Assassin’s Creed started a bit rough, but then it found its feet with Assassin’s Creed 2, settling into the age of Ezio. Things didn’t dramatically change again until Assassin’s Creed 3 introduced sailing and ship combat, and then again with the RPG elements brought in for Assassin’s Creed Origins.
Best First-Person Stealth Games
Few FPS games provide thrilling stealth action as good as the following titles. Here’s what stealthy FPS fans should try for their next game.
With every new gameplay innovation, Ubisoft took away more stealth-based options. Isn’t it wild that attempting to stab someone in the neck in one of the RPG entries doesn’t result in an instant kill without tweaking the settings? That’s obscene for a stealth game. So, for stealth fans looking for games that, while they aren’t necessarily better overall than modern Assassin’s Creed games, at least their stealth options are on point.
Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Blacklist
A Forgotten Reboot
Before Assassin’s Creed, Ubisoft’s golden stealth series was Splinter Cell, and while the original trilogy still uses darkness to great effect, like Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, the latest entry, Splinter Cell: Blacklist, is a better starting point for newcomers. There’s an economy system to missions, as players will earn money to upgrade their plane and unlock new features, along with Sam’s inventory.
There are tons of gadgets to experiment with, one of the better ones being sticky cameras that you can use to survey the area or have them emit sleep gas to knock out nearby enemies. Coolest of all is the Execute function, which auto-eliminates all tagged enemies in a room without alerting guards, which is a John Wick-style move.
Hitman: World Of Assassination
Master Of Disguise
Hitman: World of Assassination combines missions from the recent Hitman trilogy into one nice and clean portal. What’s great about the Hitman series in general is the versatility of Agent 47. Players can sneak into missions and kill those that get in their way with wire or guns and then drag the bodies into hiding places, but it’s more fun to live a double life.
Agent 47 can disguise himself as almost anyone: detectives, waiters, clowns, racecar drivers, and even drummers. He can then use this disguise to get close to their targets. The game even provides dialogue options to help 47 blend in. The stealth is fantastically deep, and no stealth game does it quite like Hitman.
Stealth Espionage Action
The greatest stealth series of all time is Metal Gear simply because each game provides numerous ways to distract, sneak past, or dispose of guards. The most recent (non-remake) example is Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain, which allows players to recruit soldiers and use them to develop weapons and gear for field-testing.
There are numerous weapons you can use to knock out enemies non-lethally. They can then be hooked to a tactical balloon and sent back to Mother Base. Snake can hide in boxes, place cardboard models to distract guards, toss smoke grenades, and so much more. This is a game and series that adores gadgets and the ways they can influence stealth.
Deus Ex: Human Revolution
Build Your Character
Deus Ex: Human Revolution is unique in that players can shape their hero, Adam Jensen, into the hero they want. He has a cybernetic body, so you can increase his sneaking or hacking skills to take a more passive approach to missions, bypass locks, disable radar, or create a killing machine.
While modern Assassin’s Creed games do have skill trees, they’re not as broad as the cybernetic upgrades in Deus Ex: Human Revolution. It’s a big reason why players love the Deus Ex games in general because they allow them to play their way.
Dishonored 2
By Your Powers Combined
Dishonored 2 gives players two choices at the start: they can play as the first game’s hero, Corvo, or try out playing as Emily. Both characters have distinct magical powers, giving players a reason to replay the game with the other option, even though the story will mostly be the same.
Corvo can slow down or stop time, summon rats, or possess enemies, all of which are quite handy in a stealth game. Not to be outdone, some of Emily’s powers include the ability to create a clone to distract guards, or she can daze enemies into a stupor.
Batman: Arkham Asylum
In The Shadows
Batman: Arkham Asylum, more so than the other Arkham games, is an intimate stealth experience that showcases the power and vulnerability of Batman. He cannot take on goons head-on when they are armed, so instead he has to resort to stealth tactics, striking from the shadows and often from above.
Batman can climb into the rafters and then grapple an enemy toward the ceiling to silence them, or he can crawl beneath grates to pop out like Pennywise before dragging an enemy under. Batman’s extra-sensory vision is close to the Eagle Vision mechanic in the Assassin’s Creed games, except that Batman has the advantage of analyzing scenes to deduce the best ways forward.
Sniper Elite: Resistance
Groin Blasters
Sniper Elite: Resistance, and the rest of the Sniper Elite games, have an obvious advantage over Assassin’s Creed: guns. Taking place during World War 2, this latest entry puts players in an open area in each mission where they have set objectives to complete, along with side missions that can give them advantages.
8 Best RPGs With Stealth Mechanics
Gamers looking for an RPG experience with stealth elements have plenty of options to choose from, but some are better than others.
How they want to tackle missions is open-ended, but the key signature of the series is the brutal way in which bullets tear through hearts, brains, and even groins, to put it politely. As such, it makes sense that “bullets” is probably the intended solution. Players can use smaller guns to silently kill enemies, or they can use knives. Also, rigging a car to explode before signaling soldiers to check it out is a brilliant move.
A PC Classic
Thief 2: The Metal Age is the type of experience that someone who wants to immerse themselves in one of the stealth genre’s greats that still holds up should check out, since it debuted in 2000. It takes place within a dark steampunk fantasy, so players can expect lots of classic-looking guards and torches upon torches, all of which can be exploited to plunge a room into darkness to create new places to hide.
Missions are open-ended, giving players the freedom to kill, non-lethally take down enemies, or something in between. From blades to bows to steampunk gadgets like an orb that acts as a camera, players are well-armed to sneak or assassinate their way through Thief 2: The Metal Age.
Tenchu 2: Birth Of The Stealth Assassins
Don’t Forget The PS1
Tenchu 2: Birth of the Stealth Assassins was released for the PS1 in 2000, and despite it being almost three decades old, like Thief 2: The Metal Age, there are some great stealth mechanics in this game. In each mission, players can choose their equipment, from health items to various traps. They can then sneak around small mission areas looking for their target, taking advantage of rooftops to grapple onto, caltrops to trip up enemies, poisoned food to disable guards, and so on.
It has similar mechanics to Assassin’s Creed Shadows, but the variety of tools and items is much greater, as Tenchu 2: Birth of the Stealth Assassins focuses more on stealth rather than combat like a true ninja game.
Games With Procedurally Generated Worlds + Player Customization
Sink hundreds of hours into these games that perfectly marry procedurally generated worlds with great player customization.
