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Useless Useful Stealth: Difference between revisions
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See also [[Stealth Run]].
{{examples}}▼
▲{{examples}}
== [[Action Adventure]] ==▼
== Video game examples ==
▲=== [[Action Adventure]] ===
* In ''[[Overlord]]'', there is a temple guarded by ghost elves that attack anyone they see. Your advisor instructs you to avoid being seen and the level is built with a stealth mechanic in mind, including doors behind which you can trap the patrolling ghosts in certain rooms. However, it's far easier to just take a group blue minions and kill all the ghosts. They don't even count for the [[Karma Meter]].
* In the original ''[[Wizards and Warriors]]'' for the NES, the [[Invisibility Cloak|Cloak of Invisibility]] only turned your character invisible to ''you''; the [[The All-Seeing AI|enemies]] [[The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard|could see you just fine]].
=== [[Action Game]] ===
* The WWII-based tactical squad game ''Hidden & Dangerous'' had a stealth mechanic that was absolutely worthless, which was probably due to the fact that the game in question was so damn buggy.
* Played with in ''[[Batman: Arkham Asylum]]''. While most of the trope applies, the game was designed around stealth-as-a-predator rather than stealth-as-hiding. Thus being sneaky is a very pro-active task in the game and is ''always'' useful, barring a handful of encounters to break up the gameplay.
* Cloe Walsh's stage in [[No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle]]. Right from the start, you are encouraged to hide from the stage's spotlights and guards, but getting caught only means that you have to fight all the guards instead and they each go down in 2-3 hits. Plus, the poorly implemented stealth mechanics make it far more difficult ''not'' to get caught.
=== [[Adventure Game]] ===
* Averted in the first four ''[[Quest for Glory]]'' games, where playing as the Thief class often means you can sneak past or trick your way through every combat in the game. Played entirely straight in the fifth, where most of the tasks involve killing monsters/notable bad guys.
* ''[[Deadly Premonition]]'' allows the player character, York, to hold his breath. Somehow, this makes him invisible to the zombie-ghost-like enemies. However, he can't do it for long and he slows down to a crawl while walking that way, so there is practically no situation that calls for you to sneak past an enemy you'd be better off just killing.
=== [[Fighting Game]] ===
* Any fighting game that includes an invisibility, such as ''[[Mortal Kombat]]'', will end up being completely useless against A.I. opponents.
** The cloaking device from the [[Super Smash Bros.]] series is fairly useful against human enemies, but its secondary effect is much more useful against both humans and computer players. While cloaked, your character still takes knockback, but doesn't take damage. Just don't lose track of yourself and fall off a cliff.
** 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-Person Shooter]] ===
* ''[[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]]s. 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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** 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).
=== [[MMORPG]]s ===
* In ''[[World of Warcraft]]'', as the main goal is to fight and kill enemies, stealthing by them is not very useful. Stealth is generally used as a way of "front-loading" damage at the beginning of the battle, as stealth enables powerful attacks which can only be used once and then you come out of stealth.
** 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.
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** 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-Bearing Boss|makes a gate open when it dies]], can't be skipped because it patrols a chokepoint, or calls all previous [[Elite Mooks]] you haven't already killed them, and/or some guards with [[The All-Seeing AI|All Seeing AIs]]. Fortunately, almost every dungeon since the original vanilla game is also significantly smaller than original ones, so stealth runs wouldn't save as much time anyway.
** 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
** There is also the aggravation in that ambushes tend to be [[The All-Seeing AI]] variety and will home right in on you while you're stealthed.
* In ''[[Dungeons and Dragons Online]]'', the Invisibility spell is mostly useless because, unless the player is actively Sneaking, enemies will hear them pretty much automatically. Sneaking slows the character's movement and only works for for characters who invest considerable resources in it. Some enemies, like spiders and oozes, automatically detect sneaking characters. Finally, once an enemy has noticed a character under any circumstances, that enemy will always notice the character once it's within range, even if he breaks line of sight and then successfully Sneaks.
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* One of the biggest complaints from Federation players in [[Star Trek Online]] in regards to the Klingon faction is the cloaking device. Per [[Canon]], the Federation is not supposed to use stealth technology. Since Klingons are primarily a PVP faction, what this ends up meaning is that you go into a match with the Klingon team automatically cloaked and the Federation team sitting ducks, with no way to know where the Klingon attack will come from. This led to the "Fedball" tactic, where Federation players would sit in a sphere shape so as to cover everyone's backs, and hope someone's finger would slip on their cloak button. Naturally, this makes for very boring matches. Klingon versus Klingon was even worse, because both teams would spend the entire match cloaked, so people would end up wandering around fruitlessly searching for an exposed player to pounce on. This has been fixed to some extent with enhanced Cloak detection techniques and a Federation starship with a cloaking device, but it can still be quite frustrating.
=== [[Platform Game]] ===
* The original ''[[Toejam and Earl]]'' has a sneak button. Its only uses are to walk by the occasional sleeping enemy without waking them up, and to sneak up on Santa.
** And there are some caveats; if you just drank a root beer (for health), you will burp often for the next minute or so. Also, Toejam or Earl might spontaneously sneeze at any time, though this is rare enough that you can go a whole game without sneezing (much less doing so while sneaking).
* In ''[[Prince of Persia]]: The Two Thrones'', it's possible to 'Speed Kill' enemies by sneaking up on them and completing a Quick-Time Event. This can be very difficult to get right, and it's almost easier to go for an all-out fight.
=== [[Real Time Strategy]] ===
* Averted hard in ''[[Achron]]''. The units need energy to cloak, but being cloaked drains the energy so slowly that it doesn't matter most of the time. Each of the three races has one unit that can cloak and while those units are not the most powerful, they still pack quite a punch, especially the Grekim Tier 2 bomber unit. They all can attack without giving up their cloak and the enemy units can't see or attack them. They are still balanced because there's three units on each race that can detect cloak (one Tier 1 infantry unit, one Tier 2 aircraft and the turret equivalent).
* In ''[[Warcraft]]'' and ''WarCraft 2'', Invisibility spells are useless against computer opponents due to [[The All-Seeing AI]].
* The ''[[Command & Conquer]]'' series has some stealth units of questionable advantage. Stealth tanks are decent at scouting (as long as the gunner isn't stupid enough to shoot random enemies nearby), even against the AI. However, later games feature map obscurers. They might hide what's there, but there is the minor detail of a large (and often mobile) unknown region, which not even the computer falls for.
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* Averted in ''[[Dark Reign]]''. An Infiltrator inside an enemy base can do all sorts of [[Game Breaker|useful things]], like steal plans for units and buildings, spot for artillery fire or superweapons, or see the location of ''every enemy unit and building''.
=== [[Roguelike]] ===
* In ''[[Ancient Domains of Mystery
** Stealth (and Invisibility) can be very useful, however, if you go through a dungeon that is comparatively dangerous at the given point in the game (Small Cave, Dwarven Halls come to mind). Avoiding monsters that could otherwise one-hit kill you (sometimes with ranged attacks) is very useful. Cavern levels are also easier when the enemies do not see you, because you do NOT want to be swarmed by monsters, even weak ones. You want to pick them off one by one. And finally, the Backstabbing skill works only when stealthy/invisible on hostile characters, and it can give a very nice damage bonus for certain characters.
* Heavily averted in ''DnD''-derived [[Roguelike]] ''Incursion'', where stealth is one of the best tools avaliable to stay alive. Stealth in this game is also much more useful than the ones in other [[roguelike]]s.
* ''[[Dungeon Crawl]]'' uses stealth as part of a healthy assassination-based gameplay. You'll still be killing as much of everything as you can, you'll just be doing it by stabbing monsters while they're sleeping.
* The 7DRL [https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/rec.games.roguelike.development/3mAS5sNE5bY kusemono] has you sneak up to angry mutant ants and stab them to kill them, but also lets you go around them to get to your actual goal pretty easily. Thus, a fairly well-executed aversion of the trope.
* Interestingly, ''[[Elona]]'' does have some use for stealth. Stealth's usage is not readily apparent, as it looks like the enemy always spots you, however sometimes it is just the AI guessing. Certain powerful units like dragons and blades will move up right next to you then turn around and walk away until they get a * over their head, meaning they have just spotted you. Their 'hearing' is about 8 squares, so its possible to dodge them, fight whatever is following you out of their 'hearing' range, then continue normally. The fact there are no real concrete indicators of have-they-or-haven't-they until the * makes this somewhat useless, however, as you might begin attacking them only to realise they hadn't seen you yet. Many times you get ambushed by dragons, it's because you just announced your presence to them [[Too Dumb to Live|in a really stupid way]] because you thought since they were approaching you they already knew you were there!
* ''Angband'' variant ''Steamband'' has something one can choose at the beginning of the game called Wonderland Mode. This is [[Disc One Nuke]] coupled with [[Nintendo Hard]] pure bragging rights as in order to complete your game you will have to climb back down normally. You start with your new character at the level before the last, but can't go down and face the final enemy. Instead, you must make your way to the top floor then go back down, collecting completely out of depth loot as you go. How might a level 1 character survive you ask? On every floor in wonderland mode every single enemy begins the level ASLEEP even the ones that CAN'T be put to sleep. Hitting an alarm trap or accidentally awakening one monster can lead to a full-on death stampede especially if near enemies that can pass through walls like Ghosts and Vampires. Still, even this can have its use. If you pick up something that fires a particular elemental bolt, you can wake up monsters weak to it intentionally, then fire and rebound it off a wall to kill wildly OOD monsters while near a staircase (as where you find the rod-equivalent determines its strength) catapulting you 20 levels ahead. Averted with loud and noisy PCs like golems and steam-mecha. They might not have the hit dice to go toe-to-toe but they certainly have the strength to take out something 10 levels higher than them, playing one of them turns this into [[Glass Cannon]] mode instead. Slap down some of the british soldiers or Nemo's men, then smack around a couple vampires, then mangle some martians, and you'll have a fighting chance from then on. (note that some post-30 monsters are such heavy sleepers even mecha can't wake them!) Also if you're lucky and find a ____ of return, you can leap straight to the top, but if you find two you can't cheat. Reading a second moves you to level 1 only instead.
=== [[Role-Playing Game]] ===
* ''[[Knights of the Old Republic]]'' suffers from all of these. Most monsters that you can stealth by can easily be attacked and killed a few at a time - but if you stealth by them then if you are exposed you could be in the middle of a lot of enemies. Also, stealth is only possible in "solo mode" where you are only controlling one character at a time and it is very easy to accidentally switch back into normal mode and expose yourself.
** The sequel makes it somewhat more useful with the addition of high-end Jedi classes that focus on Sneak Attack, as well as several sections where the protagonist doesn't have allies with him anyway.
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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'Em Up]] ===
* 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.
** The cloaking device has two other features which are far more useful than the visual invisibility: homing weapons fail against invisible targets; and attacking while cloaked automatically rotates the Avenger to face the enemy ship despite its normally mediocre turning radius. These effects just emphasize how useless the actual invisibility is due to the aforementioned screen-scaling issues.
=== [[Stealth Based Game]] ===
* In some sidequest missions in ''[[Assassin's Creed]]'' it is necessary to assassinate people without being seen. If you have the stamina for it, you can often just slaughter your way through hordes and hordes of guards to get to your target without any stealth at all. However, this is also subverted with some missions that fail you for detection. Also, quite a few of the plotline assassination targets cannot be assassinated without a confrontation that results in them making a break for it and Altaïr or Ezio having to chase them. Starting with ''[[Assassin's Creed:
** Interestingly, in Brotherhood and Revelations you will only fail a [[Stealth Run]] if a guard actually catches sight of the player character. As long as that doesn't happen you can be as unsteathly as you like, for instance by shooting everyone or throwing grenades. In fact, one of the easiest ways to complete many of these is to have mercenaries or your fellow assassins enter open combat and slaughter any enemies that get in your way.
* ''[[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-Person Shooter]] ===
* ''[[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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* In the first [[Mercenaries]] game, Jennifer Mui's special characteristic is enhanced stealth compared to the other two playable characters. Considering that the gameplay in the series is mostly based around [[Stuff Blowing Up]], it's not clear why anyone would value this, and indeed it has no discernable effect on the game. The sequel scraps this in favor of making her the fastest sprinter of the three.
=== [[Turn-Based Strategy]] ===
* ''[[Fire Emblem Tellius|Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance]]'' has Chapter 10: Prisoner Release, which one could ostensibly stealth through, given the advice "stay near the walls and don't get too close to anyone", without mentioning more useful advice like [[Guide Dang It|"only a specific type of enemy (soldier) can spot you"]]. The reward for stealth is extra experience (more than you get for fighting and can be assigned to any character, even the [[Magikarp Power]] ones) and a rare (but almost useless) Master Seal item.
* ''[[Nintendo Wars]]'': The submarine cannot be targeted once submerged, except by a unit whose only purpose is to kill subs. You cannot see a sub unless you are right next to it, and it blocks your path, wasting time. On the flip side, submersion costs a lot of fuel and the sub must return to base frequently to fuel up. ''Dual Strike'' added stealth jets, which can hit land, sea and air units while cloaked but have even worse fuel consumption.
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* Played straight due to how infantry mechanics work in Battlefront's Combat Mission series, unfortunately. For every casualty/wound you cause, you WILL lose one sniper to all but rifle conscripts. The problem? That one sniper costs as much as that rifle conscript squad, and the conscripts can hold out for a heck of a lot longer and even accidentally kill [[AF Vs]] with their grenades. (though most of the time if they see a tank that close they flee before getting off a shot) See also: Steel Panthers, which has many of the same problems. Two benefits to snipers there is that it is 2D and not 3D, so the calculation for explosive damage to a unit is far lower for a sniper, as his 'unit' is just one man, and they can disable 'open' or unarmoured vehicles easier with their better accuracy. Gameplay-wise he also remains hidden longer, while in Combat Missions after the first or second shot, the enemy squads converge on the building/hill the muzzle flash came from and fill it full of lead. Snipers are basically only useful in CM for decapitating a battalion by wounding its command unit (which is a 4 man squad so there is still a chance he shoots the wrong guy)
=== [[Turn Based Tactics]] ===
* Speaking of buggy WWII-based tactical squad games, anybody ever try to use a Scout-class character in ''[[Silent Storm]]''? You know, the ones with which you can sneak silently up to within a metre of that oblivious guard, at which point he turns and annihilates you with a heavy machinegun? ''Every single time?'' '''FFFUUUUUUUU-'''
** Actually, stealth is very useful if your scout has
* While you typically don't get the opportunity to use stealth in the Jagged Alliance series, similar to the [[Army of Two]] example your meaty healthy gunner guys can draw fire with their
* ''[[Fallout Tactics]]'' grants no XP for sneaking past enemies and most maps can only be solved by fighting: Sneak is (in the long run) only useful for positioning units before engaging in combat. While this is hardly that useful against your average raider or tribal, once you hit St. Louis and your enemies start toting rocket launchers or M2 brownings that can kill your entire party from halfway off the map with a lucky shot, you ''will'' learn to love a high stealth skill on every character you have.
** In addition, there's also a map involving a hostage situation (Springfield) where stealth ([[Luck-Based Mission|and a great deal of luck]]) is mandatory to save the town.
=== [[Wide Open Sandbox]] ===
* This even shows up in ''[[Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas]]''. There are two or three stealth-based missions, in which you can evade detection entirely by hiding in shadows. The game tries to tell you after the first one that you can also use stealth to hide from police, but [[The All-Seeing AI|anyone who's played a video game]] [[The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard|before that point knows better.]] In fact, "stealth" kills with a knife outside of missions seem to attract more attention than waving a sword around or even firing a silenced gun at someone.
** There's also robbing houses, which the player is also introduced to through one of the aformentioned stealth-based missions. It's supposed to be an easy way for the player to make cash without actually playing the storyline, but in 90% of the houses you can try to infiltrate, its occupants are in the front room, ready to discover you as soon as you enter.
=== [[Tabletop Games]] ===▼
▲== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
* ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]'' has had sneaky rogue classes and invisibility spells since the beginning. Whether or not these powers will come in handy depends purely on the [[Dungeon Master]] and the kinds of situations he throws the party into. A high-level rogue with good stealth can get a massive sneak attack damage bonus if they aren't noticed, often doing more damage in that shot than the designated heavy-hitters.
* ''[[Mutants and Masterminds]]'' allows for impressive levels of stealth, including a "hide in plain sight" feat that can be taken even at the lowest levels and allows one to hide without cover and while being observed. On the other hand, the system is supposed to model [[Comic Book]] superheroes who commonly have such abilities. Becoming invisible (or unable to be perceived by other senses) is similarly easy to do. On the flip side of things, there's often [[Internet Backdraft|heated discussions]] on the Atomic Think Tank message board about whether the vanilla stealth skill applies to super-senses with or without some degree of preparation for said skills, and it's similarly cheap to buy powers that will counter any and all invisibility effects.
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