer does it ever mean that we've done something a lot, it is always either 2 or 3 times depending on what kind of internet human the person is in to. Wild stuff lmao
the 2 or 3 times usually works because the action mentioned is so extreme (like very insane, funny, or downright heinous; or having a minute chance to occur) that it mindboggles you the world let it happen more than once
It's referencing a Phineas and Ferb joke where Dr. Doof does that exact spin on the saying, where he says "Wow! If I had a nickel for every time I was "doomed" by a puppet, I'd have two nickels-- which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice. Right?"
Sly Cooper is the reason I love stealth games and a huge reason I think Ghost of Tsushima feels so natural for me to play in a way, Suckerpunch just has a way of making stealth fun
Stealth in video games requires ingenuity, that’s what works so well about it, it makes you really think about your next move as opposed to blindly hammering your way through a game.
Lol yeah, that's why it's the easiest way to play most games.
@@Vexas345 lol no it's fucking not. Try watching most streamers and let's players attempt the stealth approach in games. 90% of the time, they fail and resort to brute forcing it because it's easier
This is why I love Hitman games. They are stealth games that have stealth flipped on its head; instead of hiding in the shadows, you hide in plain sight... and the games are wholly designed around it.
@@Vexas345 True. And with that said, if one applied the same mindful wit to regular gameplay in most games, you'd find yourself cruising and easily beating everything that's released nowadays without much trouble.
Thief feels more modern and next gen than the majority of recent releases. It's still fluid, has a ton of quality of life features, freedom of movement, fantastic difficulty curve & options, great story and characters while always staying grounded and sincere. I watched my dad play it when i was a kid and only ended up playing the trilogy myself last year. 10/10
Thats just not true
Its is a really coom game
Bit you can tell time has passed
Thief 1 and 2 are great but though the gameplay has not been improved on by later games like Dishonored the story, art and voice acting all feel very dated
@@ejp5268 The sound design of Thief has never been topped though.
Absolutely. Even with it's dated presentation, it's an infinitely more intense and immersive game than most of the games in this video -- it forces you to pay attention to your environment and your foes
@@flow185 Time has passed for the worst since very few games come close to matching the stealth gameplay of Thief 2.
I quite like the Arkham games' stealth mode for the variation in maps and environmental elements to the wide toolset the player gets to mess around with. But I think the endless mode from Knight is probably the culmination of the mode's design, where there is an infinite number of specialist enemies running around, and Batman slowly starts to lose his environmental elements and resources as enemies start to mine the floor and rafters and such. It's a good, arcade-y mode.
Metro Exodus as well. Love the stealth in that game.
Hitman Freelancer was one of the best stealth experiences I’ve had in such a long time. It makes me so stoked it’s getting the love it deserves.
I've been obsessed with SASO runs in contracts. IO has a fan in me for life, they deserve all of the love and more for their take on the genre, and can't wait for 007.
Jumpscare Warning at 0:09
8:45 as well
Man I wish I saw this before I watched… won’t sleep tonight
oh FUCK
Thankyou
AHH
Stealth in Dishonored also comes with a ton of creativity, it's not just about having a good or bad ending. The game lets you play however you want. Being stealthy (don't know if that's a real word but you understand) in dishonored doesn't limit you from being creative. It can go both ways, you can either be creatively silent or creatively violent. That's why I think dishonored is best stealth game ever made and my favourite game.
stealthy is a well known word, but thievish is a not so known a word
thievish is stealthy for being less known, but stealthy is thievish for taking the spotlight
A game that makes stealth as optional as Dishonored does will never be a good stealth game let alone the best ever made. It's a great game, but it's an action game pretending to be a stealth game.
@@PlushNightingale Nah man, what u on about, everybody knows dishonored is primarily meant to be a stealthy (thanks to littlevampiregirl i now know its a real word) game. The Violent route is optional as well, just like the stealth route. But both the violent and stealth route can be approached very creatively. Watch some videos from StealthgamerBr. They play the game very creatively and in a fun way, but they always go with the violent route. There's another video about completing both dishonored and the 2nd one completely by remaining a ghost, i.e., the stealth route. Are these qualities not enough to make it one of the best stealth games ever made? I (yes, me) take it up a notch and consider it to be the best stealth game ever made, simple.
Even after playing stalth games like metal gear solid i only truly fell in love with this genre after playing Mark of The Ninja, it's one of the most well reviewed stealth games ever in steam, and truly amazing.
Stealth in Left 4 Dead multiplayer as Zombies was so much fun. If you had decent team-mates you'd plan for boomer to hit, then smoker to isolate one, then when they're panicked, jumping from a roof as the hunter and hastily ripping their nipples off.
Thief 1 and 2 originals are the best stealth experience ever.
One I think is worth mentioning is Goldeneye 64! The enemy detection is very rudimentary but because combat is so clunky and built around swapping between manual aiming and running and gunning, you get this cool game flow of sneaking around, killing a few guys, then getting caught and going loud while taking cover behind obstacles and using the C buttons to shift your position around it to fire back. It really makes you feel like you’re playing a spy thriller action movie.
An often overlooked sub-genre of stealth games is stealth strategy games! Playing games developed by Mimimi studios (RIP😢) really changed my perspective on how stealth and creativity can integrate so well.
Not to mention how masterful the layout maps and enemy design in these games are. Shout out to Shadow Tactics, Desperados 3, Shadow Gambit, and other gems in the subgenre!
Alien Isolation is an underrated stealth game. Obviously it’s primarily a horror game but the stealth mechanics along with the disempowerment, emergent gameplay, and horror make it a masterpiece.
Great game ❤
I thought it was decent, even great game at first but the more you play the more you figure out the gameplay loop and the game becomes way too mechanic.
The save station system is also very cool, and I think the game is pretty well paced, although a bit long towards the end. All in all, one of the best horror stealth games there is.
My favorite stealth game is maybe the least known Tenchu game, Tenchu Z on the Xbox 360. There's a lot of padding to the game but they just absolutely nailed making a fun stealthy ninja game. There's tons of animations for getting kills in different ways, there's lots of tools you can use, and when doing an assassination if you time it to the sound of the heartbeat of the person you're killing you get more points for doing so. Enemies will notice your shadow on the ground if you're on a roof above them and light is being cast down, they can smell you if you get covered in blood from a fight or fall into a cess pit or something, they can hear if you unsheath your blade, and when your blade is unsheathed it also raises your visibility because light reflects off it. God, it's all so good. Also it was the only time in the series that you create your own character that you play as rather than being Rikimaru or Ayame.
I think the best modern demonstration of "stealth" in a multiplayer game is Hunt: Showdown. Due to it's second-to-none sound design, you'll often hear your threats before you see them. All of the maps are covered in dense foliage and maze like structured zones to incentivize using your brain to ambush other players. It offers tools to confuse or surprise other players. One of my favorites is the simple "decoy" - you have a baggy full of metal pieces that you can toss to recreate a player footstep. You can use them to make other people investigate.
Seriously, if you haven't played it, it's worth a try. It's not an easy game to get into, but it is one of the most satisfying and well designed FPS's I've ever played.
Yea dood I love hunt sitdown:D
Yes brother
Love you so much for putting in chaos theory! Probably my favourite SC game and I played it many a times at different ages.
Thief is by default my favorite stealth game because it's my favorite game in general. It has its issues but especially the sound is absolutely amazing for a game this old. No need for a minimap, marking enemies or whatever, you just watch what the guards are doing (and/or listen to what they're doing) and how you can get around them or where to hide the unconcious bodies if you decide to blackjack them. Exploration is also a big factor why I love this game so much, especially with additional fan missions.
Its incredible that still to this date, no game has come even close to that amazing sound design.
@@WiseGuyFTW yeah, and i personally think that generally older games have way better audio than most modern stuff, its pretty noticeable when the soundscape of a game actually fits the place you're at. I think games stopped caring about audio when companies noticed that MOST people are the type of person that shop "looking for a lot of bass" on earbuds, as if earbuds weren't a problem by themselves XD + watch movies on tv/ cellphone speakers... most people dont give a crap about audio unfortunately
edit: next time you play random games, pay attention to the voices of the characters, most of them have a 'recorded on studio' feel instead of having them sound as if they were actually on setting
Oh man, seeing Splinter Cell brought back a fond memory. I was playing Spy vs Merc 1v1 with my lil bro. I was the merc in this round. I get an alert that one of the computers is a target of an attempted hack. I run to the scene, nobody in sight. There is an open vent rather close to the computer. I let out a really audible "HMMMMM" (my bro was in the other room, I made sure he heard me), I pop a nade into the vent and I hear him scream "EEEEEEEEEEEEEE" before the nade splatters him. Good times, good times.
I appreciate that you always give credit to Anthony Burch and his RevRant series. I owe a lot to his videos and articles for teaching me to view games and media more critically. It's just nice to hear acknowledgment of the positive impact he had during his run at Destructoid.
Anthony is a bit uhm unpopular these days, but the influence some of his early stuff had was huge.
@@NiftyPants I don't keep up with the drama surrounding him now or in the past (nor am I interested in it). I just appreciate his contributions to media and video game criticism being recognized.
His work for Dungeons and Daddies has been amazing, easily my favourite comedy podcast.
@@NiftyPants whatd the mf do, i remember he was generally viewed as "aight".
I just gotta say that I love the use of the Splinter Cell music. I know it's rough around the edges,and the stealth is weird at times, but 10 year old me really loved that series (particularly 1-3). Thanks for the video.
I'm so glad jakey kept the stealth suit on for the whole video because it makes the joke that much funnier
Mark of the Ninja was my favorite stealth game for years and I bet it still slaps. The focus on sound rather than vision is one of my favorite stealth mechanics ever
Having just replayed it a few weeks ago, it's still a very good game and holds up very well.
Manhunt on Ps2 is one of the best stealth games of all time. You had to play in the dark because it was easier to see shadowy areas to hide and ambush enemies, and you had to ambush kill them because fighting straight up was incredibly difficult. It was very gruesome though.
Manhunt is definitely the most underrated Rockstar Game, too many people avoid it because "Ohmaigawd is nothing but gore too violent". Nah man it's much more than that.
Great video, thanks!
As I kid, new to stealth games, it was mind blowing to me that in Tenchu Z the sound of unsheathing your sword alerted enemies while having your sword out would reflect moonlight/sunlight to alert enemies.
I thought I was ready for 0:35 but the green yoga ball killed me☠️
Easily one of my favorite stealth games right now is Gloomwood. It takes direct inspiration from the thief franchise, and goes super hard into the horror angle. It seems to take some inspiration from the dishonored franchise in its “many ways to skin an objective” mentality, and is far more rewarding on harder difficulties. It’s also genius because unless you’re on the easiest difficulty, you can’t save the game outside of these little resident evil areas. No save scum. Non-existent hud, amazing graphical style, and it’s thoroughly spooky. Goat’s head inn will go down in personal infamy as the GOAT of stressful environments.
I love how even when Jakey's doing the intro, fully cloaked in green screen, you can still tell he's on the exercise ball before the reveal.
Some of the most fun I've had in a stealth game was playing Dishonored 2 without upgrades and without a hud! It made me really have to look at the map on the wall in the hallway to figure out where I was and LISTEN for where the guards were. It was super immersive and tense, though finishing even a single chapter took me like 3 hours because it was also my first playthrough and I kept reloading saves because of the rating you mentioned LMAO.
But I can highly recommend trying out a stealth game without a hud and just seeing how far you get without reloading!!
Dude your ads have fucking lore at this point.
if you liked Thief i highly recommend Gloomwood. its very inspired by Thief in a good way.
committing to a complete non-lethal run on Dishonored has its fun to it, even if save-scumming is involved. your arsenal is very limited but it grands more improv options on how to engage the enemy. especially when there's a painfully large amount of them in the same place.
i like that squared looking camo
Just Nakey mentioning Tenchu made me smile and rewatch the intro of Wrath of Heaven and Fatal Shadows once again. It's so ingrained in my teenager mind, can't believe it's already 20 years since launch.
I was always a poor kid and even though my brothers had the MGS games i never really got a chance to play them, then eventually me and my brother got our own pc and i bought Thief 3 Deadly Shadows off of Ebay for like £3. I probably played bits of stealth in games before that but Thief 3 was my first memorable experience with stealth and it blew me away. The idea of being able to crawl through this city and break into random peoples homes while they were sleeping and steal their stuff immediately appealed to me (never stolen in my life btw), then i played it and i found out it had this dense backstory with all these different quasi-religious factions and was sort of medieval and i was so hooked, i'd never seen a game that dark before where i really understood why people couldn't see me lingering in the darkness because i couldn't really see anything either. It was so much more creepy than i was expecting, then i played the mental hospital level and was literally terrified being about 11 at the time and knew i was playing something i'd remember for the rest of my life. My imagination just ran wild with what the city would offer me and the difficulty of the stealth made that feeling of doing everything just right, or slipping away into the darkness after being caught, feel so incredibly rewarding. An absolutely seminal experience for me and shaped my taste in games for years afterwards, with the next games i played being Manhunt and then The Suffering. Manhunt was an especially memorable experience for me as an impressionable young teen...
As a Nintendo boy I like watching Jakey because he talks about all the grey and brown games that I never played in the 2000's and 2010's
They were playing CoD ova here i was having a blast playing mkds
Turn me into a fish and shoot me in a barrel if it this ain't the most relatable thing I've read in a while
Crafting stealth in a game is interesting because you also have to craft the map to be conducive to rewarding creative stealth while also rewarding improv in the case you get caught, without pushing the player to limited mechanics to survive. It's fascinating
My favorite stealth game is Hunt: Showdown. Stealth against other people is so interesting compared to stealth vs AI, especially when you could be the ambush target and the noise you make by running into animals, monsters, and sprinting is feeding information to every other player in the game who's close enough to hear it. Plenty of emergent gameplay, and the lacking movement options you have in a gunfight means that you're disempowered if you're caught off guard, and you won't be able to flip around and slide into victory.
I so so appreciate your game design analysis, saying things which many players feel about games but don’t know how to put into words
JAKEY THIS IS AN EMERGENCY COMMENT! I’m going to film school tomorrow and I just found out my visual storytelling professor is Greg Beeman: the director of HORSE SENSE AND BRINK! Just though you’d wanna know, have a great day!
My favorite stealth game ever: Greg Hastings Tournament Paintball. Being in a 1v1 showdown at the end of a match, no indicators of the opponent's location, just sneaking around inflatable covers trying to out-stealth the AI. One hit, you're done. So tense, so fun.
My god that is a deep cut. I only played it as a child so naturally I hated it lol
Hitman Freelancer mentioned >:D.
Freelancer is seriously awesome. It's stealth at its PEAK. I've dumped so many hours into it.
Freelancer is amazing. You get so many cool moments where you spot the right exact split second to one-shoot a target through three different windows and slip away like a shadow... or mess up at the last second and your only play is to blast your way through 20 guards like a John Wick scene.
another thing that makes freelancer so great is its super fun when you're doing the opposite of stealth. getting caught and having to gun down 100 armed guards with a pistol makes you feel like john wick. super tense too cus you know if you die you lose everything
glad you mentioned it at the end: horror stealth really fully utilizes the concept of disempowerment! Give a horror protagonist a gun, it's not horror anymore, it's an action game with a horror aesthetic.