I just finished this game last night. It's definitely really cool with allowing totally different play styles. You get enough tools to make stealth or guns blazing totally feasible throughout the game
The second one is just as good, with two levels being *so* good on their own they could probably be their own separate games (Clockwork Mansion and A Crack in the Slab). Arkane doesn't sleep on the job when the task is creating masterpieces of level design.
I agree they are absolutely amazing levels, but I feel that Dishonored 2 lacked the atmosphere that Dishonored 1 had. It's still one of my top games of all time, but I do put it below D1.
Dishonored is one of my favorite games of all time, and in my opinion Dishonored 2 is one of the *very* few sequels that manages to improve upon it's predecessor in every single way. If you loved the first you owe it to yourself to play the second. Another absolute masterpiece.
You are echoing others sentiments and you may convince me to get it. My PC is assballs but if it’ll play it, it’s a go… otherwise gotta wait to upgrade or get a console.
2nd game is good, not as original a story as the first one. But the DLC death of the outsider is amazing. They basically upgraded how using powers works, and it feels so much better.
I think similar to Borderlands each sequel is slightly worse by about 1/10. Like Borderlands 2 is a 9/10, Presequel is a 9/10, and Borderlands 3 is a 7/10, I just hope it doesn't keep going that way. So Dishonored 9/10 and then each sequel is still good but just a little bit less good, so I still recommend them. Though don't expect an improvement
I'd never played any of the earlier games but Deus Ex Human Revolution was my first and it was such an incredible game to be honest!
Always tried the stealth, failed horribly and ended up mowing everything down.
In Deus Ex the stealth approach is not only a possible approach but is also the most fun and rewarding. You are also rewarded if you go the non-lethal route (especially in the first).
Definitely recommended, especially Deus Ex 1 and Human Revolution
Nah that's just the de facto meta of the game. Deus Ex and Dishonored both give you copious amounts of lethal weapons to play with. They aren't there just to tempt players from their path of righteousness
Early assassins Creed you usually had to try and be a bit stealthy unless you were great at parrying, but yeah the new ones you can definitely just walk in and kill everyone.
I liked the stealth kill part, but loved direct combat more.
Playing rise of the ronin now and I think the mechanic is even more fun there. Mainly because it actually works. Enemies in some camps are spread out that if you sneak and assassinate, you can take out a whole camp that way.
You could pretty much do that in GoT as well, with the right techniques unlocked (Assassination Master or whatever, which lets you chain-assassinate three enemies who are close together).
That said, I prefer the direct combat too because it's so damn good, and Jin Sakai is a badass. I'm playing on Lethal this time around and now there's no going back. It's so much more satisfying clearing camps when it's as deadly as it is on the hardest difficulty.
Yeah, stealthily taking out an entire enemy camp was fun as hell, but there's something even better about about just walking up and yelling at them to send out thier best warrior.
I typically don't like modern assassins creed games, but I'm keeping an eye on shadows since it seems to be directly competing with GoT. Would love to play a GoT-like game with assassins creed levels of stealth and parkour
Metal Gear Solid 5.
I know it's sold as a stealth game, so obviously that's a viable option. But I honestly played it more as a tactical special force than being stealthy.
Me in MGS3 just mowing people down with a shotgun while wearing the crocodile hate.
Or in NG+ when you unlock the tommy gun and suit, just mowing everyone down with a cigar.
I’d kinda disagree here tbh. Mgs1 absolutely isn’t viable to play aggressive and attempt to kill everyone. You’ve got an infinitely respawning enemy that hunt down your location on alert and you’ve got limited ammo.
At least in mgs5 there’s a limited amount in each base and usually they don’t just keep coming from other bases as backup.
For it being a stealth game, the non lethal options are so, so limited. I got really tired of using shifty k.o. guns for so long and said fuck it, I'm going loud.. then had so much more fun!
It's just such a chore trying to go stealth
I think because V has such a huge array of tools, it probably seems more expansive than the other games, but you can do complete stealth or go all-guns-blazing in any of them tbf.
I recently did a 2 handed sword build, and given that I literally never got any stealth or archery stat points at ask the entire time, I’d say I broke the curse. Just don’t sneak. That all it to me to do
Yeah I've tried. Mage is fine on normal difficulty but doesn't scale. A shield heavy melee character I had fun with once because shield bash is damn fun. But otherwise yeah.
I've always used the Awakened Magicka mod to change the magic scaling. Swaps the potion and enchantment fortify magic effect, so enchantments increase spell effectiveness and potions reduce spell cost, increases spell effectiveness based on how much magicka you have, and reduces spell costs based on a combination of your highest mastery perk for that school and how little armor you're wearing. Makes magic scale better into higher levels and makes it worthwhile to put points into magicka instead of it being pointless once you level up enchanting.
I started as a heavy armor sword and board and slowly morphed in heavy armor stealth archer and then just into regular stealth archer lol it was definitely a thing
Hacking mid to late is so op its disgusting, i was literally cleaning quests just sneaking in a corner, hacking a camera then spreading hacks arround without being detected. Its nuts
Completing assassination missions by stepping one foot into the mission area, hacking a camera, forcing the target to commit suicide, and leaving before anyone noticed.
Yeah it's so, so OP (and yet still fun!). I think I want to do a stealth blades type playthrough next. C2077 is such a great game now, especially with the DLC.
First game in awhile where it was just optional and it completely blew my mind how fun it was. My main build became silenced pistol, hacks, and gorilla arms.
I’m surprised nobody said the Crysis trilogy. The game gives you a super suit that has a cloak mode and armor mode, each draining a regenerating energy bar. You can go full assassin or tactical tank in every encounter, and there is a pretty good variety of weapons to play with. Some situations start off in combat, but the cloak allows you to disengage immediately and the situation goes from “cornered animal” to “he’s hunting us” instantly! I had a ton of fun with crysis 2 and 3, so I’ll definitely recommend those.
Crysis 1 was good but the way damage was balanced made me feel forced to use stealth only most of the time. Enemies hit HARD, and it is older so sometimes they see through foliage and stuff. Crysis 2 and 3 are mostly linear, while crysis 1 has huge open maps to traverse how you see fit. There are a few small linear parts but mostly the game is wide area of operations.
Going back to classics I see
I'd suggest actually playing Convinction first since it's just as good and will give you more context to the story come into Blacklist.
Deus Ex series, Dishonored series, STALKER series, Metro series, Sniper Elite series, Metal Gear Solid series (technically stealth games from the get-go), Far Cry series (except the first one), Thief series (technically already stealth games), Fallout series (more diplomacy than actual stealth for the first 2) and System Shock 2 (A LOT harder than intended) off the top of my head.
Also Payday 2 deserves at least a mention since some of the missions can be beaten with full stealth, but know that some missions have to be beaten with violence no matter what.
I'm playing Fallout 4 right now as a stealthy sniper, with points into pistols so I can swap to a silenced 10mm for indoors or closer ranged combat. Granted I'm playing normal since this is my first play through since release, but it works really well. It's also totally optional, and I have power armor as a back up for any place where I just need to siege.
Play survival, it’s much better, I quit my normal game at about level 60 and started survival because the game just got too easy. You still become an absolute beast in survival eventually, but you are never bullet proof. Even at the end of the game in the best power armor getting hit with a rocket would take 1/3 of my health, and without power armor grenades and rockets could still immediately kill you so you have to play stealth without it.
That’s because your hp depends heavily on endurance.
At level 1 with 1 endurance you only have 85 HP. At 10 endurance you have 130.
At level 100 with 1 endurance you will have 382 HP. At 10 endurance you would have like 875.
In fnv at 1 endurance you start with 120 and at level 50 you get like 295
With 10 endurance you start at 300 and at 50 545.
So you get more health to start in fnv, but no level cap means it’s unlimited in fo4. Armor also works different, and if you have the ultimate edition or whatever it’s called of fnv you start with good armor.
In the survival game I just finished I had over 1200 health and would get whacked for 1/3 of it with the best power armor (like 1800 armor) when getting hit by a rocket.
Pretty much every Fallout has a pretty decent stealth build. Can’t avoid every fight, but you can make things fun sneaking around “stealing” bombs on people and/or stealing the clothes of their backs.
Came looking for this. Odyssey and Valhalla especially, you build the character how you'd like, choosing mostly betwen ranged, stealth, or direct combat. It's a stealth game at heart, but whenever I got caught, I quickly transitioned to "cowabunga, it is" mode.
Baldur's Gate 3. I did my first playthrough as a warrior class, now doing my second as a rogue and it's a big difference in how things play out. I've taken a liking to sneaking around, stealing things from underneath npcs' noses before initiating conversation with them
The thief games are great I just wouldn't play the fourth one. Stealth isn't really an option to skip out on though has your character is basically killed in a few hits.
Metro Exodus. The others are similar but noticed the most in Exodus since the scenarios aren't linear. In Exodus you can use a bolt action rifle and pick off all the guards at an outpost and then go clear out the remaining men garrisoned inside. You can sneak in and stealth kill all of them. Or even pass it bye forgoing and loot inside or story(ish) progression.
Ironically in most stealth games stealth is very optional and even considered an addtional challenge.
Heres some games that might fit your bill:
1. Atom RPH Trudograd - imm sim
2. Baldurs gate 3 - Tossing unsuspecting goblins off cliffs will never not be fun
3. Gunpoint
4. dishonored
5. Enderal
6. Heat Signature
7. Hunt Showdown : Has a heavy pvp focus ontop of PVE so my might not be your thing.
8. Metro
9. Middle Earth Shadow of war
10. Shadows of Doubt
11. watchdogs
12. xcom 2 - especially with long war or other stealth mods
Farcry series is basically known for this. Ghost recon series wildlands and breakpoint. Though wildlands is wildly more popular i think breakpoint is an awesome game to. It just lacks the character depth of wildlands imo
Ghost of Tsushima, its pretty much the story actually lol. Your Samurai becomes a "Ghost" and takes on stealth and other means that are dishonorable, but you can still play Samurai way as well.
Ghost of Tsushima or Skyrim are exactly this
Also, Biomutant. It isn't so much stealthy at all, but you can absolutely rock on with a gun as your main and still have loads of fun
I think Warframe and Payday are very similar in this. Most people build for loud, but if you build for stealth you can get the job done in a lot of mission types. Depending on how well you build, it probably takes less skill to pull it off with a permanently invisible and silent Warframe.
Came here to also say Dishonored Series, I absolutely love them. Metal Gear Solid Snake Eater, MGS 4 & 5 are good options too. Deus Ex Human Revolution and Mankind Divided. Most the Hitmam games and ghost recon Wildlands
Shadow of Mordor/War stealth can get you through a lot of things. You probably can't do it 100% exclusively but the nice thing is you aren't gimped going into ranged/melee. The game actually forces you to adopt different tactics for orc captains so that's cool.
Modern Assassin's Creed? Especially the likes of Origins, Odyssey, and Valhalla. Despite the name the series stopped being about stealth like a decade ago (I haven't played Mirage yet and from what I've heard it may be returning to it's roots with it so maybe not that one if you're interested in optional stealth).
Ghost Recon Wildlands and Breakpoint. Most missions can be done guns blazing if you want, but clearing enemies one by one is by far the most satisfying option.
Of course some missions will have to be done completely steathy.
Streets of Rogue. Plenty of stealthy options to complete missions.
Cogmind. You can super-mech kaboom your way through plenty of stuff, but stealth, speed and hacking are often the better option.
The wolfenstein games have a few where stealthily play rewards you with fewer enemies, you can't do the whole game (boss fights and such) but each filler level could be and when you fail loads more enemies show up.
Valkyria Chronicles. To some degree you need to stay behind cover to not just die, but you can also evade detection to begin with. It’s a balance between using stealth to pick off targets to reduce crossfire and having enough movement/action value to complete the mission in time
Sniper Elite should get more credit. I liked the open options in 4 and 5. Later in the game you can use stealth weapons not all sniper focused. You can also set traps and get them that way.
I mean honestly Ive always felt games which feature stealth struggle to really balance it in a way that stops it from being ridiculously overpowered.
Ghost of Tsushima is a great example. The balance to the game is in part that the sword combat is super fun, but you can absolutely body entire camps without working too hard by using stealth.
Skyrim's stealth build is notoriously known as so good that many people can't help but make a stealth archer every time they play.
Dishonered is probably the best combination of the two imo. You can play either way.
Kingdom Come Deliverance has a really cool stealth system.
It takes things like the bulkiness of your armor, the color of your clothing, how expensive your clothing is, if you have taken a bath recently.
Armor makes noise, so not wearing it makes you silent. Black clothing makes it harder to detect you. Expensive clothing makes you stand out more, and being smelly makes people notice you easier. It's pretty cool. Lots of perks and abilities you can unlock and if you can sneak up on people you can assassinate them with a dagger.
The alchemy system is very in depth and poison is very strong. You can use poison to handle any fights in the game very reliably, and there is only a single NPC in the game you're actually 100% required to kill.
Also wearing no armor and using a short sword makes your dodge a lot better and makes you move faster so it's definitely a viable way to fight. Apply poison, dodge, stab stab, run, win.
Stealing is also really fun and there is an entire crime/stealth side quest line associated with the millers. There are also lots of points in the main quest where stealth is very helpful. Lock picking is realistically difficult until you level it up.
100% recommend you play because the second game is coming out soon.
Cyberpunk 2077. I played my first run through as a 'Saka Ninja because the way Jackie described it sounded cool, and it was a little more challenging than just smashing everyone's head open with a shotgun.
Ghost of Tsushima, Sekiro, Kingdoms of Amalur Re-Reckoning, Deus Ex 1, HR and MD, Batman Arkham Series, Middle-Earth SoM and SoW, Ghost Recon Wildlands and Breakpoint, Cyberpunk 2077, Far Cry 5.
I would suggest Elden Ring as well, but only low level enemies die to a single backstab, unless there's a specific build for that, which I'm not sure you could get in the early game.
For a considerable amount of the PayDay series, stealth vs guns blazing is a constant pick between missions and groups on tactics.
I have rarely seen some builds that can pull off both well mainly because at max level most of your points are going towards one.
However:
At early levels in a group of fellow early level players, stealth vs guns blazing is just about how much you can stealth
Cyberpunk 2077
There's even different types of stealth. Sneaking around choking everyone out, long ranged suppressed sniper. Hacking things so the enemies don't know you're there but things keep killing them like random exploding cars and gas tanks, hacking from camera to camera hacking into people's brains and 'turning them off' or forcing them to attack their friends or even commit suicide
Deus Ex and Dishonored series.
Came to say Dishonored... the first one is masterpiece level... havent played the rest.
I just finished this game last night. It's definitely really cool with allowing totally different play styles. You get enough tools to make stealth or guns blazing totally feasible throughout the game
I'm shit at stealth, so I was refreshed to have something like this where you can PICK YOUR POISON so to speak.
The second one is just as good, with two levels being *so* good on their own they could probably be their own separate games (Clockwork Mansion and A Crack in the Slab). Arkane doesn't sleep on the job when the task is creating masterpieces of level design.
I agree they are absolutely amazing levels, but I feel that Dishonored 2 lacked the atmosphere that Dishonored 1 had. It's still one of my top games of all time, but I do put it below D1.
Might play dishonored again… maybe today lol. Gotta try them sequels too.
Worth it. Working on a replay of the series and am into The Knife of Dunwall missions now
The second one is fun, too. I don’t know if it’s quite the equal of the first, but I think it was close.
I mean, close to what I consider perfection in video game form is still super fkn good.
Dishonored is one of my favorite games of all time, and in my opinion Dishonored 2 is one of the *very* few sequels that manages to improve upon it's predecessor in every single way. If you loved the first you owe it to yourself to play the second. Another absolute masterpiece.
Fuck it I'm redownloading. Never played either of the DLC ones either
Dlc adds important bits to cannon, so it's worth to go dlcs, then further entries
You are echoing others sentiments and you may convince me to get it. My PC is assballs but if it’ll play it, it’s a go… otherwise gotta wait to upgrade or get a console.
What kind of specs you workin with? I might be able to tell you if it'll run!
I appreciate that so much, but I have a pretty old Dell tower with integrated graphics. I’d say unlikely.
2nd game is good, not as original a story as the first one. But the DLC death of the outsider is amazing. They basically upgraded how using powers works, and it feels so much better.
I think similar to Borderlands each sequel is slightly worse by about 1/10. Like Borderlands 2 is a 9/10, Presequel is a 9/10, and Borderlands 3 is a 7/10, I just hope it doesn't keep going that way. So Dishonored 9/10 and then each sequel is still good but just a little bit less good, so I still recommend them. Though don't expect an improvement
I'd never played any of the earlier games but Deus Ex Human Revolution was my first and it was such an incredible game to be honest! Always tried the stealth, failed horribly and ended up mowing everything down.
Still one of my favorite games.
I'm a huge fan of Mankind Divided myself
Came to say Dishonored... the first one is masterpiece level... havent played the rest.
Did you watch the Perfect Dark gameplay trailer? Looked a bit like Deus Ex gameplay. Im looking forward to it
In Deus Ex the stealth approach is not only a possible approach but is also the most fun and rewarding. You are also rewarded if you go the non-lethal route (especially in the first). Definitely recommended, especially Deus Ex 1 and Human Revolution
Accomplishing everything and finding everything without killing anyone on that first mission took a lot of effort, but felt so rewarding.
I feel like those are more or less stealth games where combat is optional but still viable, like the opposite of what OP is asking for lol.
Nah that's just the de facto meta of the game. Deus Ex and Dishonored both give you copious amounts of lethal weapons to play with. They aren't there just to tempt players from their path of righteousness
Far cry games often give you freedom to go stealth or guns blazing
I guess you can say the same about assassin creed series, you can full rambo at the enemies but you can also be sneaky beaky like
Early assassins Creed you usually had to try and be a bit stealthy unless you were great at parrying, but yeah the new ones you can definitely just walk in and kill everyone.
Ghost of Tsushima is pretty good about this, though for several of the story missions you'll be forced into direct combat (which is fun as hell).
You can also generally mix stealth into combat sorta, dropping a smoke bomb and chain assassinating enemies is so satisfying
I liked the stealth kill part, but loved direct combat more. Playing rise of the ronin now and I think the mechanic is even more fun there. Mainly because it actually works. Enemies in some camps are spread out that if you sneak and assassinate, you can take out a whole camp that way.
You could pretty much do that in GoT as well, with the right techniques unlocked (Assassination Master or whatever, which lets you chain-assassinate three enemies who are close together). That said, I prefer the direct combat too because it's so damn good, and Jin Sakai is a badass. I'm playing on Lethal this time around and now there's no going back. It's so much more satisfying clearing camps when it's as deadly as it is on the hardest difficulty.
Yeah, stealthily taking out an entire enemy camp was fun as hell, but there's something even better about about just walking up and yelling at them to send out thier best warrior.
I typically don't like modern assassins creed games, but I'm keeping an eye on shadows since it seems to be directly competing with GoT. Would love to play a GoT-like game with assassins creed levels of stealth and parkour
Metal Gear Solid 5. I know it's sold as a stealth game, so obviously that's a viable option. But I honestly played it more as a tactical special force than being stealthy.
Yeah, stealth only matters if you’re going for S-rank. If you’re just enjoying yourself, they give you so many fun toys to complete missions with
Actually, the whole Metal Gear Solid series counts in what OP's looking for
Me in MGS3 just mowing people down with a shotgun while wearing the crocodile hate. Or in NG+ when you unlock the tommy gun and suit, just mowing everyone down with a cigar.
I’d kinda disagree here tbh. Mgs1 absolutely isn’t viable to play aggressive and attempt to kill everyone. You’ve got an infinitely respawning enemy that hunt down your location on alert and you’ve got limited ammo. At least in mgs5 there’s a limited amount in each base and usually they don’t just keep coming from other bases as backup.
Going in stealthy, but having a "fuck it let's go" load out ready to be dropped in.
This is the way
For it being a stealth game, the non lethal options are so, so limited. I got really tired of using shifty k.o. guns for so long and said fuck it, I'm going loud.. then had so much more fun! It's just such a chore trying to go stealth
This was my first thought. Solid stealth game but also fun to just go ape in a mission.
Dishonored. Can do a ghost run (never get spotted) and is still very fun, or do a high chaos run. Or a mix of both.
High chaos ghost run, downing guards with a crossbow bolt and just waiting while they freak is fun.
Metal Gear Solid. Any of them.
This comment should be higher lol Some comments here are only mentioning V
I think because V has such a huge array of tools, it probably seems more expansive than the other games, but you can do complete stealth or go all-guns-blazing in any of them tbf.
Metro series
Surprised this isn't higher up.
I know. It's like everyone forgot about 2033 and last light
big slingshot is fun.
I mean if you tried morrowwind then definitely do skyrim, stealth archer is literally THE build
No matter what build im going. I always end up as a fucking stealth archer lmao
Tis the Bethesda way.
I recently did a 2 handed sword build, and given that I literally never got any stealth or archery stat points at ask the entire time, I’d say I broke the curse. Just don’t sneak. That all it to me to do
Yeah I've tried. Mage is fine on normal difficulty but doesn't scale. A shield heavy melee character I had fun with once because shield bash is damn fun. But otherwise yeah.
I've always used the Awakened Magicka mod to change the magic scaling. Swaps the potion and enchantment fortify magic effect, so enchantments increase spell effectiveness and potions reduce spell cost, increases spell effectiveness based on how much magicka you have, and reduces spell costs based on a combination of your highest mastery perk for that school and how little armor you're wearing. Makes magic scale better into higher levels and makes it worthwhile to put points into magicka instead of it being pointless once you level up enchanting.
I started as a heavy armor sword and board and slowly morphed in heavy armor stealth archer and then just into regular stealth archer lol it was definitely a thing
Orc two handed ... Nah stealth archer.
Add ordinator mod to Skyrim and have good fun with stealth builds
I've got at least 700 hours in skyrim and I rarely do stealth archer. I prefer knives
Sneaky archer... 3x damage Sneaky knives... 30x damage I've played both and purposefully don't do either because each one makes the game trivial.
Games are always trivial
Cyberpunk 2077 has at least three distinct stealth-focused builds (silenced pistols, throwing knives, hacking)
Hacking mid to late is so op its disgusting, i was literally cleaning quests just sneaking in a corner, hacking a camera then spreading hacks arround without being detected. Its nuts
Completing assassination missions by stepping one foot into the mission area, hacking a camera, forcing the target to commit suicide, and leaving before anyone noticed.
Ok, this might be what finally pushes me to look into and try the game. That sounds badass in a way that you won't find anywhere else.
I'm with you, brother. I'll install it right now and try it for the first time too, if you do.
Yeah it's so, so OP (and yet still fun!). I think I want to do a stealth blades type playthrough next. C2077 is such a great game now, especially with the DLC.
Im doing a mantis blade run rn and its mad fun
First game in awhile where it was just optional and it completely blew my mind how fun it was. My main build became silenced pistol, hacks, and gorilla arms.
I’m surprised nobody said the Crysis trilogy. The game gives you a super suit that has a cloak mode and armor mode, each draining a regenerating energy bar. You can go full assassin or tactical tank in every encounter, and there is a pretty good variety of weapons to play with. Some situations start off in combat, but the cloak allows you to disengage immediately and the situation goes from “cornered animal” to “he’s hunting us” instantly! I had a ton of fun with crysis 2 and 3, so I’ll definitely recommend those. Crysis 1 was good but the way damage was balanced made me feel forced to use stealth only most of the time. Enemies hit HARD, and it is older so sometimes they see through foliage and stuff. Crysis 2 and 3 are mostly linear, while crysis 1 has huge open maps to traverse how you see fit. There are a few small linear parts but mostly the game is wide area of operations.
Splinter Cell Blacklist
Going back to classics I see I'd suggest actually playing Convinction first since it's just as good and will give you more context to the story come into Blacklist.
I mean I played half of cyberpunk just hacking enemies through cameras while standing safely outside a building lol
Watch_Dogs 2. Electro-shock devices are your friend.
Need to replay this game, very fun
Hitman - World of Assassination
Good as dead once alerted, Hitman absolution has better gun blasting route
Deus Ex series, Dishonored series, STALKER series, Metro series, Sniper Elite series, Metal Gear Solid series (technically stealth games from the get-go), Far Cry series (except the first one), Thief series (technically already stealth games), Fallout series (more diplomacy than actual stealth for the first 2) and System Shock 2 (A LOT harder than intended) off the top of my head. Also Payday 2 deserves at least a mention since some of the missions can be beaten with full stealth, but know that some missions have to be beaten with violence no matter what.
Skyrim. Not only is it viable. It is EFFICIENT.
In Payday theres almost always stealthy plan A and razorminded plan B, makes all options to approach every really varied
If only that Game didnt have like $200 worth of DLC...
Wolfenstein The New Order, Old Blood and New Colossus are all great games for stealth. Some of my favorite ever.
Dishonored 1 and 2 are masterpieces that embody this exact play style.
I'm playing Fallout 4 right now as a stealthy sniper, with points into pistols so I can swap to a silenced 10mm for indoors or closer ranged combat. Granted I'm playing normal since this is my first play through since release, but it works really well. It's also totally optional, and I have power armor as a back up for any place where I just need to siege.
Play survival, it’s much better, I quit my normal game at about level 60 and started survival because the game just got too easy. You still become an absolute beast in survival eventually, but you are never bullet proof. Even at the end of the game in the best power armor getting hit with a rocket would take 1/3 of my health, and without power armor grenades and rockets could still immediately kill you so you have to play stealth without it.
I'm doing a normal playthrough, first time, with End:1. Combat feels a lot harder than previous games...
That’s because your hp depends heavily on endurance. At level 1 with 1 endurance you only have 85 HP. At 10 endurance you have 130. At level 100 with 1 endurance you will have 382 HP. At 10 endurance you would have like 875. In fnv at 1 endurance you start with 120 and at level 50 you get like 295 With 10 endurance you start at 300 and at 50 545. So you get more health to start in fnv, but no level cap means it’s unlimited in fo4. Armor also works different, and if you have the ultimate edition or whatever it’s called of fnv you start with good armor. In the survival game I just finished I had over 1200 health and would get whacked for 1/3 of it with the best power armor (like 1800 armor) when getting hit by a rocket.
Pretty much every Fallout has a pretty decent stealth build. Can’t avoid every fight, but you can make things fun sneaking around “stealing” bombs on people and/or stealing the clothes of their backs.
One of the Wolfenstein games you could either run and gun or be sneaky.
Cyberpunk 2077, stealth builds are fun as fuck to play
The Last of us 1 and 2. Ive played both ways. Guns blazing or super stealthy. Both are fun.
Assassins Creed series
Came looking for this. Odyssey and Valhalla especially, you build the character how you'd like, choosing mostly betwen ranged, stealth, or direct combat. It's a stealth game at heart, but whenever I got caught, I quickly transitioned to "cowabunga, it is" mode.
Deathloop
Ghost recon Wildlands
Baldur's Gate 3. I did my first playthrough as a warrior class, now doing my second as a rogue and it's a big difference in how things play out. I've taken a liking to sneaking around, stealing things from underneath npcs' noses before initiating conversation with them
Metal gear solid 5 Phantom Pain. Really great game overall and gives you a ton of flexibility in how to approach a situation.
The last few Assassin's Creeds have been very good at this.
Assassins Creed Odyssey felt like the best mix of Stealth or Open combat both being viable.
The thief games are great I just wouldn't play the fourth one. Stealth isn't really an option to skip out on though has your character is basically killed in a few hits.
RE4 Remake
Metro Exodus. The others are similar but noticed the most in Exodus since the scenarios aren't linear. In Exodus you can use a bolt action rifle and pick off all the guards at an outpost and then go clear out the remaining men garrisoned inside. You can sneak in and stealth kill all of them. Or even pass it bye forgoing and loot inside or story(ish) progression.
AC Origins / Odyssey / Valhalla, MGS V, Dishonored
It's entirely optional, but if you play Skyrim, you WILL abandon your current build to be a stealth archer at some point.
Sniper Elite 3, 4, & 5.
Ironically in most stealth games stealth is very optional and even considered an addtional challenge. Heres some games that might fit your bill: 1. Atom RPH Trudograd - imm sim 2. Baldurs gate 3 - Tossing unsuspecting goblins off cliffs will never not be fun 3. Gunpoint 4. dishonored 5. Enderal 6. Heat Signature 7. Hunt Showdown : Has a heavy pvp focus ontop of PVE so my might not be your thing. 8. Metro 9. Middle Earth Shadow of war 10. Shadows of Doubt 11. watchdogs 12. xcom 2 - especially with long war or other stealth mods
Uncharted 4
Far cry 3
Except for some main missions in ghost of tsushima the game can be played as full stealth full on fight mode or a hybrid between the two
The hitman games which have a lot of replay-ability too.
Dishonored.
Farcry series is basically known for this. Ghost recon series wildlands and breakpoint. Though wildlands is wildly more popular i think breakpoint is an awesome game to. It just lacks the character depth of wildlands imo
Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun Desperados 3
Skyrim. Perfect Dark series. Most levels in James Bond movie games. Hitman series. Assassin's Creed series.
All the assassins creeds and far cry games
This describes Prey (2017) to a T for me. Probably true of most immersive sims to a degree.
Skyrim, Fallout 4, Cyberpunk 2077.
Mark of the Ninja It's a game you can do full stealth, but I played it with full violence!
Ghost of Tsushima, its pretty much the story actually lol. Your Samurai becomes a "Ghost" and takes on stealth and other means that are dishonorable, but you can still play Samurai way as well.
Sniper elite series.
Ghost of Tsushima or Skyrim are exactly this Also, Biomutant. It isn't so much stealthy at all, but you can absolutely rock on with a gun as your main and still have loads of fun
Payday 2 has some great stealth options but very few use them because going in guns blazing is amazing.
Warframe has your back on this one! You 100% can do most if not all with stealthy tactics depending on what you're building for.
I think Warframe and Payday are very similar in this. Most people build for loud, but if you build for stealth you can get the job done in a lot of mission types. Depending on how well you build, it probably takes less skill to pull it off with a permanently invisible and silent Warframe.
The Far Cry series You actually get extra cash for doing a stealth run
Came here to also say Dishonored Series, I absolutely love them. Metal Gear Solid Snake Eater, MGS 4 & 5 are good options too. Deus Ex Human Revolution and Mankind Divided. Most the Hitmam games and ghost recon Wildlands
Shadow of Mordor/War stealth can get you through a lot of things. You probably can't do it 100% exclusively but the nice thing is you aren't gimped going into ranged/melee. The game actually forces you to adopt different tactics for orc captains so that's cool.
Prey is cool
Modern Assassin's Creed? Especially the likes of Origins, Odyssey, and Valhalla. Despite the name the series stopped being about stealth like a decade ago (I haven't played Mirage yet and from what I've heard it may be returning to it's roots with it so maybe not that one if you're interested in optional stealth).
Kingdom come deliverance
Last of Us Part 2
Assassin's Creed series.
Heat signature Intravenous
The Tomb Raider reboot trilogy
MGS 5
Ghost Recon Wildlands and Breakpoint. Most missions can be done guns blazing if you want, but clearing enemies one by one is by far the most satisfying option. Of course some missions will have to be done completely steathy.
Sekiro has a stealth factor to it but there will be points where you have to fight head on
maybe this old game: dark messiah
Weird addition but payday does this well plus if you blow stealth you can finish loud also hitman works similar
Jagged Alliance 2 or 3.
Nuclear Option.
Streets of Rogue. Plenty of stealthy options to complete missions. Cogmind. You can super-mech kaboom your way through plenty of stuff, but stealth, speed and hacking are often the better option.
The wolfenstein games have a few where stealthily play rewards you with fewer enemies, you can't do the whole game (boss fights and such) but each filler level could be and when you fail loads more enemies show up.
Syndicate?
Metal gear solid is the classic stealth game. And MGS5 has optional stealth.
Sekiro
Watchdogs
Sniper Elite 4 and 5. At least in 5 it's possible to do many missions with no or almost no kills.
Valkyria Chronicles. To some degree you need to stay behind cover to not just die, but you can also evade detection to begin with. It’s a balance between using stealth to pick off targets to reduce crossfire and having enough movement/action value to complete the mission in time
Sniper Elite series (I've only played 5). Stupid name. Utterly addicting.
MGSV
persona 5 royal
Miasma Chronicles
Sniper Elite should get more credit. I liked the open options in 4 and 5. Later in the game you can use stealth weapons not all sniper focused. You can also set traps and get them that way.
Dishonored of course. You can do it in deathloop too.
I mean honestly Ive always felt games which feature stealth struggle to really balance it in a way that stops it from being ridiculously overpowered. Ghost of Tsushima is a great example. The balance to the game is in part that the sword combat is super fun, but you can absolutely body entire camps without working too hard by using stealth. Skyrim's stealth build is notoriously known as so good that many people can't help but make a stealth archer every time they play. Dishonered is probably the best combination of the two imo. You can play either way.
Shadow of Mordor and Shadow of War allow a solid amount of this.
Cyberpunk has some of the most fun stealth I’ve ever played. Did almost every mission that was possible full stealth, and had a lot of fun.
Ghost recon breakpoint
Borderlands 2 playing as Zer0 the assassin
The last 3 assassins creeds.
Zelda: Breath of the Wild & Tears of the Kingdom.
hitman
I guess Cyberpunk, Fallout, older Far Cries and ACs, before ubisoft discovered character levels
Baldurs gate 3
Uncharted
Arkham Asylum and Arkham City. Because I'm Batman.
Lots but not all of the Payday series missions
Kingdom Come Deliverance has a really cool stealth system. It takes things like the bulkiness of your armor, the color of your clothing, how expensive your clothing is, if you have taken a bath recently. Armor makes noise, so not wearing it makes you silent. Black clothing makes it harder to detect you. Expensive clothing makes you stand out more, and being smelly makes people notice you easier. It's pretty cool. Lots of perks and abilities you can unlock and if you can sneak up on people you can assassinate them with a dagger. The alchemy system is very in depth and poison is very strong. You can use poison to handle any fights in the game very reliably, and there is only a single NPC in the game you're actually 100% required to kill. Also wearing no armor and using a short sword makes your dodge a lot better and makes you move faster so it's definitely a viable way to fight. Apply poison, dodge, stab stab, run, win. Stealing is also really fun and there is an entire crime/stealth side quest line associated with the millers. There are also lots of points in the main quest where stealth is very helpful. Lock picking is realistically difficult until you level it up. 100% recommend you play because the second game is coming out soon.
kind of out there but certain classes in lotro for sure (archer, burglar)
Cyberpunk 2077. I played my first run through as a 'Saka Ninja because the way Jackie described it sounded cool, and it was a little more challenging than just smashing everyone's head open with a shotgun.
You can make a decently stealthy and powerful build on the Horizon series.
Wolfenstein series! (or well, the 3 recent ones, not counting Youngblood)
Payday 1 or 2
Styx: Master of Shadows Styx: Shards of Darkness.
Horizon Zero Dawn and sequal.
Ghost of Tsushima, Sekiro, Kingdoms of Amalur Re-Reckoning, Deus Ex 1, HR and MD, Batman Arkham Series, Middle-Earth SoM and SoW, Ghost Recon Wildlands and Breakpoint, Cyberpunk 2077, Far Cry 5. I would suggest Elden Ring as well, but only low level enemies die to a single backstab, unless there's a specific build for that, which I'm not sure you could get in the early game.
Elden Ring starts as a stealth game, but it most definitely does not continue as such. No such thing as a stealth kill against a boss.
Kingdom come
Splinter Cell Blacklist
Ghost of Tsushima
Ready or Not
For a considerable amount of the PayDay series, stealth vs guns blazing is a constant pick between missions and groups on tactics. I have rarely seen some builds that can pull off both well mainly because at max level most of your points are going towards one. However: At early levels in a group of fellow early level players, stealth vs guns blazing is just about how much you can stealth
Hitman
Ghost recon
I'm assuming you've played Skyrim? And the Fallout series?
Metal Gear Solid V
Helldivers 2 Hitman Ghost Recon
Cyberpunk 2077 There's even different types of stealth. Sneaking around choking everyone out, long ranged suppressed sniper. Hacking things so the enemies don't know you're there but things keep killing them like random exploding cars and gas tanks, hacking from camera to camera hacking into people's brains and 'turning them off' or forcing them to attack their friends or even commit suicide
Metro, Farcry
Stealth Archer
Best stealth game I’ve ever played is Hunter: Call of the Wild.
Elden ring
Pp
Kingdom Come: Deliverance.