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Revolution of Stealth Games
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| Raptor | Date: Wednesday, 2012-09-12, 17:39 | Message # 1 |
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| (This discussion started in the Splinter Cell Thread, but it's off topic there.)
Talking about stealth games one can't miss the Thief series, since this was the first first-person game based on stealth ever back in 1998.
The pure idea to integrate stealth elements in a shooter comes from this game, created by Ion Storm. That, my friend, is a revolution.
Sneaking in the shadows, avoiding sounds to stay undetected..both essential because a fight can easily end up deadly for your character. Switching out lights silently? Sure, just with a water-arrow instead of EMP gun. And yes: the AI reacts if they see light going off.
And back in times a game was released when it was finished, and not when the publisher wanted to make money. There was no way to distribute patches and bugfixes, which take the same diskspace as the (unplayable) release version of the game.
But most important: the atmosphere.
While playing thief you ban every unnecessary light out of your room, just one low light to see your keyboard. And then you sneak through Castles, Dungeons, Cities, Banks (yes, there was a bank) past human guards, gigant spinders, ugly CCTV cams, mechanic guards, ghost, monsters, zombies...
When your parents or anyone else opens the door to your room...you jump 2 meters of your chair, pulling your keyboard and mouse with you while you fall to the ground. That, my friend, is a stealth game 
You are searching a basement looking for a treasur...but instead you find the ugliest monster you have ever seen..
You are searching an old mine to find an entrance to a prison. Suddenly you see a skeleton..sitting on a chair. As you come closer you realize that the skeleton is shaking his head. And then suddenly, without any warning, the head starts to move towards you like a cannon ball...if you are fast enough you see the head exploding behind you. One of the most freaking moments in my gamer history 
Forget about hours of video sequences...all it takes are 30 seconds and the voice of the ghost of a dead young girl... shaking every bone in your body and you'll sleep with lights on for the next 2 weeks.
And the zombies...
Dumb, slow and loud like a tank...but also as resistant as a tank and enough of them to form up a whole army... imagine L4D, but without any effective weapon.
I remember an old Cathedral full of zombies... once detected you start to run like hell, barricading the doors behind you and praying: oh god, let the next room be empty pls. But ofc it isn't...and as you come closer to the top of the tower, you heart frequency comes closer to dangerous values... and all this ages before L4D...
And at the end of the game you fight the devil himself, that's an epic final
Another great game created by Ion Storm is Deus Ex, published in 2000.
Similar qualitiy and atmosphere as Thief, but with one of the best background stories ever seen in a game. This game is just like a good book: you must keep on reading the whole night until you can't keep your eyes open. But you don't keep on playing because of addiction-item-gathering techinque like used by WoW, you just keep on playing because you need to know how the story continues. And that works without tons of video sequences.
Player choices that affect the enviroment and the story? Multiple finals? All present here.
If you ask me: most modern games lost this magic. They are create to make money, not for the pure gaming experince. 90% simply fail because they are released to early. And among the rest there are only a few which can drag you in another world for hours and don't let you go until you finished the game. GTA and Portal are modern examples.
Anyway back to the original topic: Splinter Cell.
What exactly is the revolution in Splinter Cell?
Stealth? See Thief 4 years earlier.
Tons of gadgets? See Deus Ex 2 years earlier.
Agent-theme FPS in our days? See Project IGI 2 year earlier.
The only really new, brilliant thing is the special kind of multiplayer (Coop and Versus modes), and that's it. So imho Splinter Cell is a good game, but not more. You can call it "icon of stealth games" if you want to, but just because there is (almost) no other modern stealth game (remindes me that I should get the newest parts of Thief and Deus Ex...).
"Teamwork is essential, it gives them someone else to shoot at."
Murphy's Laws of Combat #9
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| Reiben | Date: Wednesday, 2012-09-12, 21:03 | Message # 2 |
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| What splinter cell brings to infiltration games is large kind of mouvement that Sam fischer can do.But for the rest he didn't bring more, but with Splinter cell you got a real spying and pretty realistic scenario in the modern world who could be seen in a book (thanks Tom Clancy), you got also nice graphics and motion capture for Sam Fischer but it's ordinary because the first game came out in 2003 way after the games listed above by Raptor. I think the real thing they succeed to do for splinter cell is to bring back a lot of people to this kind of game (infiltration game) while almost everybody was playing/creating WW2 FPS.
But i think the game who really "create" the modern infiltration game era was without contest Metal Gear Solid on the PS1. What a great game.
To sum up in my opinion SC brings few news features for this kind of games and they do a really good games (at least chaos theory, i never play the others) but they don't really invented something new.
Nimquam Retro
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| ShadowManu | Date: Wednesday, 2012-09-12, 22:35 | Message # 3 |
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| Quote (Reiben) But i think the game who really "create" the modern infiltration game era was without contest Metal Gear Solid on the PS1. What a great game.
I was damn waiting for any of you to speak about this DIAMOND PIECE OF ART... Long Live to Snakes! (and if you don't feel like it, taste *THIS!* BIG SNAKE! xD)... I did played this game like a year ago, and also the MGS2, and the MGS4 2 weeks ago ;).
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| Reiben | Date: Thursday, 2012-09-13, 09:39 | Message # 4 |
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| No way you can forget MGS when you talk about infiltration games. The best character for me was the Ninja, he was so cool. I only play the one on PS1, the last games are good as the first one ?
Nimquam Retro
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| Luis | Date: Thursday, 2012-09-13, 11:06 | Message # 5 |
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| Quote (Raptor) Talking about stealth games one can't miss the Thief series
I will give you that one the Thief series are great but it doesent Reach Splinter Cell´s greatness. It was a nice game for the year that was released. But now, It can not compete with splinter Cell.
Talking about MGS.... Also a nice game but then again not as good as Thief and/or Splinter Cell. I saw a video where ´´Snake`` Pulls out a box and hides inside it. And just moves around inside the box #wtf.
About DeusX I played one of them. Doesent seem that realy interest and it doesent look like a stealth game.(DeusX doesent have any buisiness with stealth)
The way I see it
Splinter Cell (Stealth Revolutionary)
Thief (Good for the year that was released)
MSG (Could be better)
Message edited by KingLuis123 - Thursday, 2012-09-13, 11:07 |
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| Raptor | Date: Thursday, 2012-09-13, 12:58 | Message # 6 |
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| Quote (KingLuis123) Splinter Cell (Stealth Revolutionary)
"Revolutionary" means for me "to create a complete new (sub)genre of games or a feature, that is so brilliant, that every later game of the (sub)genre copies it". So same question as before: What is the revolution in Splinter Cell?
Btw: I was talking about the very first Deus Ex, and that one has as many stealth elements as Splinter Cell Conviction, actually even more.
"Teamwork is essential, it gives them someone else to shoot at."
Murphy's Laws of Combat #9
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| ShadowManu | Date: Thursday, 2012-09-13, 20:23 | Message # 7 |
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| Quote (Raptor) Btw: I was talking about the very first Deus Ex, and that one has as many stealth elements as Splinter Cell Conviction, actually even more.
It is not fair to compare any Sthealth to Conviction... Simply because it does not represent the core stealth element of the first 3 (1, Pandora and Chaos).
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| Luis | Date: Friday, 2012-09-14, 11:46 | Message # 8 |
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| Simply because it does not represent the core stealth element of the first 3 (1, Pandora and Chaos).
Just because you can choose between going loud or going stealth doesent mean the game isnt stealth. The game is made so you can have the option to do so.
Like you have 3 tangos up ahead, you can eaither decide to pull out your shotgun and shoot their brains out or you can be pacient and wait for them to disperse to get them 1 by 1.Added (14/09/2012, 11:46 AM)
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@Raptor Splinter Cell is revolutionary to the stealth world because it gives you new stuff that the other games didnt. As the Sonar. The Options that they give you in game(loud or stealth) The new gadgets. New graphics. And so on... I could yap about splinter cell all day long. But that´s just my opinion. I am not trying to convince you otherwise but I am just giving my opinion. You think its a revolucionary game(good). you dont think it is(no problem).
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| Raptor | Date: Friday, 2012-09-14, 16:12 | Message # 9 |
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| Quote (KingLuis123) Splinter Cell is revolutionary to the stealth world because it gives you new stuff that the other games didnt.
Quote (Raptor) "Revolutionary" means for me "to create a complete new (sub)genre of games or a feature, that is so brilliant, that every later game of the (sub)genre copies it".
Quote (KingLuis123) As the Sonar.
The idea to see through walls is nothing new mate.
Quote (KingLuis123) The Options that they give you in game(loud or stealth)
Deus Ex gives you the same choice, and it influences your evaluation/reward and even the story at some points.
Quote (KingLuis123) The new gadgets.
Which one exactly?
Quote (KingLuis123) New graphics.
It's normal that modern games use modern and therefore better graphics.
I agree that Splinter Cell is a good game with some really nice features, but it didn't invented the wheel...
"Teamwork is essential, it gives them someone else to shoot at."
Murphy's Laws of Combat #9
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| Luis | Date: Friday, 2012-09-14, 17:31 | Message # 10 |
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| With revolutionary I dont mean it necessarely created a new gender. I mean that it made it better, improved it. I guess we just have a diferent definition of revolutionary.
Quote (Raptor) Which one exactly?
Portable EMP, EMP Grenades, Sticky camera, Remote mines, proximity mines.
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