Blogs The incompetent thief

I love doing both. Sometimes a stealthy approach is masterfully fun. (Not to mention incredibly effective). But there are times when I honestly think to myself: **** it and I just wade in the danger zone and carve a bloody path. I'll be honest though, it really depends on the game.

For example, Crysis and Resident Evil 4? Max difficulty. Stalker? Same. And I'll find a way to somehow survive the hellishness. (Mind you RE4 wasn't bad, I just had a bunch of revival items in the end because I had taken deliberate lengths to explore literally every corner).

Sometimes it's just massive amounts of fun to vary your playstyle. I can't say I'm massively patient though, but I will learn to be patient if I need to. So everyone, lesson here is. If you want a lesson in patience: play STALKER.

 

After roughly 6 years of playing with the same group of about 5 others (with some coming and going depending on the "game of the month") we can typically pick out what each other will play with striking accuracy. For example, there was little question what each person was playing in Borderlands.

My gameplay strategy can be best described as "efficiency". This compares time, effort and resources to find the simplest option. This often ends up in a stealthy style simply because taking out enemies usually takes resources and alerting more enemies takes more resources and time. Of course, sometimes if you can take out that lone guard for good when no one's looking it'll save the time and effort of sneaking by. And sometimes you can trigger an event simply by reaching a certain location and running past the NPCs like an idiot is best.

This is typically all ruined in multiplayer by one of my typical gaming companions: the one who always plays the quirky odd-ball character and messes up everything while somehow managing to come out okay. Imagine BF3: I'll be carefully assaulting a control point, identifying enemies and planning how best to combat them in optimal conditions, then he comes falling out of the sky in an upside-down helicopter covered in C4 and kills everyone while somehow remaining alive.

 

I tend to mean well when playing stealth games; I tend to have a genuine desire to be that unstoppable shadow killer. I also tend to be able to make it work - until everything goes horribly wrong and I am forced to gun down everything that moves. As a result my experiences with stealth games usually ends up with me drenched in blood, standing in the center of a vast pile of corpses maimed to varying degrees.

Somehow it usually works out, and this is particularly true with the Hitman series. I will carefully read the mission briefings, study the maps to find all the weak points and to identify good points of entry. Then I will patiently walk around the level being as inconspicuous as possible when your character is a tall bald man in a suit with a bar code tattoed to his neck. Then I will make my entry, start taking out guards and scoping for the target. During this process I will inevitably screw up badly, and I am thus forced to shoot my way through everyone.

 

To sum it up. It's pretty much: "what have i done??!!" by the time you're done huh?

 

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Ah yes, that certainly is a nice way of summarising it. Thanks.

Commonly I am happy with the result ... happy with having completed the mission at least, but a part of me is always going; "The horror ... the horror!"

 

I definitely prefer having all of the guns. Mass Effect, Diablo, Elder Scrolls, etc. I am always the warrior or the soldier. If it's a game with multiplayer or AI teammates then I will find someone who does the stealth/magic/range attacks while I take the brunt of the damage. I guess I prefer not to worry too much about the details in the games I play? It's funny I say that when I'm obsessive about exploring all of my surroundings and gathering as much inventory as possible.

Another thought, but I find it really neat when games that are traditionally considered hack n' slash (Call of Duty) will have random levels that require you to be stealthy. Sniper levels in COD games come to mind.