10 Terrible Video Games That Could Be Fixed With One Simple Change
1. Get Rid Of Stealth - Left Alive
Left Alive is one of the most crushingly disappointing games of the last generation - a stealth-actioner sold on the involvement of key Metal Gear Solid artist Yoji Shinkawa.
The marketing suggested a thematic and aesthetic sibling to Kojima's franchise - stealth-driven action with soldiers and mechs. What could possibly go wrong?
Ultimately Left Alive had a ton of issues - namely its generic visuals and litany of bugs - but the absolute game-killer was its poorly implemented stealth gameplay.
Due to wildly inconsistent enemy A.I. and a scarcity of checkpoints, the game's lengthy stealth passages are unfairly challenging to the point of extreme irritation.
Fans kicked up enough of a fuss that developer Ilinx even patched in a Casual difficulty to allow players to (mostly) shoot their way out of tough engagements, but this was really just putting a band-aid on a gaping wound. The stealth component was fundamentally rancid and malformed.
Rather than try to ape the brilliantly engineered stealth gameplay of Metal Gear Solid, Left Alive clearly should've stripped the stealth out entirely and just been a third-person shooter. That way it absolutely would've been worth buying on a deep sale for some undemanding thrills.
As it stands, the stealth adds nothing to the experience because it's either painfully boring or excessively difficult - if not both.