Is the Stealth Genre Dead? 

They're just hiding

I mostly blame ubisoft for this one, ngl. In the pursuit of their one true game they pioneered the merging of genres - not in an additive way so we'd have new combinations, but a destructive way. Splinter Cell, Ghost Recon, Farcry and Assassin's Creed had clear boundries at their inception. Today, you'd forgive people for not being able to tell them apart by anything other than the camera perspective and whether or not it looked vaguely historical.

I hope stealth as a whole makes a comeback if MGS Delta is a success. Wanna see the Snakes, Sam Fisher and 47 back shoulder to shoulder.

Ironically all the best modern stealth games are hard to find, comfortably hiding in their niches.

Dishonored 1 is my favorite stealth game. I miss that game.

Kojima announcing the next new Stealth Action game should have probably been mentioned too. We might get a revival faster than we expect! Even if Konami themselves fail the remake, Kojima will probably at least give us something of an experience, will it be good or bad though, time will tell.

"It's only me..." - Sam Fisher

The best example that I can think of selling stealth as cool was in COD Ghosts intro; the team is visually depicted as smoke and sand killing the enemy without beeing seen.

I honestly don't get how you don't have, like 10x the views. Keep it up, enjoying your content greatly

Splinter cell chaos theory is my absolute favourite stealth game! The bank heist level (chefs kiss)

Refreshing to see someone talk about these games this way. Listening to some old waypoint radio pods, and they had similar discussions surrounding the 'immersive sim' around ~2017. Large scale triple a games have become so ambitious that things like systemic interaction and coherent worlds are just natural options in the behemoth scale games' tool box. I also like to imagine there's a ripe world of stealth to be further explored, but its hard to believe that the historically and increasingly risk averse world of triple A could generate it. The only exception might be Kojima Productions 'Physint'. They are a brand onto themselves and if they can make Death Stranding; a walking sim, into a game that sells well over 5 million copies I can see them having faith in taking a punt on new ideas.

I feel like we'll eventually get a bonafide, AAA stealth game that becomes a huge hit and tells the industry that the market is still perfectly open to the genre. AAA spent an entire console generation trying to gaslight people into thinking Survival Horror was a relic of the past that no Real Gamer™ would want to play anymore, but then Resident Evil 7 came along and showed the audience never left.

Apart from Hitman games, we haven't been getting that many stealth games recently.

Great video! I've been feeling exactly the same about the genre for a while and I'm so glad to see the topic get discussed. Here's hoping that the stealth game resurgence comes soon!

Let's remember how Immersive Sims were about to do a comeback, with games like Prey, Dark Messiah, the Dishonored Trilogy (yes, I believe they are in that spectrum), the Deus Ex Human prequels, Weird West, Cruelty Squad and the System Shock Remake. At the end it wasn't a huge resurgence and mostly the indie scene carried those ideas, but there was a small influx of interesting ideas getting more into the mainstream. I think stealth could see something similar, for better or worse. And yeah, I could also include Bioshock Infinite with its two DLCs, but I'm not sure if it carries enough to be an Immersive Sim.

One thing that disappoints me with "modern" stealth games is how enemies typically have very limited and simple patrol routes. Developers tend to not put much effort into their behavior. Whereas in the classic Thief games (the ones made by LGS) the enemy patrol routes were often relatively complex and lengthy.

SLY COOPER MENTIONED I can't wait for the future where we see a resurgence of pure stealth games. I think the last great one was probably Styx: Shards of Darkness, and that was 7 years ago. There are some great more stealth-focused games that I had fun with, where stealth is a mechanic rather than the genre, like Sniper Elite 4 and 5, as well as indie games like the upcoming Gloomwood, and Shadow Gambit. But something about a new, full-fledged, large scale stealth game is just an intoxicating thought.

I would argue that the Stealth genre, while being anything but new, as it reaches back to the early 80s, remains in many ways one of the most niche, and yet in others, one of the most pervasive sub-genres of Action-Adventure. This is because there are still very few games with stealth as their primary element of gameplay. As you pointed out, Stealth as a mechanic has instead been co-opted by many other Action-Adventure games. After 1998, often referred to as the "Year of Stealth" due to the release of three of the most seminal stealth titles: Tenchu, Thief, and Metal Gear Solid, many games started introducing stealth as a (often poorly implemented) small aside to their typical gameplay. Even the genre codifier, the Metal Gear series, tends to spend just as much time being a Boss Rush or otherwise typical Action game as it does a Stealth experience, even in the titles with the largest stealth focus like Snake Eater and The Phantom Pain. This means that, outside of a few niche titles and series, Stealth has never fully blossomed into its own genre, but has instead been reduced to a mere mechanic to be clumsily used and tossed aside in favor of the "real gameplay" as soon as one is spotted, but those few niche titles, which I would call Pure Stealth games, do still exist. What characterizes them from other games with stealth elements is not only that the primary objective is to remain unseen, but that being caught will come with harsh penalties, either in the form of an instant failure state, or more often, engaging in combat that is realistically unwinnable. This relative weakness of the player character means that remaining unseen is the only viable option of progression. For example, there is a dramatic difference between playing a game like Thief: The Dark Project, and a game like Assassin's Creed. In Thief, even taking on one enemy can often result in your death. In AC, even the early games before the combo killing got really out of hand in III, you still mow your way through a dozen or more guards and barely break a sweat. Sure, AC does have some occasional insta-fail stealth missions, but they're far from the norm. Point being that, even during the golden age of stealth in the early oughts, I think it's still up for debate whether many of those games were stealth games, or just, games that had stealth.

Assassin's Creed Chronicles was heavily focus on stealth and it was super fun and engaging, to run throughout the hole game as a shadow, invisible to your enemies in a new way. Im mentioning this cause it was released when assassins creed had already fell into the nowadays stealth mechanics, but by being so out of the box, Chronicles delivered an example of stealth focused game

the genre just needs a banger, and other studios will follow like bees, because they all work like a hive with no vision

I don’t know why ur vids aren’t getting as much views rn, keep making them, you’re awesome!

Perfectly stated. it is a feature now not a genre. wow perfectly stated.

A short one. My stealth poison was Dishonored, great game. I see especial potential in coop stealth and "social stealth" Maybe even PvP.

You missed 2 franchises that might not spring to mind as stealth, Sniper Ghost Warrior the 2 contracts and 3 to a certain extent, and the Sniper Elite game in general and in particular 4 and 5 can be played without killing anyone but the specific target, My first playthru was on the realistic setting and nothing but pistols and knives and as little killing as possible. You can still play that way, in games but they are not always marketed like that. One thing I have always wished for is non lethal takedowns, that way if they get found an alert sounds and the things that should happen. That is something I'd like to see, like a officer doing rounds notices a soldier missing and he calls in people to search they find the body and revive him and ask what happened, then the entire area is after you for the rest of the map.

If you want to make yourself Mr Stealth RU-vidr(which I think is a good idea, as it doesn't seem very saturated). I think a great video that could get a lot of attention is reviewing what made Thief Gold one of the greatest stealth games of all time. Not my words - Yahtzee Croshaw, who has really only had good things to say about Thief Gold, Silent Hill 2, and Dark Souls.

Well, the mecha space combar genre is making a comeback with armored core 6 so I think you are onto something with the last point.

The two “A Plague Tale” games are great stealth games. They contextualize the need for stealth in a way many other games dont by making you play as a teenage girl up against trained soldiers. You will most likely die if you fight them straight on.

The reality is that this and many other niche genres have been mixed together in the new hodge podge typical Open World AAA title.

I like the style of the video and the calm voice. Keep it up and nice tastes!

Hoping for a new video soon, your narration and script really felt like some of the most well done in the space. Also, surely is hard thanks to the algorithm, but I would love more videos about other games like with Armored Core or Tsushima (Especially Armored Core to know how 6 ranks for you)

great video!!! i'm mostly familiar with triple a games and the homogenized stealth but i think a huge part of what makes stealth systems in these games so weak is the lack of a challenging detection system. uncharted 4 actually challenged me with its stealth and i normally avoid stealth due to time constraints and boredom. we need better level design and good detection systems for better stealth in our big games.

Love your channel! Great script and narration, and i really respect your criterion on this topics. I've been watching several of your videos. Hitman and AC were games of my chilhood and adolescence, and now the Stealth Genre is my favourite, along with Immersive Sims.

The most interesting fusion of action and stealth could have been the original concept for Splinter Cell Conviction. It was supposed to combine social stealth with third person shooting and a cool melee system where you could use objects in the environment like chairs, etc. Look it up, there's footage of it. It was like a Jason Bourne game where you had to evade police, create diversions in the open, hide in the crowds. Then they cut it all and made a Gears of War game with stealth elements and a little bit of AC-like parkour.

"Games that once would have been linear action games now let you customise character builds down to the stat percentage" and that is mostly a bad thing, diluting design so you get watery semi-stealth or whatnot.

I desperately want another Splinter Cell game 😢

I always wanted to see an expansion on the multiplayer concept from Batman Arkham Origins. The idea of Two teams with guns attacking each other (either TDM style or with some kind of objective) with a third team using stealth to take out everyone else…. To me the gameplay possibilities there are very exciting. Plus in that mode you could play as the bosses which were Batman villains which just made everything even more hype. Imagine a Metal Gear/ military shooter inspired hybrid with maybe even a dynamic territory system like helldivers…. (Same way that you are fighting for planets in galactic conquest you could instead have warehouses or bases in a region that different factions each try to take over to gain territory) To me that would make for a pretty hard to pass up AAA multiplayer experience. People who want to focus on running and gunning could have a progression system similar to older call of duty games while the players that love stealth could have a dedicated stealth system completely different from the rest of the game so as not to feel like just a mechanic. Kinda a crazy vision but I could see it selling like crazy if it was done right.

Yeah, would be nice to hear about other stealth games for a change. I really like Styx: Master of Shadows where not being seen pretty much equals staying alive. And Mark of the Ninja is one of my favourite games. AC series' importance for the stealth genre is overblown and I'm really tired of those games since AC: Odyssey. There was no really good AC game ever produced. All of them have serious flaws here and there.

Hey Jay, I’d love to see you discuss how Assassin’s Creed games portray/utilize history within their settings. I feel like these games frequently oscillate between Disney theme park rides and “serious” historical reconstructions, but (more than that) I find the franchise’s mentality, “history is our playground,” to be something worthy of unpacking by way of its varying implementation across the franchise. I deeply admire your writing, and I would be interested to hear your thoughts on this subject.

I think A Plague Tale Innocence is one of the games that did it for me. It's highly stealth-focused, has linear levels and it's mechanics don't feel like most game mechanics. I played it with immersive HUD on, and had a really fun time figuring out the levels like I did playing Splinter Cell games back then.

Big fan, live the content. As soon as you said they didn't know how to market stealth I just knew the Blacklist trailers would come into play. They did try though, making two gameplay trailers showing stealth and action. I reckon it was a compromise with marketing since the devs put the effort. However the action trailer turned off so much of the audience that it invariably hurt the sales

Stealth games took a massive hit when open world games became popular. Far cry 3 really kick started the ubisoft open world formula every game uses, at the time the stealth was interesting since it was fitting for the setting and prepared the player with the skills to fight outside of stealth. Now almost every open world game is just rebranded far cry

alright so I'm no game designer, but I'm going to throw out some wild opinions with very few qualifications, as if I know what I'm talking about Stealth isn't (or shouldn't be) "about" crouching, hiding in tall grass, and waiting out patrol routes. Stealth isn't something the player does. It's an interaction they have. Just like in DnD, the stealth check is meaningless without the perception check to contest it. Stealth isn't about hiding. It is (or should be) about detection. It is (or should be) about engagement. Then on top of that (what a lot of games in almost all genres fail to realize), is that games need fun movement. Consider how sword play has evolved in Elden Ring since Skyrim, but how little their stealth has advanced in comparison. I think putting more emphasis and design and systems in "detection and engagement" will be what makes stealth better. There needs to be tool kits. More advanced forms of "throw pebble" and "smoke grenade", and less "safe patch of grass" and "wait behind this corner". More "pick up and hide the body" and less "I'll find whoever did this.... must have been the wind". More trap setting. More aerial maneuvers. More climbing up walls, hanging from ceilings, dropping on people, or even multiple viable strategies to ghost the level. Anyway I'm not an aficionado but those are some thoughts

This has happened to all my favorite genres and even other genres ive been interested in. Aaa industry has homogenized them. Now the only options are old greats (im late to the party on those) and indies that get the gameplay right but sometimes miss the polish of the old greats. Now i just struggle with finding out which are the best of the greats of the genres that i need to play.

I'm putting all my hype on the games of the last five years on the assassin's creed red project. The creator of chaos theory in the director's chair, a completely new nextgen engine with a redesigned movement system, especially the ability to crawl like in TLOU-2

Great video

I actually kind of like tailing missions in the AC games.

I’ve actually just restarted Days Gone on hard and I’ve been relying a lot more on the crossbow, rock, and other stealth tools and tactics. It’s thrilling as heck!!

I definitely agree that stealth is more of a mechanic. Even with AC games recently, stealth seems to have taken a backseat to open combat.

The greatest stealth game is in its prime right now. Forget about single player games with braindead AI, Hunt : Showdown tests your sneakiness against other players. The greatest audio design of any game.

Any ideas how to market a stealth garden as that's likely one of the core problems?

im still confused why haven't got a new Predator stealth Action genre game.

Stealth was/is my favorite genre in gaming and I can't wait for its inevitable resurgence!

i just wanna be a sneaky guy, with a sneaky moveset. i really hate how stealth in modern games is just crouch and throw a distraction. imagine a game with the social stealth of hitman, the speed of classic assassins creed, and the depth of MGS 5.

it was funny hearing Jade Raymond justifying the more actiony elements in Splinter Cell as an attempt to sell Assassin Creed numbers only for Blacklist to not only sell far less than expected, it ended up selling less than the first entry.

as of today, Helldivers 2 has confirmed Stealth Mechanics to be implemented in the future. so the genre isn't dead, it is just niche now.

Stealth is my favourite genre. I wish we’d get more games like Dishonored and Metal Gear Solid V. Or better yet, more games in this series.

I'm three months late, but if you were to make a stealth game, what would the core mechanics/gameplay look like? I missed out on this golden age and wonder how you would innovate a game like one of the ones you're waiting for.

I love stealth games, still playing the first 3 Thief and the first 3 Splinter Cell games. And the 2000 Deus Ex. Mimimi gave us 3 stealth games before closing down and that's exactly why it did close down. They made their games 2000% stealth. There is no other way to get through them. No choice. Desperados 2 was a masterpiece. You can play in bird's eye view OR switch to 3rd person shooter, according to the needs of each mission.

I think online gaming is what killed a lot of the great things we loved in the 90s (if you've been gaming that long.) See how EA, 2K, and Rockstar have shifted all their focus on online gaming and making money off it. Also, Ubisoft making Assassin's Creed less about stealth gaming and more about open world with some stealth starting with Assassin's Creed III has lead to what we're seeing. I know Unity's problems at launch, but it turned out to be one of the last great stealth games once it was patched up. I can't remember anything better since...

Not everything has to be a AAA franchise with a multi-decade long history. There’s plenty of stealth games with varied mechanics. And those indies? They’re often retired/fired game devs that were responsible for your favorite games to begin with.

You keep forgetting Sniper Elite in your stealth videos and it breaks my heart 💔💔💔

My opinion: most of the stealth games are b-tier games, which isn't a bad thing. Whole stealth experience is based on the clever game design and map layout. Which goes against of modern approach of just throwing money at games until they look the best. Those kinds of games need a dedicated game-designer and a lot of testing, but also some fresh ideas. In this creatively bankrupt industry it is really unlikely.

Even games that have stealth make the characters too overpowered for it have any meaning...Deus ex human revolution did it really well

i would die for a new splinter cell. I loved blacklist and it might have been the only splinter cell game i ever played but i just loved the setting and style of the game and got so many fond memories of both the single and multiplayer that i probably would be one of the first people to buy a new splinter cell just to relieve some of that nostalgia i have considering this game

One minor thing to note is that Dishonored isn't exactly dead, and I very much doubt Arkane and Bethesda are willing to abandon the IP. The Kaldwin saga ended with Death of The Outsider, and the devs mentioned the series is on a break. We'll probably see a new Dishonored in a few years, maybe after the Blade game is released.

The only game that I felt was a really good stealth game recently was the last of us part 2. It’s strange to me that people don’t regard that game as a stealth game cause its majority stealth and it has some really cool in depth mechanics that made it feel really unique to me. The only thing I really didn’t like is the forced detective vision that every game must have nowadays. If you use it often it makes stealth really tedious and takes out any unpredictability which I feel is where the game excels

2025 - 26 will be a huge revival for stealth games. MGS Delta and Master Collection 2 will come out (which is even more more important than Master Collection 1 because it will finally free MGS4 from the PS3 jail which means an absurd amount of people will experience it for the first time), and we'll get a glance at Kojima's new stealth IP. Other companies will look at the chance and make their own stuff to get a piece of the pie while it's still fresh.

Can someone tell me what game is being showed at approx 7:31

I wonder if Blacklist would've done better if it wasn't relegated to the older generation. Black Flag did really well, like you said, but it was also on 2 different generations of hardware. If you compare Blacklist to Assassin's Creed Rogue, which was also only available on PS360 (until the remaster), you see it doing comparable numbers.

Still waiting for a true successor to Dishonored and Deus Ex

We are getting Physint, an MGS3 remake (plus more MGS rereleases), and a Splinter Cell remake so I think it might be slowly returning as a genre.

you need to look at Hunt Showdown. PvPvE FPS with a very systemic stealth system. Definitively hardcore and difficult to learn, but totally worth it. Been playing it as my main game since 2018 or so. Oh and the game has the best audio system ever. Truly amazing with headphones.

WOW blacklist sold 2 million copies between the 360, ps3, wiiu, AND PC? No way. That number HAS to be undercounted. 2 million copies in how many years?

Little sad the Styx games never got a mention in this vid. Two games that where really punching up. The second one even let you play the whole thing in co-op

It's not that Companies doesn't know how to sell Stealth games, It's just that they don't care and are too lazy about it. It's kinda simple really, There aren't enough AAA Stealth games purely because it's a niche genre that doesn't make enough money. and corporate AAA companies ALWAYS prioritize trend,money,sales and profit over creativity and original ideas which is why we're getting more indie games focused primarly on steath where as in AAA games it's just another generic feature. Even Hitman despite being the only of the few modern AAA Stealth game plagued with so many issues. Here's hoping Kojima's stealth espionage focused game is solid and since there is no stupid Konami tearing his ear drums..I feel like it's gonna be interesting

The Commandos-clones are also a genre of stealth games that are eeking along on life support.

They got absorbed by the third person open world action rpgs as a mecha- holy shit that's exactly what you were going to say

Depends on when the Snake Eater remake comes out. That will decide quite a bit in the popular culture

great immersive sims are still coming out, but yes it seems like stealth is relegated to a mechanic than a genre now

4:29 so anoying and true

As of late its started to become an option tho. Not just an option for the sake of one, a very good option. my easiest examples from recent times woul be last of us, days gone and metro exodus, and ghost of tsushima

And another banger

7:30 name of the game?

I mean just look at some of the videos put out by Stealth game BR, Volound or Clockner where they play Dishonored. This is how you SELL a stealth game.

not that i played it but isn't that game is THOU2? 7:44

Personally, I just want to play a third person spy game as a hot lady in a catsuit with an intriguing story. Sadly,stealth games with female protagonists are locked behind the PS2/1 era and the closest thing today are resident evil 4 remake dlc,re2R/6 ada section, cyberpunk 2077 phantom liberty, and mass effect 2 (kind of)

Does Sniper Elite count as a stealth game? That was the game that got me into the genre.

If I take a shot every time Jay shits on AC, I'm gonna die poisoning lmao I'm looking forward to Commandos Origins. Just replaying Commandos 2 and still as fun and beginner friendly to the stealth genre

I've been browsing Steam occasionally for interesting stealth games. So far, the good ones I'm seeing are from indie devs.

It looks like it man 1) No new splinter cell in OVER a decade and I bought blacklist day one(its my 2nd favorite in the splinter cell franchise 2) Theif is hiding at this point 3) Deus ex got bought my embracer group and installment got shut down 4) Dishonored-I believe another one is being made Arkane AUSTIN 5) Sly cooper died with theives in time 6) Metal gear-remake is coming, will it be good? We shall see. Only stealth game I can think of is Hitman. If their are others please post it.

Kojima is making a new one

out now : cruelty squad, gloomwood, aragami 2, metro exodus, deus ex manking divided, the chameleon, dishonored 2, echo, filcher, hitman reboot, no sun to worship, oddworld soulstorm, shadow tactics, sekiro, sniper elite 5, styx shards of darkness, system shock remake, weird west, ghost recon wildlands. generation zero upcoming : mgs delta, deep state, samurai unicorn, peripeteia you want more stealth ? support it then, most of those games didn't sell that well

The genre is alive in the indie space but outside of that i'd say its more or less disapeared as a genre.

Agent product tattoo

This is why I think stealth has become a feature: perfect stealth the way the leaders MGS and Splinter Cell did it is boring. You ghost your way to an objective and never interact with enemies. You ignore the wonderful alert system that MGS has built that has multiple ways to interact. You don't use most of the arsenal provided to you and if the game has great combat you ignore that. Why not just let it be a feature at this point? Infiltration stealth played perfectly is not marketable in today's audience so most games instead do the stealth around until you get detected then it's party time where the combat may or may not be great. This is why Arkham's predator mode succeeds. Enemies have guns and you don't making head on fighting impossible but the objective is still to take them out. Hitman on the other hand succeeds by brute forcing quality. Implementing several ways to kill targets. Designing maps with multiple pathways and difficult vantage points. You can't sell 6 levels as a AAA game and tell players to replay them again in 2024. As much as it's about disguises it does share the MGS or Thief lineage games of infiltration, when playing suit only it actually does work fairly well for most maps. It does have one advantage in that the objective isn't go here but instead kill these guys which allows for more creativity.

Sniper elite

I'm glad that you're not worried, I'd like to share your sentiment but... I really don't know. The way that most gamers behave today, how they approach games in general, makes me think that stealth games will never return to their prime.

Assassin's Creed is not a stealth game series.

Just finished Thief 2: Metal Age and stealth fell out of fashion because the genre peaked 20 years ago.

Last of us 2 is an incredible stealth game