Genre Opinion- Stealth

My opinion of the stealth genre is that it can be fun if it is done right. Which goes into my next opinion that stealth games are one of the hardest games to create. The reason for this is due to the AI needing to be more complex than normal AI. From making sure that the player doesn’t feel cheated to making it so the AI isn’t completely stupid. Finding the balance for this genre takes a tremendous amount of time and understanding of the genre.

I feel like a “good game” in this genre is one that has stealth as a reward and not a necessity. This is a situation of making the game not limited to a certain way of play. It makes it so the less patient has a way to win, but they also have a hard time trying to go the way that they want. If the AI was too easy this option would be the true way. If the AI was too good, then the stealth would be harder to play as the main play style. It’s all about finding the balance between these two.

The best example of this genre the Metal Gear Series. Every game in the series is possible to be played with aggression. It will be a lot harder to do so. However, if you take things slowly you are also rewarded. It’s a matter of give and take and choosing which of the two ways you want to play changes the entire experience.

A game that is a good example of being a bad stealth game is Dishonored because at the end of it they focused on making the combat in the game too much. There are far more options for being violent than to be cautious. They made the game too hard to even attempt the game main playstyle.