About stealth games (podcast about old and not so games)

    The stealth games genre formed in the late 90s and made it clear that not all action games are dedicated to run'n'gun gameplay, and not all shooters are exclusively shootings. Warren Spector, a well-known developer and author of Deus Ex, System Shock and Ultima Underworld, christened his brainchild, Thief, as a “thinking man shooter,” that is, a “thinking person shooter”. And the truth is that what was elevated to the canon, within the framework of the stealth genre, was plunged into the abyss: the hero is no longer a special Penza soldier, but a completely vulnerable person who cannot afford to clean a room full of kakodemonami; instead of an arsenal of weapons to suppress a threat by force, an arsenal of devices and gadgets to circumvent this threat; instead of homing cannon fodder - opponents with some kind of intelligence.



    All this gap in patterns could scare away unprepared players, as is often the case in our industry, but the opposite happened - a stunning success with millions of sales, and then sequels, rip-offs, and varying degrees of success in trying to introduce stealth mechanics into their games. Today, Deus Ex, Splinter Cell and Assassin's Creed are well-known blockbusters for which publishers spare no money and who began their journey using the ideas of the first wave of “silent” actions.

    Another distinguishing feature is that although they are dedicated to covert movement, in most cases no one forces you to sit in the shade, occasionally cutting out the letter Z on the soft spots of gaping enemies - in other words, the non-linearity of gameplay, level design or even the plot are also frequent guests of this genre.

    But where are its origins? Is the collective consciousness of game developers come to the idea at a time? Which representatives of the stealth genre completely erased from the memory of their ancestors? How much and how do they differ from ordinary action games? We tried to discuss these and other issues in a new issue of our program.

    // Virgil & Dimouse


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