Overlooked Stealth Games

As I secretly sneak into your room, with my knife on my hand, mask on my face, I throw this list on your table without you noticing I was even there. Just kidding, come take a look at 7 overlooked stealth games that deserve more love.

1-Aragami

This is one of the best modern indie games that seems to have taken a lot of inspiration from the likes of Tenchu, Red Ninja, and Shinobido. Aragami, in my opinion, acts as a love letter to those who are yearning for a Tenchu revival anytime soon and despite its annoying issues every now and then, Aragami remains a worth digging piece of art for its vibrant and artistic world.

The plot of the game puts you in the shoes of an Aragami as he is summoned into existence one night by a girl who identifies herself as a captive of the Kaiho, an army of light adepts. She pleads him to stop the Kaiho who use the power of light to their advantage. To break their plans, Aragami and the girl will team up together in order to defeat the army of light and restore the land to its former glory.

In Aragami, shadows are your strength and the light is your enemy. You play as a ninja with supernatural abilities who can teleport from corner to corner, summon a different kind of shadow creatures, and so on. Note that Aragami can’t face off enemies directly as the Kaiho possess the ability to annihilate him pretty easily.

2-The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena (TCoR:AoDA)

Few film-based games manage to rise to the top, and luckily, this is one of them. TCoR:AoDA borrowed what made the movie a must-watch and implemented a different set of ideas that blew both – classic FPS fans and those who enjoy modern first-person shooters away.

The game continues from where Butcher Bay left off. Riddick has escaped the place, but shortly after, his ship gets captured. This leads to infiltrating Dark Athena, a gigantic mercenary vessel run by Gale Revas. Riddick will have to survive and try not to get captured as he plunges deep into the enemy hideout while also uncovering the dark secrets of Gale Revas and his ship.

The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena is still a mind-blowing piece of art. The lighting, the visuals, the animation, all of these are well-done and can still look pretty impressive to this day using a high-end computer. Gameplay-wise, the game incorporates a mixture of fighting, stealth, and gun-play mechanics. Some enemies are tougher to take on using your own bare hands. That is where stealth comes in, as you use the pitch-black corners to your advantage while relying upon eyeshine ability to assassinate your enemies in the dark.

Thankfully, The game includes the prequel (Butcher Bay) which is a neat addition. This will allow players to dive back into the predecessor without having to buy it as a standalone.

3-Thief 3: Deadly Shadows

After the horrible flop that was the Thief (2014) reboot, I decided to take a look back at the original Thief: Deadly Shadows. And boy, what can I say, it’s still fun to this very day. 

The game puts you, once again, in the shoes of Garret, a master thief. Garret’s main objective is to steal his own way through the city and he will pull out any number of tricks to complete his objectives using stealth, tools, and weapons.

The gameplay is pretty similar to the likes of Dishonored, and The Chronicles of Riddick. Except, Garret cannot defend himself when faced with fierce enemies. That is why stealth is a crucial mechanic in the series. Failing to master the systems will result in nothing but frustrating and countless deaths.

4-Mark of the Ninja

Mark of the Ninja is a 2D side-scrolling action stealth video game that launched on PC back in 2012. After garnering massive recognition by gamers and the media, it went ahead and spawned a remastered version for Xbox One, PC, PS4, and the Switch.

Mark of the Ninja follows the tale of a nameless ninja in our present-day as he fights through the conflict between ancient ninja tradition and modern technology.

What you will find yourself enjoying about the game is the artistic approach. Everything in-game is cartoon-like. It reminds me of Samurai Jack if you ask me. In addition, cutscenes are rendered in a Saturday-morning cartoon animation style which makes the art style stand out of other 2D stealth games.

5-Tom Clancy’s: Splinter Cell: Conviction

You can’t talk about stealth games without mentioning Splinter Cell games. And while the franchise was well-received, in my opinion, Splinter Cell: Conviction remains an overlooked entry in the series that did not get the attention it deserved. Sure this one was heavily action-oriented, but it still managed to retain the core mechanics from the previous game which we dearly fell in love with.

The game once again puts you in the shoes of Sam Fisher three years after the events of Splinter Cell: Double Agent. This time he is on a revenge spree on those who are responsible for the killing of his own daughter.

Splinter Cell: Conviction’s gameplay has improved immensely compared to previous games. The controls are way more responsive and quicker, the finishing moves are first class, inducing a sense of badasser within the players. Yet, when we compare it to previous titles, stealth sequences have become way too easy to even call it a challenge.

6-The Saboteur

In the age of shiny pixel-perfect graphics, who thought that France would look beautiful in black and white? The Saboteur is one of the highly underappreciated games made by Pandemic Studios, known for games like the Mercenaries franchise, and the original Destroy All Humans! Franchise.  The Saboteur was Pandemic Studios’ last game before they were closed down forever by EA.

The Saboteur is set during World War II in German-occupied France and follows the life of Sean Devlin. After the murder of his best friend by the German army, he promises himself that he will single-handedly destroy the Nazis, and kill the person responsible for his death.

The Saboteur is an open world sandbox game similar to other prominent games of the genre. However, what sets The Saboteur apart is its unique world and how it depicts the German occupation in an artistic way. In addition, one of the games’ beautiful aspects is visual trickery. For example, before destroying any german headquarters, you’ll be driving through a black & white city, but the moment you do that, you will notice how the colour vaporizes and colors breathe new life once again into the world of The Saboteur. There’s a lot to do in The Saboteur, and one of them is to sneak your way in, and cause trouble to the Nazis.

7-Second Sight

Finishing our list with Second Sight as it remains one of the most underappreciated games along with Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy, both sharing the same feeling and vibe.

Second Sight is a sci-fi action game that puts you in the shoes of American parapsychology researcher John Vattic as he awakens inside an isolation cell of a medical facility in Virginia. Shortly, he discovers that he possesses extraordinary psychic powers. John uses these abilities to break free and explore the facility.

As you explore the facility, you gain new psychic powers that can help you either in combat, avoiding detection or solving puzzles. In addition, the game is divided into different stages, in which the aim is to complete a series of tasks. Each level features a different situation ranging from full-scale combat situations to mandated stealth. Thus, getting used to the psychological powers is a must.

I hope you liked the list, thank you for reading.