5 Great (And 5 Not So Great) Stealth Video Games

Sneaking. Lurking. Traversing the shadows. Being one with the darkness.

However you want to phrase it, stealth has more of a fulfilling sense of reward than games that allow you to rack up the damage like a friggin' Terminator. Whether you want to completely ghost a level and have no one know you were there, or pick your enemies apart and put the fear into them, many games allow you to sneak your way through at your own pace.

It may not be for everyone, but when stealth is done right, it makes a game always more fun with the added challenge of not getting caught.

Not all games have grasped stealth as a means to play to the end though. Some stick it in as a mandatory thing in an otherwise un-stealthy game (looking at you, Marvel's Spider-man) that slows the pace down a tad, whilst others just don't get how to implement it properly.

With that in mind, here are ten alternating examples of when stealth does work, and doesn't quite hit the mark. Starting off with a not so great example, here's how not to do it:

Starting this list on a bum note, we have a game that many were looking forward to: a third person stealth adventure set in World War 2.

The concept was great: much like Hitman: Contracts, the story and narrative is played out through a series of flashbacks. Loosely based on the life of Allied agent/saboteur Violette Szabo, the game sees you playing as Violette Summer as she lies comatose in a French hospital.

The execution, however, was a bit of a clunky mess, marred with too many stealth tropes that confused players and gave rise to incredibly sharp AI detection. Trying to utilise both Hitman and Splinter Cell mechanics, with uniforms and light/shadows respectively, it added too much complication in what should have been a straightforward stealth adventure.

It did have one unique mechanic, though. As long as you had a morphine syringe about your person, being spotted granted you a 'Last Stand'-style chance to eliminate that enemy. In theory, it was a get out of jail free card, but slightly redundant if there was more than one enemy.

The inclusion of a clunky experience/levelling system didn't improve much, which ultimately saw Velvet Assassin release to little critical acclaim.