Summary
There are plenty of games that are all about head-on, direct, wild combat, and they can be tons of fun. However, some people get more of a thrill from carefully taking out their threats with finesse, or even bypassing them entirely through their smarts alone. Stealth games are great at this, as the high risk of getting caught is offset by the high reward of pulling off an objective successfully.
It’s since become a common feature in action games, withAssassin’s Creedpulling it off in style, andSekiro: Shadows Die Twicemaking stealth attacks instant kills over the direct approach. Yet some sneak ‘em ups have had a bigger impact on the genre than others, and these influential stealth games have the biggest impact of all.
8Manbiki Shōnen
The First Stealth Game Ever Made
Every journey begins with a single step, but going back to find that first step is tricky. Many sources citeMetal Gearas the first stealth game, but it was beaten to the post by at least three games before its release. The oldest of the bunch isManbiki Shōnen, or “Shoplifting Boy,” from 1979. Released for the Commodore PET, it did what it said in the title.
Players had to steal everything from a store’s shelves without getting caught. The more items they nab, the more points they earn. But if they get caught, they’re put in jail, causing a game over. It’s as simple as its black-and-white numeric graphics. Yet its simplicity was enough to inspire other early stealth games likeLupin IIIand Sega’s owncomic crime simulatorBonanza Bros. Though largely lost, it’s now considered to be the first stealth game, as recounted in John Sczepaniak’s three-volume work,The Untold History of Japanese Game Developers.
7005
Pioneering Stealth In The Arcades
Since 1979’sManbiki Shōnenwas essentially lost for decades, and1980’sLupin IIIwas similarly obscure, others gave the “first stealth game” title to 1981’s005, like the Guinness Book of World Records. Made by Sega for arcades, players had to maneuver their spy around enemy guards, pick up a briefcase of secret documents, and then make their way to a waiting helicopter to escape.
The game would mix up threats with ice hazards and flashlights. But it would give players some help by illustrating the guards’ cone of vision, akin toMetal Gear Solid’s soliton radar, and letting the player hide in boxes. On top of beating Hideo Kojima’s series to those punches, the game is also credited withfeaturing the first hub world in video games, as the player chooses their level by entering one of a set of warehouses.
Ironically, the series most famous for bringing first-person shooters to the forefront started life as a stealth game.Wolfenstein 3D’s developers, id Software, initially planned on making a 3D recreation of this game, including its stealth mechanics. But they eventually decided to take a more action-based approach to simplify things, which would lead toDoom,Duke Nukem 3D,Quake, and more. The originalCastle Wolfensteinfrom 1981 had World War 2 movies likeThe Guns of Navaronein mind.
Imprisoned in the titular castle, the player has to find a way to sneak out of their cell, grab the Nazi’s war plans, then flee to safety. Its gameplay was intricate for the time, featuring procedurally generated levels, holding up foes for items, and impersonating enemy guards to get around obstacles. The latter elements wouldn’t get popularized in the stealth genre until twenty years later withMetal Gear Solid 2andHitman.
Between005andCastle Wolfenstein, it may seem likeMetal Geardidn’t offer much to the table. If it wasn’t the first game to do stealth, or the first to do the cardboard box trick, what did it have? Refinement. It took its predecessors’ steps and put them in a more tightly designed package, letting players know if guards spotted them (“!”), and how to shake them off their tail.
It also brought sound into the mix. Without a suppressor, gunfire is going to attract the enemy’s attention and bring more trouble. The game encourages playing with care, from its promotion mechanics (killing hostages = less max health and ammo) to its more puzzle-based obstacles. It also had a more involved story, as players could get help over the radio, but one of their contactswasn’t who they appeared to be. It offered a mystery that kept players hooked until the end.
Jumping ahead just over a decade or so,Splinter Cellwould become famous as the big stealth alternative to theMetal Gear Solidseries. Though it would eventually get ported to multiple platforms, the first game started as an Xbox exclusive that gave its owners their own taste of sneaking with a dramatic, politically thrilling plot. It even arguably outdid theMGSgames at the time in stealth as well.
For one, it offered a third-person multi-directional camera rather than the old top-down view, giving players a better view of how close they were to their foes. It also made better use of lighting, where players could shoot out lights to make a location darker, making it easier for them to hide in the shadows and slip by.MGS2would do something similar, butSCmade it a key feature that could spell the difference between success and failure.
A lot of classic stealth games can be quite linear, where each location is more like a series of corridors with a different sneaking challenge. Even when open-world games began catching on,MGS,Splinter Cell, and co. would keep their level design straightforward.Hitman: Codename 47would switch things up by placing the player in multiple little sandbox-like levels instead. Kind of.
Being the first game in the series, its mechanics weren’t as refined as its sequels, with some heavy action levels and FPS-like controls. But its structure was in place: players could use any method they could think up to eliminate their target(s). The series used stealth to turn it into a murder-themed puzzle where there were plenty of better solutions, but the only wrong ones were the ones that got the player killed.
WhileMGS,Splinter Cell,Hitman, etc, stand out as some of the premier stealth series going today, they have an underrated counterpart inThief: The Dark Project. Released at the same time asMGS1, it took a first-person approach to stealth, where the player had to complete a list of objectives to pass each mission. They could fight back with a sword, but they were better off unseen and unheard.
The AI was more intricate, as the NPCs would react differently depending on their suspicions (e.g. one knocked-over cup is fine, multiple knocked-over items are a concern). It even threw in some survival horror elements, as the player would have to dodge the odd ghost or monster. But itsobjective-based approachwould inspireHitman’s method to stealth, and possibly evenMGSviaPeace Walkeronward.
So, what getsMetal Gear Solidthe top spot? It’s more linear thanThiefandHitman, its boxes and vision cones were done in005, and its storyline is basically a zanier takeon Tom Clancy’s universe, which includesSplinter Cell. Many of its set pieces were even taken directly from its Japan-only predecessor,Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake, from the elevator ambush to the communication tower run. However, recreating it in 3D gives the sneaking a new dimension.
Tapping on walls could distract guards from their patrol routes. Hiding in crevices and shafts could get the player out of trouble if their pursuers didn’t chuck grenades after them. It refined the series’ gameplay into a smoother, cinematic appearance that made it more popular, sparking a boom in stealth games in the early 2000s. Without it, the likes ofSplinter Cell,Syphon Filter, etc, would either not be around or would be very different experiences.
