Alekhine's Gun: The Video Game That Ripped Off Hitman
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery... unless it's terrible.
Sad though it may be, the stealth genre is pretty much non-existent in gaming right now. The age of Splinter Cell, Metal Gear, and Hitman has come and gone, and for fans who are that way inclined, this generation hasn't been a particularly exciting one. The 2016 Hitman reboot, SC: Blacklist and MGS: The Phantom Pain aside, stealth games of genuine quality are hard to find, which has spurred fans and developers alike to try and fill the hole left by their absence.
Alekhine's Gun, Maximum Games' panned 2016 stealth title, is one such game made to fill that void.
A 'spiritual successor' to the iconic IO Interactive franchise, Alekhine's Gun takes its inspiration, design and gameplay squarely from the Hitman series of games, but not to a successful conclusion. It had a great setting, with the title situated during the height of the Cold War, and an interesting premise in depicting the conflict from the perspective of a KGB assassin. What it lacked in abundance, however, was quality, with the game finishing the year as one of 2016's worst reviewed titles.
Buggy, contrived and uninspired, Maximum Games' title amounted to little more than a stale, pale imitation of the IO classic. Worse than that, the game has gone on to gain cult status online, and not for good reasons. The gameplay is so abject, the story so non-existent, that Alekhine has become a meme unto himself, starring in playthroughs comprised of more bugs and glitches than a newly minted Assassin's Creed title.
There's just nothing it does that games ten years its superior haven't already, and with the Hitman reboot still fresh in the minds of gamers everywhere, this is one genetic aberration that has no business in the genre...