Best stealth game franchise?

Ah, Metal Gear,,, you mean a stealth game where you kill bosses with Rocket Launchers.

Ha touche. Metal Gear really has its charm though. The only way Metal Gear can lose a poll to Splinter Cell and tie with Thief is if you are PURELY judging the games on their stealth mechanics alone. If you include the whole package (gameplay in general, fun factor, replay value, storyline, narrative, cinematics, voice acting etc) even the worst Metal Gear game is > the best SC/thief/Hitman game.

Some faith renewed for Ass Creed at 0%.

Yeah, thanks for confirmation that Metal Gear is terrible at Stealth. It's a good Action Stealth game with over the top plot but Stealth gameplay mechanics in Thief are way better. It was ahead of its time. In original MGS, you couldn't even hide bodies. Enemies disappear when you disarm them because PS1 hardware had limitations. Thief was first game to allow you to hide enemy bodies. It was also the first game to use Light/Dark system, that later inspired Splinter Cell as well.

Not to mention different surfaces that make different sounds. No cutscene during gameplay and complete simulation of entire level took immersion to next level. MGS was more mainstream but quality wise Thief was better. Thief 2: Metal Age is still considered as the greatest Stealth game of all time by many. MGS would've won if it didn't force you to confront bosses. That's where it loses.

I don't understand why Metal Gear is considered a "stealth" franchise. The most memorable moments in these games are the big action set pieces and boss fights. The whole context of "solo sneaking mission" is laughable these days. The more recent MGS games do not punish you for getting spotted. It turns into a shooter at that point.

Not knocking the MGS games at all, but comparing them to top Stealth elites like Splinter Cell or Hitman has always been crazy to me. MGS have always been action games, and they always will be.

Why does Conviction suck but Blacklist is somehow okay?

I know blacklist has more options and is more refined, but the core of the action is very similar.

Thief.

Because everything else there is stealth-action.

The original thief games.

MGS games are badly written, the voice acting is way too over the top, the cutscenes are unnecessarily lengthy and the gameplay is overly simplified, it mixes stiff stealth gameplay with inefficient third person shooter elements.

So yes Thief is better than MGS.

MGS gets my vote

Call Of Duty is largely why FPS currently remains relevant.

You can't top Metal Gear son

nuff said

Different surfaces make different sounds in MGS as well. Even its 8-bit MSX predecessor Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake did that.

MG2 was on MSX 2.

The first 3 games were amazing.

The first Splinter Cell is pretty gross man. Though I had it on PS2 and Gamecube. I'm guessing the Xbox version was the same and if so, then yeah nothing good there.

Pandora Tomorrow was cool. Still a bit of jank in the single player, but made up for it by introducing a really damn cool online mode. Good game.

And then of course Chaos Theory was fucking amazing. Still one of the best stealth games around. Both the single player and the online were just godly.

Thief*

No other franchise has captured what "stealth" is as well or as in such a deep manner. Well, the first three games in the franchise that is.

tenchu because if i'm going to play like a ninja i might as well be one.

The first 2 Splinter Cells only seem poor after playing Chaos Theory. At the time I first played them, they were my favorite stealth games. I've never been able to get into Metal Gear Solid, though (tried 1 and 2). That's always bugged me because I want to like those games. I just can't play them.

Yeah, MGS is an odd series in so many ways. I'm surprised it got as big as it did. MGSV seems like the first one to have mainstream appeal, but the previous titles have a lot of quirks to get around before you can enjoy them.

And yeah, I can agree that for their time the first two SC games were pretty cool. I never thought the first one was great, but I did appreciate what it was doing. Pandora Tomorrow did seem pretty bad ass at the time though.

One of these days, I'm going to put in Twin Snakes and just make myself play for like 8 hours. I like everything about the game except for the actual playing it part. I think if I could get used to how it plays, I'd enjoy it. It just seems too fast paced for a stealth game or something. I can't quite put my finger on what it is.

You're trash!!!!! LOL

I enjoyed Conviction for the action/revenge kinda game it was, but it was certainly no stealth game. Still, I hope DA, Conviction and Blacklist make the X1 BC list.

You have guessed wrong. That was the Stealth/Action game on Xbox. On PS2 it was fuckin ugly as shit

As much as I loved the earlier Thief games, I don't like it's setting as much as Splinter Cell games. The earlier Splinter Cell games were some of my favorite gaming experiences; so, I'll go with that.

Oh I'm not talking looks. I'm pretty sure the Gamecube version probably looks just as good as the Xbox version anyways. But yeah, PS2 version looked like ass.

I was just wondering if maybe the Xbox version was a different game. Like the way Double Agent was a different game for gen 6 than gen 7. And apparently the gen 6 version was the much better game.

Because really, unless SC1 on the Xbox was some entirely different experience from the other 2 versions, then it was probably every bit as gross.

@ConanTheStoner: Oh I get you. I actually preferred the Xbox version of DA to the 360 one and still own both. I liked SC. I still do. I am an easy critic though