Stealth? In my shooter?

It's more likely than you think.







ATTENTION GAME DEVELOPERS: Please please PLEASE, for the love of innovation, if you are making a shooter game (first or third person) do NOT put in stealth missions! I can't think of a worse way to aggravate the player. Think about it: why does someone buy a shooter game? Because they want to shoot things! Not shuffle across a level, dodging sentries and cameras and forced to not shoot things! It's like putting a racing level in a submarine simulator. It's not related to the game's original purpose, and it's not why the gamer bought the game! If someone wanted a stealth game, they'd buy one!

I'll take your escort missions. I'll take your (shudder) respawning enemies. Hell, I'll even take your timed objectives! But please dear god stop putting stealth missions in shooter games. Did Halo have a stealth mission? Did Half-Life? Other than that tentacle boss, which only required stealthy, careful movement. No, the great shooters rise to the top because they exactly meet the demands of their consumers.

Okay, in GoldenEye, Perfect Dark, and Time Splitters, there were stealth bits. But the difference with those games is that you could shoot the damn cameras if you wanted! Hell, in GoldenEye you could shoot the alarm buttons! If a game's going to have some stealth elements, it better be set up so you're not punished with anything other than a wave of enemies rushing you. Again, GoldenEye had this, but once you killed that wave, that was it! No more! You shot everyone, congratulations. Turok Evolution asked nicely that you infiltrate that one base, but I ran through with a shotgun and no one even batted an eye. Much to my relief and amazement, as I expected a Game Over screen with the first blast.

Don't get me wrong; I'm all for hybridization of game genres, and for "breaking up the gameplay". Sometimes endlessly shooting hordes of Nazi zombies gets tedious. But if you're going to switch up the formula, do it right, and do it well. Don't do it for the sake of 'being unique' and providing 'innovative twists on classic shooter gameplay', because I'm not buying it. Literally and figuratively.

And that brings me to this wonderful example of a case-in-point - Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. This game is not only an exception to my "no stealth in shooters" rule, but is also in support of it.

Let me explain (spoilers ahead!). In one mission, you play as a British S.A.S. member in a two-man sniper team. Your objective is to infiltrate the remains of Chernobyl and take out a Russian Communist-extremist trading nuclear material to other bad guys. Yes, this is a stealth mission.

But it's so much better than any other stealth mission in any other shooter that I have ever played. You and your C.O. start off in ghillie suits - these are special camouflage outfits that make you look like a walking shrub. Now I've seen this in games before, but never have I seen them actually work as camouflage. The enemy does not see you when you're prone in the grass with one of these. This is proven in one of this game's most exciting, intense moments - you and your C.O. must lie motionless in a field while a convoy of infantry and tanks walk past within inches of stepping on you. I've never been so into a single-player mission before; held breath, sweaty hands, and a racing heart. I was truly impressed with this mission.

The rest of the mission is also done very well. You go prone or advance your position when your C.O. tells you, and ignoring him will get you killed. Not because the game forces your hand, but because you were an idiot for not listening to him. I believe that's what made this mission so successful, that there was someone with you, guiding you along, helping you to not screw up. Enemies are only aware of you if you step right in front of them or start firing your gun. They don't see you in a pitch-black shadow from across the map.

So major props to Infinity Ward for getting it right. This should set the standard for all future games that attempt stealth gaming in shooters. And it has since been replicated in other Call of Duties, and other games in the shooter genre. The bar's been raised, and I couldn't be happier.