10 Irritating Video Game Tropes That Refuse To Die
3. The Stealth Mission (In A Non-Stealth Game)
Ah yes, the obligatory stealth mission, shoehorned into a game's midsection because its developer has run dry with ideas on how to provide variety.
As Sam Fisher, Snake, Corvo and many, many other stubble-faced sleuths can prove, the stealth genre, when it represents the core gameplay, is alive and kicking. When it's associated motifs are cut and pasted onto the framework of one never intended to accommodate its nuances? Well, that's when players and creators start falling out.
But yet, the insistence persists. As recently as Final Fantasy XV, Square forced the lackadaisical Noctis into skulking around a Niflheim compound, despite him having the ability to conjure giant swords and mystical beings out of thin air. Mercurysteam fell into the same trap with Lords of Shadow 2, forcing upon the player jarring stealth sections in a primarily action-adventure affair.
Stealth games work because they tend to have vulnerable, human protagonists that succeed in their missions by avoiding direct confrontation. That's not necessary when you're the lord of vampires or a royal heir that commands the will of mountain-sized aeons.