Why are ther so many perfectly good stealth games with a final level that has nothing to do with stealth?
Why are ther so many perfectly good stealth games with a final level that has nothing to do with stealth?
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The picture is from Wildfire, which is a perfectly fine stealth game until the final level where it becomes a mediocre action game. But this is just one example. I have experienced it many times before now.
Styx was an amazing stealth game that hammers into your head that you are a little goblin and combat is to be avoided. It ends with a boss battle
I think people find it hard to make a stealth scenario have the sort of rising pitch of intensity and release that players expect an attempt at around an ending. Its not just stealth games, but its less noticable. A lot of games throw in auto scrolling or whatever in an end sequence as a relative rarity elsewhere in the gameplay because being able to just stand around and wait isn’t really the vibe they are going for.
Here’s another question: how do you end a stealth game stealthily and not have it feel boring or underwhelming to the player?
The only game I can think of where you can stealth straight to the end is Deus Ex: Mankind Divided where I accidentally got the “don’t kill anyone” trophy. Even then, it’s boss battles where you’re just picking the non-lethal gun so the gameplay is still “big final boss.”
that happened to mgs too but at least they have an excuse that you’re playing as somebody who has seen combat and can fight
I’m thinking of Sly Cooper
Sly 1: A completely unstealthy gauntlet as you attack Clockwerk’s fortress head on.
Sly 2: A gunship battle followed by a run across falling debris.
Sly 3 at least had the initial attack on Dr M’s fortress be stealthy, but during the final levels it’s all head on attacks, not a bit of stealth to be found in the final act.
Sly 4: A battle through Le Paradox’s Blimp.
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One good thing I’ll say about Secret Agent Clank is that you can do the entire final level without breaking stealth once, there’s even a skill point for it. The only unstealthy part is the final fight against Klunk himself.
I hated that about Manhunt. Such a great game of feeling powerless and having to be stealthy to survive insurmountable odds all to get thrown away 3/4 through the game to become a generic shooter just felt wrong.
Same reason we get perfectly good run-n-gun shooters with a random stealth mission that has nothing to do with anything else that’s happened in the game. People are stupid.
I can’t stand the opposite – where they force a crappy done unstoppable stealth level into a non stealth game
Game devs want variety!
Because eventually, you must always confront something. Stealth is meant as a bridge, a means to get you to the end. The options for making a final confrontation in a stealth game are:
1) A brutally hard level where you have to basically memorize the whole thing in trial and error, constantly getting caught and restarting
2) A boss battle where your stealth has finally failed you, and you must confront the bad guy alone.
It’s like game designers spend 95% of the game whispering, “Be the shadow, avoid detection,” and then the last level they just scream, “Nah, go full Rambo now!” Maybe they just can’t resist that Hollywood-style explosive finale, even if it means throwing stealth out the window.
Cause stealth sucks and to make the ending good they have to have guns blazing
Deus ex human revolution
The entire game encourages stealth, non lethal, sneaking, covert ops.
All four boss fights are open room one on one fire fights.
Doesn’t Thief end with a proper stealth-focussed final boss?
Because it makes sense.
You sneak your way to the final boss, but a stealthy one-hit assassination would be boring.
I don’t see it as a bad thing. It helps shake up the pace and often acts as a reward for hours of tedious stealthin’ around. Plus from a plot perspective, if the game ends on a silent note it feels like no one noticed your heroic shenanigans.
The payoff of fighting Metal Gear REX in an over-the-top battle with lasers, missiles and ninjas after so many hours of trying not to get caught was something else.
Probably because the game devs want a climactic story ending, which can be harder if nobody ever knows the player is there.
If I remember correctly the games Dishonored and Mark of the Ninja can both have the final level be completed stealthily and had multiple endings depending on how stealthy you were throughout the game(Mark of the Ninja may just be a last minute choice).
Are there? Can’t think of many myself. As for Wildfire while I don’t think bosses should be in a stealth game, I think that boss still nailed in that you’re not abandoning stealth for a fistfight, you still need to be stealthy in how much the level allows to win.
But outside of Wildfire I can’t think of many games that so it. Far more common that non stealth games shoehorne in an unnecessary and badly designed stealth level.
The original budget hulk game for pc was fucking awesome. You’d wreck and smash as the hulk and then do stealth missions as banner. Of course, you win by beating a boss, but I thought it was a perfect blend of gameplay.
Dishonered had such a nice stealth option for it’s last level. I crawleded up the tower and out under the platform, and then yeeted that fucker off the tower.