What happened to the stealth genre of videogames? I seem to remember it being about tension, moving very slowly and quietly, planning your actions and attacking only when absolutely necessary. It was a genre of action game which seemed to naturally encourage a passive nature against opponents. In Thief the Blackjack was always the most effective way of taking down a guard, it was the more silent, less messy (literally) and quicker tool than a sword, arrow, bomb or anything else. In Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory (the best one), there was always the option to either kill or knock-out. Sure, stabbing someone in the face might have been a quicker and more efficent way of getting rid of a guard, but the game would encourage not killing by opening up more plot through interrogations and by deducting marks from end of level performance stats.

Some of the best dialogue from Chaos Theory came from interrogating guards, remember the Harry Tuttle line? Genius.

Guard: Who are you?

Sam: Pretend I’m Harry Tuttle.

Guard: Who?

Sam: I’m an ill-tempered, heavily-armed heating engineer asking about your ventilation system.

If you don’t get the reference, go away and don’t come back until you do.

Chaos Theory in my opinion is very close to a stealth gaming nirvana, it lacks the certain cold-sweat fear induced by the better moments of the Thief franchise. The game can also become very overcomplicated because of the plethora of gadgets and moves available. However, the reason why I love Chaos Theory so much is because the designers really took the context of the story seriously for gameplay purposes. They thought, “What tools would I have if I were a government funded spy?” And they proceeded to give the player gadgets such as the sound meter, a volume indicator that takes into account ambient sounds so that as a player you know how loud you can be in an environment before being detected. For example, you could go into a full sprint when in a thunderstorm but if you’re in a quiet marble-clad hallway, you’d better watch your step.

Quite literally inching forwards to avoid being heard by a guard standing two feet away from you, that’s what I want from a stealth game and that’s why I’m finding it very difficult to enjoy Splinter Cell Conviction. As an action game it’s quite fun but as a stealth game it annoys the hell out of me. All of the tension is gone, it’s an action game pure and simple, it’s even less of a stealth game than Crysis 2 was this year. For one, the game does not take into account any sound generated by Sam Fisher, you could be sprinting in circles Benny Hill style behind a guard and get no reaction. Sam also seems to now be able to sprint while crouching and has lost the ability to move at a speed which isn’t walking or running.

The most irritating thing about this game (and I’m thinking this is almost unforgivable), is that the only way you can incapacitate a guard is by killing, you can either kill with a gun or kill with your hands. Even after you have spent the time to sneak up behind someone, there’s no ‘knock out’ solution, no tranquilliser darts and on top of that the game actively discourages passive behaviour. It’s not like I actually care about killing videogame characters, I’ve just always loved having the option to not have to, it’s usually met with extra challenge and reward, plus it can make a nice change from the endless stream of violence and noise pushed out by modern videogames.

It seems like the older games spent a long time working on passive stealth systems where today it’s all about fluidity, speed, direction, brutality… As a consequence of this new direction, sam also seems to have turned into a psychopath, where before he would use the sight of a knife and his overly calm but dominant voice to interrogate people, now he smashes their heads into sinks.

I’m completely aware that the Splinter Cell series was starting to run dry of ideas, each game was essentially just a minor iteration on the one before and I know that Ubisoft needed to pull something fresh and exciting out of the bag but, this was in the wrong direction, it was the safest risk that Ubisoft could make.

I’m worried that I’ve got to put up with these overly simplified mechanics for the next few years until they become obviously mundane. How many games these days let you get within two meters of an enimy only to let you instantly kill them with the push of a button? Even Deus Ex Human Revolutions is the same, at least that still has the stun gun.

I appreciate that these mechanics are very appropriate for action games, but not stealth games. The stealth genre is classy like a fine wine after a concert…it’s not 10 pints of Red Stripe on a Friday night.