Stealth Games

I love being a sneaky little guy I'm just crawling around and you have no idea I'm even there uh oh where am I am I over there in that vent am I behind that vase right there both wrong I'm actually the dog so get cozy and come rub my belly cause I got a lot to say about [Music] one of the first games I ever played was Splinter Cell Chaos Theory it's a super spy game where you do super spy stuff like sneaking through vents and cutting out the lights and turn on your night vision goggles and Whispering softly into another man's ear this game completely changed my idea of what games could be but there hasn't been a new Splinter Cell since Blacklist in 2013 the last metal gear game was a Zombie Survival game what the fudge where are all the stealth games and don't tell me we're still getting Assassin's Creed games either because the only thing sneaky about an Assassin's Creed game anymore is how they disguise this lazy Witcher clone as an assassin game most of the games coming out right now are action adventure games that feature this fantasy of being a super powerful awesome sexy lion that eats bullets and [ __ ] the Sun what makes the stealth genre interesting is that most of the time you're just a guy in 2012 Mark of the Ninja came out you play as this awesome sneaky ninja who just like has a grappling hook and you know there's a whole bunch of places to hide and you have you can cut out the lights and sneak up behind people and kill them but as soon as you get spotted you realize you're just a guy in pajamas with a little knife and then the guards put 20 holes in you so instead of just charging through you have to outsmart them this is what makes stealth games interesting limitation breeds creativity Albert Einstein said that okay maybe he didn't say that specifically but he would have if he played video games instead of doing all that physics junk not being able to take that head-on approach turns what would be traditional combat into this kind of high-stakes puzzle and while I enjoy playing that all-powerful guy that can just mow down enemies There's Something about making it through an entire level without getting spotted once that just scratches An Itch in my brain that no other game really can and there's actually a reason for that now bear with me just really quickly I'm about to smack you in the mouth with a little bit of science you see humans have evolved over millions of years and even after all this time there's still something within us that scientists refer to as the ooga booga smash Rock make fire caveman brain find prey must hunt here Predator must hide what the hell is Starbucks it clicks in my brain so well because it plays on that Predator prey Instinct alien isolation is a game where you're on a ship with the big scary alien who's running around and killing absolutely everything the woman you play as is very much human no special abilities so if she doesn't hide she's going to get Blended up like a mocha cookie crumble Frappuccino I'm evolving very clearly in this situation you play as the prey and the alien is the Predator but wouldn't that mean that in the movie Alien vs Predator the alien is technically a predator and that would make it Predator versus Predator what is the difference between a predator and a predator this Frappuccino is making me nauseous on the flip side the Batman Arkham games let you play as this freak guy who puts on a bat costume and hides in the shadows waiting to tie you up to these conveniently placed gargoyles realistically Batman's still just a guy so if he were to run in and start punching everybody who has guns he's gonna get shot and die but you know he doesn't cry about it instead he puts on his special little eyes and sneaks around the Shadows monitoring everybody's heart rate to see if they're terrified that is a real mechanic you can see their emotional state and he just hides them up to these gargoyles I mean seriously who is putting these things in here who is building them they're impractical just stop you're setting yourself up for failure Batman in this situation is a hundred percent the Predator both because of the stealth sections and his questionable inclination to convince boys to come hang out in his secret cave what the crap Batman while everybody has this ooga booga smash Rock make fire caveman brain it doesn't mean that everybody's gonna like stealth games honestly I don't like most of the choices out there myself it's very hard to make a good stealth game because it's not as straightforward as the punch guy games there are certain fundamentals a stealth game has to have to be a good game and that precedent was set all the way back in 1998 like that punch attention assassin the Dark Project Metal Gear Solid there were obviously games that came before like Castle Wolfenstein and the original metal gear but it was these three games that gave birth to the 3D stealth genre Metal Gear Solid in my opinion had the best detection system of the three giving you this little map in the corner that would show you enemy Vision cones so you could strategize your way through them undetected see the whole point of these games is not getting caught so there has to be somebody there to catch you if you fail NPCs or non-player characters are put into the environment with a place to stand or a path to walk these NPCs have a kind of view cone thingy that's just supposed to simulate how they would see Metal Gear made detection very straightforward and simple by showing you a few cones in the top right corner whereas most games it's invisible and you kind of just left to figure it out on your own over time these view cones evolve to look like a really surprised face where they've got this main View and they've got this wider view that's meant to simulate the peripherals and then these two little things in the back to simulate that over the shoulder kind of view but as features like taking cover behind stuff in games became more prevalent new systems like lines from the enemy's Vision making contact with some of your bones got implemented and the more contact they would make with your bow the more likely he was to take your bones Metal Gear had the best detection system at the time but as things evolved the detection system's got much better but one thing Metal Gear got right away were these stages of detection this has been implemented in almost all modern stealth games instead of the enemy just getting a glimpse of you and immediately blowing you up with a rocket launcher there are like three stages that they go through oh crap I think I maybe see a guy over there holy sweet Jesus Lord I think I see somebody God in heaven Jesus mother Mary he is risen I definitely see somebody over there this is meant to give you a short opportunity at stage one to get out of the way before he can reach stage two stuff like that so hard to convey to the player though so future games such as we'll include something like a lightning bolt above the enemy's head that will cycle through the different animations and show you what level of alert the guard is it was not the first game to do this I just really like Dishonored it's features like this that make games less confusing and more fun if I get caught in a stealth game I want to feel like it's because I'm messed up not be confused about what the freak is going on you know that moment when you're playing a stealth game and that Guard from all the way across the map points at you runs over and pulls down your pants in front of the whole school and you just so happen to be wearing your Batman underwear that day and so now everybody in school calls you [ __ ] yeah that sucks it's not important that these NPCs detect you in a realistic way but rather they should detect you in the way the player thinks they should a good stealth game understands how to keep a player on the edge of their seat without throwing them under the bus at every little mistake they make unless you're this game but we can talk more about that later can't you stealth assassin was not a very good game in my opinion it didn't incentivize stealth very much for a stealth game what tenshul act in tension and Polished mechanics it made up for in gadgets grappling hook ninja star smoke bomb fire blast caltrops run fast win thing food distraction bombs look everybody needs a Little Help from time to time it's nothing to be ashamed of it's completely natural happens to everybody now of course I'm not going to tell my friends about it liar stealth games are at their best when you have a whole bunch of awesome tools to work with why kill my prey when I can just really annoy him with these rocks I found stealth games can easily become a sneak up behind a guy and press square simulator but with gadgets your play style opens up infinitely more the only thing better than gadgets are superpowers like the ones in Dishonored why talk about rocks or stupid view cones when I get just you know blip right through the view cone and now I but now I'm a rat and I'm just running around I'm running straight through your legs I'm just biting the cheese and I'm spreading the plague I'm just crazy like that I'm a rat specifically in games where you are the Predator these gadgets make it feel a thousand times more like it's your own experience and you can do it however you want to while I love them in a lot of games gadgets and powers are not always the best thing to add to a game so please if you'll join me on a trip through the Museum of lame game features and up here on the right is Assassin's Creed Eagle Vision it basically lets you see through walls entirely replacing any form of tension with riveting hay bale action seriously why do these guys have such a hard on for conveniently placed bales of hay and up here on the left we have Far Cry infinite rocks you don't need to find these rocks you just have an infinite supply of them where are they coming from don't ask and here at the end we have hiding in barrels and boxes get out of there you freak several games include this mechanic and it is always stupid there is no reason enemies should not be any bit suspicious about a box just blipping around I tend to buy into the fantasy a little more when it makes sense why one little weirdo can dismantle an entire Army by crawling around in some vents having stuff like high-tech gadgets or superpowers kind of levels that obvious power imbalance in my mind if I have the [ __ ] Mark of the outsider it makes a little more sense how I could be a one-man Army also how cool does Mark of the outsider sound should I get a mark of the outsider tattoo in my arm right here it's completely unrelated I've just been thinking about it for a while and it would be really cool to just like put on my body and while detection and gadgets are important aspects of stealth games the most important part in my opinion is the tension slash in immersion slash giving a [ __ ] about anything going on and for that the prize goes to thief the Dark Project Where Metal Gear Solid gave you the vision cones to look at thief the Dark Project takes a different approach to teaching you how to be a sneaky little guy these claustrophobic maps have very obvious shadows and while you can technically kill your enemies it's very hard so you're better off just trying to sneak past them in these shadows and listen out for them the game even gives you this itty-bitty little light bar at the bottom so you can see when you're in Shadows and when you're not and the sound design is crafted so that you can always hear the enemies when they're creeping around you or opening doors nearby the game also makes it worthwhile to actually explore the map because there's a bunch of treasure around that you can steal and the more treasure you steal the more gadgets you can buy making me want to look around the map while also making me terrified to look around the map is the perfect way to create tension I asked around a lot before I started making this video I wanted to know if people actually enjoyed stealth games and a lot of people told me that they just didn't have the patience for these kinds of games and I really think that if you're getting bored in a stealth game that's a design flaw it comes down to the game creating this palpable tension like like Thief does stealth just shouldn't mean sitting around doing nothing it's generally in stealth games that you have to strategize analyze your situation tackle it carefully if anything I should feel more engaged you know more active in the scenario not just sitting around with my dick in my hand I want to have as much agency as possible in how it plays out and I want to care if it goes my way or not to point out another game that does this well this is the one I was referring to earlier GTFO does it perfectly because it is so scary it makes you want to vomit GTFO is actually a multiplayer horror game that you can almost never survive if you're going loud the game is pretty straightforward there's a bunch of monsters infesting this hellscape level that you've entered and you've got to clear them out the game doesn't tell you to be quiet necessarily it just shows you what happens when you're not this game is the perfect exam sample of how a stealth game should keep me on the edge of my seat praying I don't get caught holding my breath another great part of GTFO is that you're not doing it alone trying to coordinate these strikes makes it so much harder and elevates the experience by a lot maybe Co-op stealth games for the future I don't know I'm just a bibo but if I could recommend a co-op stealth game it would be operation Tango pretty much one person plays as the super spy infiltrating a place and player two operates as that like guy in the chair is fun and is silly and I played it with my girlfriend we had a good time so I would recommend it to you while it was these three games that started it all and laid the groundwork for all the stealth games to come I've got to give a shout out to my favorite game in the world Dishonored I [ __ ] love this game in Dishonored you play as corvo watano who is wrongfully accused of killing his baby mama and he breaks out of prison to go save his daughter and to either get revenge or set things right notice how I said or because it's got a whole bunch of choices and consequences to the path you take the only reason I bring it up is to highlight another one of the most important aspects to a stealth game which is having a dynamic play space for me to be all sneaky in and Dishonored you explore dunwell a place with plenty of dark corners and towering Heights the environment is filled with citizens walking around the streets and gang leaders you can completely optionally talk to to gain access to new information and new ways to tackle your objectives maneuvering in this living world with those Powers I was talking about before makes it feel like the only limits here are your imagination it truly is in my opinion one of the only games that understands how to make stealth feel exciting and imaginative I just love when games give my goofy ass some options I don't want to pick this lock I want to crash down through the ceiling like a cartoon character why would I go down there and kill that guy when I can drop a conveniently placed anvil on his head oh I gotta get into this building here no problem I'll just go talk to the gang leader he's gonna put a bomb in this guy's butt so I can sneak in I'm not exactly sure how it's gonna help but he was very insist assistant that we put a bomb in this guy's butt as soon as possible the more opportunity there isn't a level the more it gives the player that feeling of freedom I want to be completely clear here okay when I say this please listen carefully when I ask for more opportunities I am not talking about semi-tall grass that makes me completely invisible to All Enemies whoever's idea this was I curse your bloodline for 14 Generations as much as I love opportunity in these levels I think interactivity is equally as important here you know let me cut out the lights in a room or let me lock a door leaving all the guards inside or let me put a bomb in this guy's butt I'm still not sure why but we've already committed to the idea at this point and it's weird some of the best world manipulation ideas come from this game called Watchdogs the game plops you in this open world as a vigilante and gives you access to something called the ctOS which is basically just the hack everything tool you can actually use your phone to change stop lights making people crash on the street or or you can manipulate some of the hardware around a level or even use some of your Tech to scope out an area before you go in unfortunately this game was made by Ubisoft so they barely scratched the surface on any of these ideas having looked back at the history now it it's clear to me that this decline in stealth games is entirely due to the fact that games have increased massively in scope over the years what used to be the stealth genre has now been reduced down to a small feature in much larger games like Uncharted or Spider-Man now I don't think stealth is a choice is necessarily a bad thing you know not to bring it up too much but dishonor does that pretty well I just think that stealth is such a hard thing to pull off you know we've already pointed out all of these fundamentals and in my opinion without any of these you get a bad stealth experience and in these very ambitious large games stuff like this can get overlooked I mean God why would I want to stop being Spider-Man and webbing up bad guys to play as Mary Jane in and go push over a radio if you've not played the Spider-Man game in it the pace completely halts and you get to play as Spider-Man's girlfriend and just kind of walk around all sneaky like it's so stupid I don't have any joke here it's just stupid well I wouldn't argue with a new Thief game or a new Splinter Cell I I don't think we need to stop making stealth a feature rather than a genre on its own I just think that it would be awesome if developers took the time in the care to make these stealth experiences worthwhile and fun and an actual play style for the game rather than just a little segment maybe some games could even get like a stealth difficulty that changes how some things work and makes that kind of play style more viable at very least just please somebody put a bomb in that guy's butt we've been talking about it all day we've just gotta do hey what's up it's uh Zach Here Yeah I broke out the the legal name for this one I didn't script this part of the video but I just want to say a few things at the end you know I hope you enjoyed this video this kind of video that I'm trying to make um still not the most experienced writer but I'm I'm trying my best with everyone that I'm making and I hope it comes out good I don't really know yet uh if you don't know I I just made this channel recently um and I'm kind of trying to take all the elements of stuff I've made in the past and and bring them here to to a new thing and um you know it would mean a lot if you if you subscribe I know it's corny for people to ask for this kind of stuff but I love doing this this is what I really want to do and you know it would help out a lot if you would just like subscribe or you know hit the like button do all the stuff and uh you know maybe watch another video clicking on the card always helps um with engagement and stuff but yeah um thanks for watching through the whole thing I know it was just a whole lot of information getting like thrown at your face but I like making this stuff I hope to make more stuff like this in the future um so thanks yeah I probably should have scripted this part um anyway yeah click card um that'd be cool okay bye

Channel: bizlychannel

Views: 168,970

Keywords: Bizly, Bizlychannel, Metal gear, Metal gear solid, Mgs3, Metal gear solid remake, Remake, Stealth, Stealth games, Video essay, Splinter cell, PlayStation showcase, I Played and Ranked Every Star Wars Game

Id: mJPsYPytPSU

Length: 18min 17sec (1097 seconds)

Published: Sat May 27 2023