From companions like D-Dog and Quiet, who help you scout out locations and silently dispatch guards, to gadgets like tranquilliser pistols and an inflatable decoy, the way in which you can manipulate and eliminate the guards of the many locations you must infiltrate is pleasingly diverse. Nonetheless, MGS V can be played purely as a stealth game, offering an impressive toolset to facilitate this approach. Given this isn’t the sneakiest of approaches, it impacts somewhat on its overall stealth rating. However, it’s also a game where you can deploy into a mission driving a tank. It is and remains one of the richest tactical sandboxes around. I waxed lyrical about how much I love MGSV in my article on the top 10 immersive sims ever made.
The story may leave you cold, but slipping between security cameras and knocking out guards with your big metal arms is as elegant as it is thrilling. As such, the atmosphere gradually intensifies, and stealth becomes increasingly significant. As tensions in the city rise, the guards become increasingly hostile to your presence. Mankind Divided also has a pleasing arc to its sneakery. Amongst the general exploration are several superb set-piece missions, such as the bank heist. There are loads of shortcuts and byways to discover, from rooftop pathways to underground sewers. What’s more, MD’s semi-open replication of Prague provides a fantastic playground for stretching your silenced legs. Building substantially on the already-impressive range of abilities seen in Human Revolution, Mankind Divided lets you perform actions such as cloaked takedowns, remote hacking, a Blink-style dash, and walk around quietly using the wonderfully named Leg Silencers. This is thanks primarily to the sheer array of ways you can get around its world unnoticed.
So without further ado…hang on, where did you go?Īlthough one of the weaker Deus Ex games overall, from the perspective of stealth, Mankind Divided is probably the best in the series. Nonetheless, the more focussed a game is on remaining unseen, the higher it will score in our rankings. This list covers a mixture of “pure” stealth games and more open experiences where stealth is strong enough to carry you across the entire game. In most modern games, stealth is an optional mechanic in a broader experience such as Skyrim (which *just* missed out of our top 10). It’s also generally very difficult to do, which is perhaps why “pure” stealth games are few and far between. There’s something about the care and restraint required to do this that provides a real sense of achievement when you pull it off. Sneaking through a bank or a castle or an enemy encampment, completing your objective, and exfiltrating without anyone ever knowing you were there. Much as I enjoy blasting a demon’s head off in Doom or running through a collapsing building in Uncharted, I don’t think there’s anything quite as satisfying as completing a level in a stealth game undetected.