"Go in quiet or loud" games where both options are equally as fun/viable?

[etrain911]

I saw a post on twitter that made a great point. It seems to me whenever stealth games offer a "go in guns-blazing" approach or action games offer a "go in quietly" approach one of the two tends to suffer either by being less viable or less well-made or fun to do (bad enemy detection, bad gun play, etc.). Most recently, the biggest example of a game that gets this right is Deathloop. Deathloop's stealth is incredibly fun and made to transition to action immediately if need be. The gunplay is equally as satisfying.

 

[Qikz]

Deus Ex (the original PC one). I felt Human Revolution stealth suffered because it was so signposted, but the original is great both ways.

 

[Raide]

Go in quiet, make some dumb mistake, go in loud and in a panic.

 

[Finale Fireworker]

At its best, Dishonored. But people would argue (including myself) that the "correct" way to play Dishonored is quietly.

But high chaos Dishonored 2 is a phenomenal rampage.

 

[Ikarus]

Go in quiet, make some dumb mistake, go in loud and in a panic.

Click to shrink...

Every time this. My original intention and what actually happens are two different things 90% of the time.

 

[The Real Napsta]

Dues Ex Human Revolution
Deus Ex Mankind Divided
Metal Gear Solid (all)
Splinter Cell Blacklist
Dishonored (series)

 

[Rodney McKay]

MGSV is one of the best at this I've ever played.

Tons of fun gadgets to use in stealth and it's very addicting to Fulton enemies you've knocked out to add them to your base, but the shooting is also very satisfying (that headshot "crunch" sound effect is very good).

Splinter Cell Conviction is pretty good at blending Stealth and Action too. It's less that it has full stealth and then full action, but being stealthy, doing takedown, marking targets, and then hitting the button to shoot them all in the head is very fun.

 

[etrain911]

At its best, Dishonored. But people would argue (including myself) that the "correct" way to play Dishonored is quietly.

But high chaos Dishonored 2 is a phenomenal rampage.

Click to shrink...

I was going to list Dishonored but as you mentioned it feels like the game actively punishes you with a bad ending for going high chaos which sucks because all of the videos I've seen of high chaos runs look super fun.

 

[Fonst]

Wolfenstein: The New Colossus had many sections where you could stealth it or blow everything up and I enjoyed doing it either way. I like how there were all these pathways and you had a variety of silent weapons and stealth skills and then you pull out two auto-shottys and blow away a bunch of Nazi trash.

Good times.

 

[DontHateTheBacon]

MSGV for me. I've done my fair share of both in that game and always had a great time.

 

[Faceless_Caesar]

Always quiet if the mechanics for it are right. Sneaky knife/hatchet throwing in Wolfenstein was probably the most fun I had in that game especially with all of the upgrades in the second game.

 

[Cat Party]

Rainbow Six: Vegas

I still can't believe we never got a proper follow up to this series.

 

[Crossing Eden]

The Last of Us Part 1 and 2. The last 3 AC Games. Every far cry game since 3. Watch Dogs 1. Ghost of Tsushima. Shadow of Mordor. Arkham Batman. Dishonored.

 

[UraMallas]

I think the Far Cry games do a good job of this.

 

[ChaserX]

Fallout New Vegas or 4, but stealth can get stupidly broken with the latter due to the Ninja perk.

 

[ShinUltramanJ]

Quiet until shit goes south. Then kill everything.

 

[Temascos]

Echoing The Last Of Us games for this, it's so great to be able to stir stuff up then go quiet and pick off enemies one by one.

I disagree about MGS5 though, I didn't find it as satisfying to go into all out combat. It's strange as it has all the ingredients to work and I liked doing it in previous MG games, but not in this one.

 

[Spring-Loaded]

As far as mainstream, basic-bitch AAA games go:

• Batman Arkham games
  • Quiet = dudes periodically getting more freaked out as they're picked off through your overpowered toolset
  • Loud = having to chain together abilities like grapnel boost takedowns and smokebombs, diving in and out of groups of enemies
• Uncharted 4 + Uncharted: The Lost Legacy
  • Quiet = using verticality of arenas to stealth around makes for ever-changing pathfinding around enemies
  • Loud = getting into shootout, temporarily losing enemies, climbing up tower to reach sniper, take their gun, start sniping only for enemies to toss a grenade in your perch, forcing you to jump out and swing from your grappling hook just before hitting the ground, then leaping off to land on another enemy

 

[Mcfrank]

Last of Us 2 is perfect in this respect.

 

[giapel]

Surprisingly, Miles Morales does this very well. Both quiet and loud approaches are fun.

 

[speedomodel]

Deus Ex for sure.

 

[Naar]

Recently you could say Rainbow Six Extraction.

You have both stealth and action options and you have a variety of gear to make those playstyles doable.

You even have missions where you have to be aggressive or stealth and there is tons of mission variety

 

[pyxl_8]

Ghost of Tsushima was a recent example of this for me. Once you gear up a bit either option is as good as the other, and clearing bases just becomes a case of personal preference at that moment in time.

The Last of Us Part II is an interesting one in that just going loud is rarely an option but the action and stealth go hand in hand that you can very organically re-establish stealth from blown cover by going nuts until there are no witnesses left. Both options are well fleshed out and a lot of fun, but you're not really supposed to spend an entire encounter just doing the one.

 

[Yan]

Hitman games are great die this.

First complete the mission in stealth, then do it again guns blazing.

 

[cnorwood]

MSGV for me. I've done my fair share of both in that game and always had a great time.

Click to shrink...

This, plus there are so many ways of doing either playstyle

 

[Jawmuncher]

I always go quiet until I'm caught and the go loud for the rest of the mission.

 

[PianoBlack]

I wouldn't know because I always go in loud 😂

 

[VAD]

MGSV for 3rd person.
Deathloop for 1st. Stealth is more fun though because going shootbang makes the game way easier.

 

[Custódio]

Crysis for sure, specially the first one. The stealth power is really fun, but so are the other powers.

 

[Griselbrand]

Oh man, Ghost Recon: Wildlands does this well, especially if it's all co-op. Such a great feeling clearing out a base with some friends under cover of storms and darkness, one on overwatch half a kilometer away and the other three in full infiltrator loadouts.

And then later that same session, skydiving onto a mountain facility and taking down Unidad, helicopters, and other vehicles before running off into the trees as quickly as you appeared.

Not to mention those times where your cover gets blown and the suppressors come off while you try and fight your way out. I have fond memories of my friends and I doing just that and having to follow a creek going downhill while being shot at from behind and then jumping off a waterfall into a lake.

The story is terrible but the open world is great.

 

[etrain911]

The Last of Us Part 1 and 2. The last 3 AC Games. Every far cry game since 3. Watch Dogs 1. Ghost of Tsushima. Shadow of Mordor. Arkham Batman. Dishonored.

Click to shrink...

The action in Watch Dogs 1 is so much better once you realize the focus meter allows you to go full John Wick. I will say that AC Valhalla's stealth feels really bad compared to the rest of the game. To the point where it almost doesn't feel like an AC game. I thought the return of social stealth would help but the world is clearly designed for straight action.

 

[Ocirus]

Well, I'd say with Payday most of the time we attempt the heist stealthily, inevitably get noticed, and go loud. It's usually always fun, and when you actually DO successfully stealth a heist... Mmm! It feels pretty great!

 

[Syntsui]

Assassins Creed Odyssey and Ghost of Tsushima are amazing both ways.

 

[Igniz12]

MGSV was the only stealth game that made both the quiet and the loud part satisfying.

 

[cdigs]

Spider-man: Miles Morales was the first time I really enjoyed an all-stealth approach. It got me to try it in other games, too.

 

[jsnepo]

Grand Theft Auto Online - The Diamond Heist

 

[Deleted member 37011]

Oh man, Ghost Recon: Wildlands does this well, especially if it's all co-op. Such a great feeling clearing out a base with some friends under cover of storms and darkness, one on overwatch half a kilometer away and the other three in full infiltrator loadouts.

And then later that same session, skydiving onto a mountain facility and taking down Unidad, helicopters, and other vehicles before running off into the trees as quickly as you appeared.

Not to mention those times where your cover gets blown and the suppressors come off while you try and fight your way out. I have fond memories of my friends and I doing just that and having to follow a creek going downhill while being shot at from behind and then jumping off a waterfall into a lake.

The story is terrible but the open world is great.

Click to shrink...

I completely agree. Wildlands is great at this.

 

[etrain911]

As far as mainstream, basic-bitch AAA games go:

• Batman Arkham games
  • Quiet = dudes periodically getting more freaked out as they're picked off through your overpowered toolset
  • Loud = having to chain together abilities like grapnel boost takedowns and smokebombs, diving in and out of groups of enemies
• Uncharted 4 + Uncharted: The Lost Legacy
  • Quiet = using verticality of arenas to stealth around makes for ever-changing pathfinding around enemies
  • Loud = getting into shootout, temporarily losing enemies, climbing up tower to reach sniper, take their gun, start sniping only for enemies to toss a grenade in your perch, forcing you to jump out and swing from your grappling hook just before hitting the ground, then leaping off to land on another enemy

Click to shrink...

I feel like I played Uncharted 4 wrong now! Haha, I will say that this was my experience with Lost Legacy though. I recall liking it even more than Uncharted 4 with its wide open chapters.

 

[OGlol]

Ghost of Tsushima was done really well to me, especially because the gameplay was pretty different for each approach. Go knock on their front door and call their mothers bitches or sneak in through a hole in the wall through the back and silently take down everyone.

 

[gforguava]

Wolfenstein: The New Colossus had many sections where you could stealth it or blow everything up and I enjoyed doing it either way. I like how there were all these pathways and you had a variety of silent weapons and stealth skills and then you pull out two auto-shottys and blow away a bunch of Nazi trash.

Good times.

Click to shrink...

Yeah, I played this for the first time recently and was very pleasantly surprised that you could play most of the game as a stealth game if you chose to. And because of the first-person shooter at the core of the game the switch to "Just blow everything up!" when someone spotted you felt really great.

Conversely, I find all the Dishonored mentions kind of weird. I always thought that the fighting in that series was never good enough to make treating it like an action game worthwhile(as a supplement to the stealth it was fine).

 

[ForgeForsaken]

I enjoyed both approaches in Ghost of Tsushima.

 

[Ruisu]

At its best, Dishonored. But people would argue (including myself) that the "correct" way to play Dishonored is quietly.

But high chaos Dishonored 2 is a phenomenal rampage.

Click to shrink...

Dishonored is way more of an spectrum than loud or quiet too. You can be extremely loud player with no stealth and be non-lethal, make use of the numerous alternative paths and verticality to constantly weave in and out of enemy combat for example. Windblast lvl1 is such a versatile hability for this since it won't kill enemies right away, as well as the different levels of stop time. I wish people didn't limit themselves to thinking non-lethal and stealth in that first game was nothing but slowly crawling around and using chokeholds+sleepdarts.

I was going to list Dishonored but as you mentioned it feels like the game actively punishes you with a bad ending for going high chaos which sucks because all of the videos I've seen of high chaos runs look super fun.

Click to shrink...

The misconception that it is a "bad ending" is honestly one of the most frustrating problems I've had with the gaming comunity about this game for YEARS. It is an GOOD ending. All of them are good, they're all different interesting conclusions to the narrative, with High Chaos being different levels of tragic.

 

[Santar]

MGS V is what first came to mind.

 

[Chance_Boudreaux]

I (try to) play every game as stealth as possible so I may be looking at this less as pure stealth games and more what I find fun when things go south, but I think the Metro games are great for this. I haven't had a chance to play Exodus yet so I can't speak on that, but the others are great with either approach.

Metro and The Last of Us are great when you start any scenario with stealth in mind and when you get caught, it becomes equally, or even more fun to continue with the loud approach. I think the chaos adds to those games. Splinter Cell does it well too but I view that as a pure stealth game so my fun is doing it as Ghost as possible and have reverted save many times to keep true to that (which I also find fun by the way).

 

[DustyVonErich]

-TLoU2
-MGS4
-TES and Fallout
-Souls games with Thief Ring and archery / magic vs Strength or Quality build melee
-Uncharted 4 stealth and careful cover shooter vs run and gun.
-Ghosts of Tsushima for sure
-Later Assassin Creeds

These are my favorites that I can think of.

Sekiro is great at giving this choice outside of boss battles.

 

[kolsonk]

Ghost of Tsushima, The Last of Us II, Deathloop

 

[ToddBonzalez]

At its best, Dishonored. But people would argue (including myself) that the "correct" way to play Dishonored is quietly.

But high chaos Dishonored 2 is a phenomenal rampage.

Click to shrink...

I kinda disagree. High chaos is way more fun. Going nonlethal removes your ability to use too many of the games tools and abilities.

 

[super-famicom]

Hitman

Yeah yeah I'm gonna have Agent 47 go in, grab a good disguise and assassinate the targets without anyone the wiser. Oh yeah, I'm a pro, this is great!

5 minutes later:

Fuck, my cover is blown, time to kill everyone.

 

[maabus1999]

I saw a post on twitter that made a great point. It seems to me whenever stealth games offer a "go in guns-blazing" approach or action games offer a "go in quietly" approach one of the two tends to suffer either by being less viable or less well-made or fun to do (bad enemy detection, bad gun play, etc.). Most recently, the biggest example of a game that gets this right is Deathloop. Deathloop's stealth is incredibly fun and made to transition to action immediately if need be. The gunplay is equally as satisfying.

Click to shrink...

Nothing tops Deus Ex (Dishonored is close). You can go through the game without killing at all if you so choose.

 

[Ruisu]

I kinda disagree. High chaos is way more fun. Going nonlethal removes your ability to use too many of the games tools and abilities.

Click to shrink...

Non-lethal is not the same thing as stealth, and neither are the same as low chaos. You can kill a ton of people and maintain both stealth and low chaos.