Stealth Action: Death or Evolution?
In the early eighties, the first games appeared with secretive passage. IN 005 For arcade machines, it was necessary to steal documents and get to the helicopter, bypassing opponents with flashlights. IN Castle Wolfenstein For Apple II, we spied in the camp of the Nazis and killed quietly, saving cartridges.
In 1987, Hideo Kojima released Metal Gear , turned "hide and seek" into a concept with tactical potential. The game became a hit and laid the foundation of the whole genre.
Twenty -seven years have passed since then. The genre has long been formed and … dead? How modern games cost the legacy of stealth-bees and where all this rolls? Let's figure it out.
One in the field
Metal Gear and his ideological heirs preach simple truth: Superman does not exist. Even the elite fighter not defeat the whole army alone. But if you can’t take it by force, you can compete in cunning. In the end, people are not Geta , They don't get smarter in the crowd.
► c Castle Wolfenstein The Nazi raises his hands caught by surprise, allowing him to profit from scarce ammunition. Further, the poor man can be killed with one shot or spare. Hideo Kojima borrowed this idea for Metal Gear Solid.
In 1998, three 3D giants appeared at once with a secretive gameplay. Tenchu: Stealth Assassins It became the first three-dimensional stealth-beoevicist and one of the few adequate ninja games: the emphasis in it is made on acrobatics, swiftness and arsenal of gadgets. Metal Gear Solid Put Stlax at the service of cinematic history. IN Thief We could hide the whole game in shadows and avoid opponents. Murder generally contradicts thieves ethics.
IN Thief And Tenchu The player physically could not defeat the superior enemy forces. One? Can. Two? Difficult. Three? https://midnight-wins-casino.co.uk/ It is hardly. IN Metal Gear Solid Snake is quite a small detachment. But while the anxiety is based, reinforcements continue to arrive. Sooner or later you will be crushed in number.
► Tenchu I survived many continuations and remained to the end of the purebred stealth beo-toe. It is a pity that since 2009 nothing is heard about the series. At least we have two -dimensional Mark of the Ninja, And on the horizon, independent loom Twin Souls: The Path of Shadows.
► Tactical gameplay, complex level design, thick atmosphere. These properties made Thief immortal, but during the reboot, they were irretrievably lost. ► In Metal Gear Solid 2, opponents could notice the shadow of a Snake, wet traces, or even elbow sticking out from behind the wall. And if the hero sneezes, he will be heard through the whole room.
Seven are not afraid of one: stealth as a privilege
A different approach developed in parallel: stealth as a right, and not a forced measure. In 1997, the world saw Goldeneye 007, where secrecy simplified life: excessive activity attracted more enemies. True, here it is only a little complicated by Bond the task.
► shooter No One Lives Forever One of the first to, with the help of Stlace, to simplify his life.
Hitman: Codename 47 It was the Icon precisely stealth janra, although for many the secrecy in it was also one of the options. Last game about agent 47, Absolution, I disappointed many-and one of the claims for some reason was that it can be passed on the forehead, just having shot everyone. But if you dig deeper, it was always the case in Hitman. In the end, why for the perfect secretive passage in the games of the series, they fill more money that can be spent on loud and slaughter guns? Apparently, for a quiet killer to become quieter.
Only in Blood Money, when Tobias Ripper perfectly learned to adjust accidents, the topic Hitman revealed to the fullest. And before that, hands scratched and make a massacre. And often it even worked.
► Hitman: Absolution did not become the best game in the series, but the most spectacular – became for sure.
► for Watch_dogs We took simplified developments Splinter Cell: Blacklist , And in the end, Stlass somehow, but still diversified the process. ► c Deus Ex: Human Revolution For invisibility and pacifism gave achievements and fed experience.
Meanwhile, the idea of "stealth as right" became more and more popular. Kojima also went the same road: starting from the fourth part Metal Gear Solid you can crawl on the belly, and run with a machine gun. For many games, this approach has become the main one, and this inevitably led to impoverishment of opportunities, as well as simplifying the mechanics and, most unpleasant, II enemies.
But is everything so bad as it seems?
Hunter, not a victim
► Dishonored I tried to give the player an equal choice between open aggression and secrecy. But for power passages, the developers have prepared much more opportunities.
► c The Chronicles of Riddick The main character in any situation remained a hunter. Because it could not be otherwise. ► c Ground Zeroes Opponents do not even notice bloody puddles in the afternoon, and they do not hear the creeping Snake at point blank range. IN The Phantom Pain They will ignore balloons with screaming comrades.
Series Splinter Cell (reprints of classic issues, by the way, will be sold for a couple of days in PSN for a penny along with the "Assassins", Absolution And all the other – grab, if you have not had time to play enough) first united the mechanics Thief With the concept Metal Gear Solid , but with each part it was more strong. For unsuccessful Conviction Excellent Blacklist, in which the simple but spectacular mechanics of the "aggressive stealth" allows you to feel like a real predator. Stealth c Blacklist – Still preferred tactics, but now it can be combined with shootouts.
► But finished then the UBISOFT started, Conviction could become something special. Alas, many radical ideas had to be rejected, and Splinter Cell has followed the path.
It is boring to be a god
IN Assassin’s Creed idea Tenchu , acrobatics Prince of Persia and the ability to get lost in the crowd became an almost limitless platform for experiments. But alas, adding new opportunities with each part, the developers did not make them at least preferable. Nothing prevents you from cutting at least fifty fighters at any time. Caution, you only complicate your life.
And now the developers are forced not only to maintain excess capabilities (otherwise the people will not understand), but also to create the trial conditions for their application. Perhaps in Unity They will fix. Let's see.
► Shadow of Mordor Combined developments Assassin’s Creed And Batman: Arkham asylum. It turned out a pleasant and at times a very useful "aggressive" stealth. Only enemies there are blind, deaf and not too smart.
Dark Knight in the Deep Night
Best of all the concept of aggressive, swift stealth has taken root in Batman: Arkham asylum and her continuations. Although the game can not be called a classic stealth boa, since the developers chopped the Gordians Knot: the mechanics of secrecy against the deliberately weakened hero.
In the same Splinter Cell , To encourage the player to hide, Ubisoft made Sam Fruit, and shooting is terribly uncomfortable. Rocksteady They acted more elegant: without changing the mechanics of the "Mordoboy", they now and then throw up situations when all opponents are armed, and sometimes took hostages. This made it possible to introduce a situational stealth as a separate element of gameplay. And Batman became at the same time formidable in contractions and clever in hide and seek.
► in Western Call of Juarez We, playing alternately for different heroes, were firing with two hands, then hid in the bushes.
► in the series Manhunt We hide half the game and execute enemies, and the second half – shoot and scold the developers.
Not a hunter, but a victim
However, Stels as a necessity did not disappear, but only took its place. Working for the atmosphere, it turned out to be indispensable for the games of the genre of Survival Horror. One of the first to implement this was the series Forbidden Siren. Offering you to play for a variety of heroes, she retained the variety of gameplay and perfectly showed the value of secrecy. How many choice is a little girl in a hospital full of monsters?
► New The Evil Within also tries to escalate the atmosphere with stealth. At times successful.
The most important of modern horror, like Amnesia or Outlast, They make you hide on the cabinets not with a dull mine “Turn away already to kill you”, but with trembling hands and desperate hope to survive. As it turned out, even the smart AI of the enemy is still in demand. Fresh Alien: ISOLATION – The perfect example. For all her protractedness and technical negligence, she gave a completely new sense of fear – before the smart and capable of teaching the enemy.
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On the one hand, the fashion for slow and complex stealth boeviks with a bunch of gadgets has passed instead of good health. On the other hand, everything that we like in the classical games of the genre found its place one way or another. Somewhere made worse, somewhere better, there is stealth in every second action movie. And while they make games like Batman: Arkham Knight, There can be no talk of any oblivion.
The exaggerated frail of the heroes made Stlas an excellent help to injure horror – and increased attention to AI was also useful here. This inspires the hope that in the future the monsters in horror will not only be strong and ugly, but really frightening.
Well, it is unlikely that classic stealth things like Styx: Master of Shadows. It arose suddenly, in the middle of all these transformations, in order to update the trends and launch us on huge complex locations, full of powerful enemies.
What do you think about this? What will we come to in the end? Write in the comments about your observations on this subject.