8 Reasons Video Games Will Never Be 100% Realistic

5. Stealth Is Too Easy

For fans of stealth games, here's a quick thing to try. If you have a copy of Thief (or Thief 2), load it up and find a level with a good place to hide from enemies (i.e. most places). Make sure you purchase a scouting orb or two before starting the mission. When you're successfully shrouded in shadows, throw a scouting orb a few feet ahead of you, ideally in the path of where a guard is patrolling. Then turn so the orb is facing your character. Can you see yourself through the orb, crouched down in an alley like a waiting bin bag? Good. Now, open up the options screen and reduce the brightness of the game. Reduce it enough so that you can't see Garrett (the protagonist) at all. That right there, is how dark it would need to be in order for you to be able to fully hide from enemies. This is one of the main problems of realism in stealth games. Alongside NPCs that are vigilante and paranoid, there is no way they would approach pitch black areas alone and without a source of light. Admittedly some do, but enemy AI is not usually handed out by the bucketload. Stealth would need to be so intricate and full of skill that the game would be either too difficult to traverse or it would be so slow in terms of progression as to render it dull. Enemies need to remain at least a little bit stupid in order to allow us to suspend disbelief.