I’m probably alone in remembering this game but I loved Hardwar back in the day. It’s an Elite style trading game set on Titan. The player pilots a ‘moth’ ,a small flying craft, between craters.
It had an interesting story that played out as you explored with areas blocked out, due to events, and made accessible later on.
The developer closed doors but IIRC at least one member of the team released a patch that had been developed later on.
I played it pretty obsessively and it had a small passionate community but it wasn’t a hit.
+1 vote for the Dishonored games. If you want a quick showcase of what's possible in this title or the whole series, StealthGamerBR is probably one of the best people to watch.
A lot of the games you tried are on gamepass, including hitman world of assassination.
There are some others aswell, like Aragami 2, sniper elite and plague tale.Might be worth just trying gamepass for 10€ for a month or to see if you can buy a trial key for cheap somewhere, to test the games.
Another game I can recommend but it is a bit different genre is Outlast:Trials. It is a stealth game but if you fail you have to escape and hide. Though this game is pretty explicit with nudity, violence and gore
Deus Ex: Human Revolution and Mankind Divided can be played as stealth games, and I really liked them. Note that they aren’t “pure” stealth games, there are some encounters where you cannot avoid fighting.
Also DE:MD kind of ends in the middle, so if you are a story player you will be frustrated to know that there seem to be no plans for the next sequel.
Yeah HR had unavoidable combat bosses in its original release. The Director’s Cut modded them all to allow for dealing with them by alternative means, such as hacking, robot/turret control and such. But because they weren’t originally designed that way it’s not the most organic, and you can’t pure stealth bypass them like the original Deus Ex.
This is going to sound snobby, but until you’ve played metal gear I don’t think you’ve experienced the pinnacle of stealth. That series basically defined (access arguably perfected) the third person stealth action genre.
If you don’t want to play them all, I highly recommend metal gear solid 3 and V. But the “demo” ground zeroes game is a great way to get a feel for the series in a more contained experience
Runner ups in my mind that others mentioned:
Splinter cell
Thief
Deus ex (you can choose stealth in this game but it isn’t specifically a stealth game imo)
Dishonored (superb)
Prey (essentially dishonored meets system shock)
You gotta go grab some metal gear, though. Oh how I wish I could experience those games for the first time again.
Thief Deus ex (you can choose stealth in this game but it isn’t specifically a stealth game imo) Dishonored (superb)
Was surprised to not find these games in the main list. Thief and Deus Ex (I play it stealthy as much as possible) have been my go to stealth games. And no matter how you try to play Skyrim it always ends with stealth archer. 😅
I fucking love those games to death, Thief was so fucking dark and gritty when it first came out and I was so scared when the guards walked past me as I was hiding in the shadows after water arrowing a torch, lol.
And Deus Ex I with it’s multiple storylines, choice making and takes on philosophy was mind blowing.
However, they’re easy to cheese by modern standards which might be to their detriment when it comes to new players. You can easily blackjack your way through Thief I.
Thief III: Deadly Shadows probably holds up the best gameplay wise, though Thief II has the best storyline imo.
Deus Ex I also has some very unfortunate voice acting choices (incl. white people putting on Asian sounding accents), which I, in the 90s, was ignorant about, but now as an adult it’s a cringy struggle to listen to, tbh.
If you want something really different but really cool you should look into Invisible Inc., rogueline turn-based tactical stealth in a cyberpunk setting. The way they handle the levels of alertness and challenge ramping up as you remain for too long and take risky actions in each level is really interesting.
I don’t know if it fits the criteria, but A Plagues Tale series are great stealth games. A little different genre compared to the others, but unique enough to shine among these others in my opinion.
It seems a little different from your usual vibe (it’s not an first/third-person shooter-y thingie; iirc it’s isometric and pixel-art?); but it’s easily the best stealth game I’ve ever played. :D
Plus one for Invisible, Inc. It’s like XCOM but spies. Such a great game from an awesome developer. One of many of their games that I’ve got every stream achievement for.
Adding on to this I heartily recommend MGS V. It is the culmination of the MGS formula in a mostly open world. While I love Kojima's bullshit, the previous MGS games had deep mechanics that you rarely got to play with because most the games were movies with an occasional game.
The story is kind of all over the place but the gameplay more then makes up for for it.
MGS1 is available on GOG, but it’s definitely got that early 3D vibe that OP doesn’t seem to like. I think it’s aged pretty well, considering it’s a PS1 title.
Mark of the Ninja is the best 2d stealth I’ve played, and also better than lot of 3d ones. The way the game used visual cues made steathing feel really fun to do.
To add a bit more about Shadow Tactics, it is a top-down 3D game where you control a crew of characters with different abilities (ninja, samurai, sharpshooter, etc.)
It is real time but you can plan actions to happen simultaneously, so it feels really cool to solve the stealth puzzles by combining the characters’ different abilities.
Also good atmosphere, voices, story, etc. Just a very good game.
bin.pol.social
Gorące