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Useless Useful Stealth: Difference between revisions
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(Import from TV Tropes TVT:Main.UselessUsefulStealth 2012-07-01, editor history TVTH:Main.UselessUsefulStealth, CC-BY-SA 3.0 Unported license) |
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See also [[Stealth Run]].
{{examples
== [[Action Adventure]] ==
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** It's generally not that useful against human opponents either. Being a fighting game, the stage has very limited space, and thus there's not much room for you to hide.
== [[First
* ''[[Deus Ex (Video Game)|Deus Ex]]'' progressively conforms to the trope. In the beginning, the player has few weapons or enhancements; at least some stealth is essential, if only for sneaking up on enemies for a nonlethal takedown in one hit. Minimising bloodshed is also rewarded by positive interactions with some [[NPC|NPCs]]. Later in the game, enemies become more difficult to stealth by (but you can become entirely invisible to either humans or robots), and while they also become more dangerous, the player has been gaining enhancements such as regeneration and ballistic protection that let them survive combat, better equipment (or improving equipment they've had since the start), and improved skills. Plus, by this point in the game, you're fighting definitive bad guys. In fact, later attempts to stealth can often backfire: when a player gets into trouble and has to retreat, they can easily run into lethal crossfire if they haven't been killing as they go. Averted, naturally, for no-kill runs.
** Stealth was useful to take out unaware guards with single headshots, without alerting his mates. But stealthing by without killing them was a dangerous game.
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** '''Dead Ringer''' allows the player to appear to have died, while really simultaneously going invisible. Features: invisible, most players don't double-check 'kills', user will not be [[Visible Invisibility|visibly invisible]] if touched by an enemy. Drawbacks: can't cloak at will. Can be revealed by: fire, Jarate, Milk.
** '''Cloak and Dagger''' is like the invisi-watch, but favors camping by reducing the amount of invisibility, making one unable to recharge invisibility with metal, and makes standing still recharge invisibility. Makes defensive spying much more viable.
** '''Disguise''' allows the user to appear as a teammate to the enemy. Originated as a glitch, [[Ascended Glitch|but became canonized]]. Lasts forever. Appears as a spy wearing a literal [[Paper
** Note, though, all of the spy strategies have to get around one major factor: spy-checking. Since there's no friendly fire and everyone has lots of ammo, spy-checking comes at almost no cost. It's a de-facto job of the Pyro class to spy-check, because setting someone on fire means they stay on fire, and each time that being on fire does damage, the spy is revealed with a team-colored damage aura. This makes Pyros the spy-paranoia class of choice.
** There are some items that affect the spy's disguise - trading off damage for cloak, or allowing instant disguising as a victim (Your Eternal Reward), or temporary protection from fire (Spy-Cicle).
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** That's not to say it's completely useless though. Within the large community, tactics have arisen for "stealth runs", which generally consist out of sneaking through large parts of an instance, therefore saving time, to kill a specific target for valuable [[Randomly Drops|drops]]. Since druids are passable stealthers in addition to also being able to tank and heal, even tougher bosses can be done in that manner. Rogues can also use ''Vanish'' to stealth in combat for a nearly guaranteed survival in dire situations.
** To say nothing of PvP, where it is the furthest thing from uselessness conceivable.
** Once upon the time when the game was new, stealth runs were feasible in many dungeons. Dungeons in the original, vanilla game were huge, taking hours for even a dedicated, competent group to completely clear. Some had potential shortcuts built in, some didn't. So if a group of rogues and/or druids could go for just two or three predetermined bosses, quests or other goals and get that in a fraction of the time it would take without stealthing. However, that has been scaled back more and more in later expansions of the game. Almost every dungeon from the Burning Crusade on has at least one early boss which [[Load
** This is also averted for many quests. A Rogue can do certain gathering quests very very easily by stealthing, using Sap on any nearby mobs, looting the item, and restealthing. You miss out on XP and loot this way, but it lets you get the quests done much faster than they would be if you fight every enemy,<ref>(and XP rewards for questing generally outweigh XP gained from grinding mobs, as a function of player time invested so it tends to balance out in the player's favor)</ref> and stealthing also lets you fight enemies on your terms and control the opening.
* ''[[City of Villains]]'' has an entire archetype, the Stalker, who gets the best stealth in the game at level one and relies on it as they are designed to be a sneak attack class. Unfortunately, anti-stealth powers become ridiculously commonplace in the late game amongst both players and [[NPC|NPCs]]. The Rikti War Zone is the worst example, as nearly every group of Rikti has Drones that can see through stealth, making Stalkers aggravatingly difficult to play. Recently, however, a patch increased the power of Stalkers, with increased damage, increased criticals, and status effects on their best attack while also increasing their base HP considerably.
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* In ''[[Chrono Trigger (Video Game)|Chrono Trigger]]'', guards snuck up on grant mid-tonics when looted, which come in handy for the next few bosses. This is the only reason to even bother.
** Later, the party is captured and stripped of their possessions, meaning they need to sneak around the air ducts of their prison until at least one party member gets a weapon back. Unless, of course, you had Ayla in your party, whose fists can't be disarmed.
* One of ''[[Live a Live]]'''s seven character quests falls into this, at least at first -- Oboromaru can sneak past any enemy in the stage except its final boss, but doing so means you have to face the final boss with no or very little experience (since there are few enemies you can fight without breaking stealth), and your only reward for doing so is an [[Infinity
** And besides, he can get a better [[Infinity
* The original ''[[Paper Mario (Video Game)|Paper Mario]]'' had sleeping enemies in one dungeon that would wake up if you walked past them at full speed. However, they are easy to avoid even awake, and depending on your timing, weren't even that much of a threat in combat anyway.
* In ''[[Baldurs Gate]] 2'' invisibility does work pretty well until you encounter a creature that can cast True Sight. Which it will immediately cast to dispel your invisibility, showing that the computer does know you're there anyway, it just isn't allowed to attack you.
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* ''[[Fallout 3]]'' rewards stealth-based players by giving them "Sneak Attack Criticals". If the enemy doesn't see you and you get the first strike, a more damaging critical occurs. Particularly noticeable with shotgun-type weapons since criticals in free shot are calculated per pellet, ie, if your shotgun fires 9 pellets per shot, and Critical (Sneak Attack or otherwise) occurs, all 9 pellets gain tremendous damage. Indeed, there are perks that amplify Sneak Attack Criticals [[For Massive Damage]].
** It can be made even more of a [[Game Breaker]] by using the Stealth Suit from Operation: Anchorage and one of two weapons: The double barreled shotgun from Point Lookout, which fires twice the pellets, and the Infiltrator from The Pitt, a silenced and scoped assault rifle.
** Players can also Reverse Pickpocket live grenades and mines into opponents leading to a [[One
** Even without an invisibility field, this game can both avert and be this trope. It can be averted that you are counted as sneaking as long as nobody is looking at you, meaning that as long as you avoid enemy sight you never get jumped on, but shooting an enemy and failing to kill him will result in a "They are there!", but due to a general lack of silencers that is probably for good reason. Oddly enough, if you do manage to get a one hit wonder on an enemy, all buddies are surprisingly unaware that their friend just went into a quick nap, thanks to lead. If you do well enough, you can sneak past all issues in game while gunning them down at the same time.
* The infiltrator class in ''[[Mass Effect 2]]'' has a cloaking skill. It's useless for sneaking past enemies entirely because in most encounters you are [[Inescapable Ambush|required to kill every enemy before the next door unlocks]]. However, the skill is useful for outflanking enemies, escaping close-range attackers, and lining up headshots without worrying about enemy fire. The later is particularly deadly, as higher levels of the ability also add a damage bonus to your attacks.
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* In the ''Pokémon'' games that let you catch and raise Pokémon, there are trainers that will force you into a battle if they see you. You have the option of fighting them right away for money and experience or avoiding eye-contact and battling them at a later time.
== [[Shoot
* The Ilwrath Avenger in ''[[Star Control]]'' has a cloaking device as its secondary ability. Not terrible, but any competent player can figure out where it is because the screen automatically zooms in and out to keep both ships in the picture, and, well, [[The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard|the AI automatically knows]]. Without speed or weapon range, it's easy prey for almost anything.
** A savvy player can also locate the Avenger by watching for it to eclipse the background stars. The cloaking device turns its sprite black rather than transparent! And what's more, the Ilwrath player is hampered by his own cloak just as much as the opposition.
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* ''[[Rise of the Kasai]]'' averts this for the most part; generally speaking you can just run into combat head first with decent odds of coming out alive, but stealth is the suggested method of advancement, both for an added challenge and the satisfyingly brutal stealth kills. The only time the game truly falls victim to this is when your AI partner decides its time to run headlong into danger, disrupting your attempts at stealth. Its predecessor, ''Mark of Kri'', makes stealth a completely viable method in that your character always goes it solo.
== [[Third
* ''[[Army of Two]]'' gives the option to put silencers on guns. This is kind of useless considering that the game is all loud fire-fights.
** Not really. The idea behind silencers is for one person to use them and low agro parts while the other person uses high agro parts. Person with the high agro setup distracts and the low agro guy takes advantage.
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