STEALTH GAMES NEED TO REMEMBER THAT TOO MANY TOOLS CAN OFFER DIMINISHING RETURNS.
Throwing in XP and powerful abilities can sometimes detract from engaging play
Detective modes encapsulate a lot of the problems with overpowered stealth game mechanics. Don’t get me wrong, they’re ingenious, and I love fighting skeletons in the Batman Arkham games. But it can really detract from a game when most of the time there’s some sort of weird filter over the screen to indicate where enemies are and provide extra information.
In stealth games in particular I need to feel like I actually pulled off something difficult if I’m to get any sense of achievement or believe in my character’s coolness. Ghosting through a complex with nobody spotting me feels great, but in a lot of recent stealthy games you can just chip away, one enemy at a time, clearing out every threat piece by piece, and then calmly walk through. These days it’s not even that hard to do. Kassandra in Assassin’s Creed Odyssey can easily slice her way to victory, and Big Boss can balloon every enemy out of the map. What’s worse is, like it or not, this is often the best way to do it in terms of experience points and equipment. Engaging directly with the sneakier elements isn’t just harder, it’s more often than not discouraged in the broader context of a game’s bigger systems.
SILENT TREATMENT
It feels like a lot of big releases could do with remembering that sometimes less can be more. Sure, big, powerful attacks can make you feel good even in a stealth game, but they have less meaning when I can simply crouch in a bush until my ‘kill everyone in one go’ attack meter passively regenerates. The same applies to X-ray vision; there’s rarely any disadvantage to spamming this until you know exactly where every single enemy in a level is.
Being sneaky and skilful can be its own reward, and by leaning too far in the other direction developers really take the bite out of engaging gameplay, creating a repetitive loop where players just zone out rather than feel properly challenged. It’s a tough balance, but dedicated stealth games used to hit it the best… and still have the capacity to reach those satisfying heights again.