Tip-Toeing Past 2005?

By Hardflip

It seems to me, the sleeper hits that have been released over the past year, include every stealth game. Namely Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow, Metal Gear Solid 3 and Hitman: Contracts. Each franchise has their own special character, and aspect to the stealth genre, but you don’t see them getting recognised to the extent that say, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, Halo 2 or Resident Evil 4 do. All of them, while successful, are always suitably in the shadow of explosive action games.

I’m going to start with Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow here; probably the best multiplayer game, from a team-play aspect, to come out in 2004. It encouraged every player to go out and get a microphone, in order to pull off simultaneous moves with your fellow spy or mercenary to complete your objectives. You couldn’t just jump into a server and expect to win, unless you hoped for the miracle idiot to appear. The game oozed pure stealth, due to the fact you weren’t combating ridiculous artificial intelligence. Small sounds of floorboards creaking, shadows moving, and using electromagnetic devices – all could be picked up by your enemy; never the AI.

From a spy perspective, this game asks a hell of a lot of concentration from the player, making it one of the best stealth games out. Having played the multiplayer, I would say single player failed to meet up to its standards. You cannot compare undeveloped artificial intelligence to that of another human – at least, not yet. The problem about all of this is that it was only recognised largely on the Xbox, partly due to the coverage from Penny-Arcade and Ctrl-Alt-Delete. It picked up barely any awards last year, from most well-known gaming sites, coming in as probably the first underrated game of the year. I wouldn’t be surprised if its successor, Chaos Theory, which improves on the original stealth elements and adds other features, repeated this.

The second biggest sleeper of the year would have to be Hitman: Contracts; the title of the game explaining itself. As Codename 47, a test-tube baby-born Hitman, the approach to games wasn’t so much shadow-based, railing-hanging stealth, but rather using the people and items around you to aid your progress. Concealed weapons, enemy disguises, and multiple approaches to completing each mission made this perhaps one of the most open-end action games of 2004. Fairly unrecognised and underrated by many sites, this fell to the bargain bin too soon. Hence why I’m looking towards Hitman: Blood Money, which improves on the previous two games – adding weapon augmentation, and what seems to be weapon purchasing.

Lastly, whilst not European-released (which probably aids in its downfall), is Metal Gear Solid 3. The excuse for its lack of recognition probably comes as a result of being released alongside Half-Life 2 and Halo 2; but I see it as more than that. Metal Gear Solid 2 was a disappointing game to many, due to its convoluted plot and hour long scripted sequences, removing anticipation for the third. Nevertheless, its sequel should be getting more recognition than it already has. Having read the script, it probably has to have the best storyline in a game so far, and should Kojima’s cinematic styles still be present, it should have received many single player awards last year. As you all know, the bigger competitors won most of the awards, leaving another stealth game at the bottom of the pile.

I honestly don’t know what it is; do people not have enough concentration to devote towards the more strategic based games? Is trying to deceive, rather than gib your enemy too difficult? I’m just rather annoyed about the lack of recognition these games get. Beautiful scores, map design, graphics and strong characters are all there. When they are recognised, often the support is quite good. Why is it that the no-brainer games always get the trophies? Surely older gamers have matured enough to go beyond the Doom-level of gaming, and tackle the more ‘intellectual’ (of sorts) games.

Let’s just hope Europe gives Metal Gear Solid 3 great recognition this year, with Hitman: Blood Money and Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory doing the same globally.