English Project
11th grade

Video Games of the stealth genre

Submitted by: Ron Dolev
June 2014



Table of contents:
Table of Contents

What is stealth?	3
What are stealth games?	3
History of stealth games:	6
Reflection	9
Bibliography	10




What is stealth?
Stealth refers to the idea of remaining hidden while performing reconnaissance, spying, gathering information in a covert way, or simply moving from area to area without being noticed. It is used in a multitude of areas, including military tactics (camouflage), vehicles (Stealth bombers) and weaponry (silenced guns).
What are stealth games?
 Stealth games are video games that use stealth as a main gameplay mechanic.
 These games typically share common elements:
1.	Some way to not get detected by enemies, such as shadows (in the game "Thief ") line of sight (in "Dishonored") and others.
2.	The ability to avoid enemies, rather than engage them, often by gathering information about their abilities and patrols, and then moving in a path that allows you to never encounter them or sneaking right by them in the right time.
3.	Choice, most stealth games don't consider it a loss being detected, and often provide multiple ways to deal with a situation, they also allow both lethal and non-lethal ways to take out enemies.
4.	A form of "superiority", something that makes the player more powerful than his enemies, expressed in some games through gadgets, such as arrows that turn off lights ("Thief"), or supernatural powers, such as a short range teleport ("Dishonored"). These abilities allow players to gain the upper hand, but often aren't absolutely necessary, and higher levels of difficulty weaken them or disable them completely.
In the picture:  The power wheel, from Dishonored, showing the variety of powers and gadgets.

5.	Advanced A.I., that lets enemies remember where the player was last seen or hear him move if he is not quiet enough, on higher difficulties, the enemies grow smarter, their range and cone of vision grows, the placement or patrol of the enemies might become harder, and more complex, and entirely different enemies may be introduced.

Specific variations on the genre:
•	Splinter Cell: Splinter Cell (based on a novel by Tom Clancy) first came out in 2002. Later down the series it introduced the "Spies Vs. Mercs" multiplayer mode, in which a team of spies, with abilities similar to the game's main character, that views the world in a third person perspective where the camera is positioned behind the playable character, tries to capture computers in the area, while a rival group of mercenaries, who view the world from first person's point of view, and are more similar to the typical "First person Shooter" type of game defends the computers.
Splinter Cell was a huge success, and won IGN's "Best Overall Game of the Year" Award. Games from the Splinter Cell series still continue to come out today, with the last one released being Splinter Cell: Blacklist.
•	Mark of the Ninja: Mark of the ninja came out in 2011 and was a 2D side-scrolling stealth game with Emphasis on information, everything the player could have possibly known at a certain time was visually represented, for example, a thrown noise maker would display the radius in which it would be heard, and the footsteps of a guard would show a silhouette of him.
A snippet from Mark of the Ninja, showing the player (top middle) during jump throwing a noise maker at the ground . Note the radius (white circle) of sound and the guard's line of sight (the white fading cones). Also note how the bottom guard will hear the noise (shown by the arcs near his head) while the top guard will not.

History of stealth games:
The First stealth games
005 an arcade game released by Sega in 1981 is considered by many to be the very first stealth game. The player is tasked with delivering documents to a helicopter over 4 "scenes" while avoiding enemies, dodging flashlights, and hiding behind boxes

 Castle Wolfenstein, released in the same year, included the ability to wear disguises to walk by enemies, that was improved by its sequel, Beyond Castle Wolfenstein, letting the player perform close ranged melee kills. However, Wolfenstein 3D, didn't use the system in favor of more fast paced, action-focused gameplay, which led to another genre, the "First Person Shooter" in which Wolfenstein 3D is considered one of the first games. The latest game in the Wolfenstein series is Wolfenstein: The New Order which came out in 2014. It features a few elements of the stealth genre, but is mostly action based.

Metal Gear and the rise of the 3D era
Up until 1987, stealth was seen as small mechanic, but there weren't any full-fledged games which focused on it in an advanced way, not until Metal Gear (1987) was released, and featured Stealth as a core mechanic. The player character, "Solid Snake", started the game with no ability to engage enemies whatsoever, and had to avoid them until finding weapons . Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake heavily improved on those mechanics, added the ability to duck and use air vents, and improved the A.I. of the enemies: they had a 45 degree cone of vision, and could turn their heads left and right.
1998 is seen as a hugely important year for the stealth genre, when the first 3D stealth games were released. Metal gear Solid  and Thief: the Dark Project were both released, the former was a continuation of the Metal Gear series mentioned above, whereas the latter was a brand new series. Both series are considered among the most important games in the stealth genre, and invented concepts that are still widely used today.
Thief used a system of light and dark, from a first person perspective and featured a very heavy emphasis on stealth and evasion rather than confrontation, and the playable character, Garett, had limited combat skill and little resistance to damage, which meant the player was forced to take a stealth approach.
Metal Gear Solid featured third person perspective, and while direct combat was possible, fighting several enemies at once meant thar you will have to take heavy damage and most likely die. MGS 2: Sons of liberty, MGS 3: Snake Eater and MGS 4: Guns of the Patriots all improved the stealth aspect significantly, and sold well.
The stealth genre today and the future
By 2002 Stealth became a well established genre, and many games throughout the following decade included it as either a core element or a side aspect, such as Sly Cooper, a stealth platformer or Siren, which combined the survival horror genre with the stealth genre.
The next "Big" stealth game planned to be released is Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain.
Metal Gear Solid 5: the Phantom Pain

Reflection
 I enjoyed writing the project because I love the subject of video games and stealth is my favorite genre. A huge part of the project came from personal knowledge because the subject interests me greatly; I hope to work in the video game industry in the future.
Bibliography
1.	005 from Sega http://web.archive.org/web/20080714052210/http://www.popularplay.com/a/61/005-from-Sega-.php
2.	Computer Gaming World issue 88 (1991) - http://www.cgwmuseum.org/galleries/issues/cgw_88.pdf
3.	The Guinness Book of Records: the first console game to use stealth – Metal Gear - http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/5000/first-console-game-to-use-stealth
4.	The Guinness Book of Records: the first stealth game to use collective A.I. – Metal Gear Solid 2 - http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/5000/first-stealth-game-to-feature-collective-artificial-intelligence
5.	The site for the game series "Metal Gear Solid" http://metalgearsolid.com/
6.	Description of the game Thief on Steam -http://store.steampowered.com/app/211600/
7.	Thief vs. Dishonored: The Stealth Action Showdown - http://www.gamespot.com/articles/thief-vs-dishonored-the-stealth-action-showdown/1100-6417922/