What The Hell Happened To The Stealth Genre?!

Stepping Out The Shadows

While it may seem hyperbolic to say that one year was a significant moment for a genre, you only have to consider what came out to justify that. Console gamers (well, PlayStation owners at least) had two different offerings in Tenchu: Stealth Assassins and Metal Gear Solid. The adventures of Ayame and Rikimaru came first, with Solid Snake sneaking up behind not long afterwards.

The PlayStation and Nintendo 64 had ushered in a new age of proper 3D gaming, opening up the scope of what developers could put into their games. Action games and arcade ports were all well and good, but the time for change was needed. Survival horror was already changing our sensibilities over action gaming, bringing in that need for preservation and patience. Stealth was the next logical step, and the two above were the way forward.

On the PC side of things, gamers had Thief: The Dark Project to satiate that sneaking feeling, marking a significant shift in how first person perspective gaming would change. For the most part, PC FPS games were dominated by the likes of DOOM, Quake and just one month prior, Half-Life. Thief took away the imperative to run and gun, preferring to hide in darkness and go unnoticed.

Much like Final Fantasy VII's impact on a Western audience a year prior, it only took a handful of sneakabout titles to open up the gates for more of its ilk to follow. And follow they did.