Welcome to Stealth-Action... With Crafting!

 

Is nothing sacred anymore? Just watched the new trailer for Oddworld Soulstorm and ou baby, is it something. Oddworld Inhabitants took something so interesting and so unique and turned it into another stealth-action-with-crafting game. Stealth action used to refer to stealth being the source of the entertainment, like the old Splinter Cell games. “Stealth action redefined.” Now it just refers to the fact you CAN stealth but you COULD be an action movie star. Developers use it as a giant net to try and catch as many peoples interest as possible but I find in most cases the games come across as lacking. I understand everyone needs to make a buck. I mean, it’s too bad more people don’t like stealth games or lack the patience but. I love when games do so much with so little. Soulstorm might be really good. Who knows; everyone in the comments was real excited about what they were seeing. It will be nice to see more of the Oddworld creatures and locales.

I feel very few games get the stealth right in stealth action. I think Splinter Cell Blacklist (which came out like 8ish years ago now) and the Dishonored games have a good balance because they focus on stealth. If you want to go all out, guns blazing you can but it’s not exactly encouraged. Games like Tomb Raider or Horizon Zero Dawn just don’t do stealth well because it’s not viable in the game. It seems to me they want you to engage in action sequences and the stealth is an afterthought. It’s hard to get through any area without being caught, if it’s even possible. I don’t know, doesn’t seem it to me in certain spots but I could just be bad. Recently I was playing New Game+ on Horizon and was able to stealth through some areas, mostly human camps, but I had all the best gear and skills. I pretty much could run and not get detected. I shouldn’t have to play New Game+ to have a proper stealth experience. I still think that Ghost Recon Future Soldier had the best balance I’ve seen. The game knows what it is, you have your stealth bits, you have your action parts and there are some areas where if you muck up the stealth it goes into action without giving you a “mission fail.” I just think the more recent Ghost Recon games went too far with that idea and made two whole games with that in mind.

            I think when developers focus on one aspect for a game and not trying to please everyone is when a game succeeds. When you try to add all sorts of elements usually something falls flat. It’s a very tricky thing to get everything to work right and to have a good stealth experience and an action game. Wet for instance knew what it was. Admittedly it wasn’t a great game but it was fun for what it was. It knew it was an action movie and it was just over the top and good time overall. The Division 2 also knows what it is. It’s about going from A to B and shooting anyone in your path. It’s simple, it’s engaging and although it’s quite repetitive, it’s still nice to come back to from time to time.

            I’ll give Soulstorm a chance. To see a different side of Oddworld might be enough to give it a shot but I’ll have to wait and see. Since they are familiar with stealth gameplay, hopefully they’ll build off of that and the action bits won’t suffer. I seem to be in the minority of most things gaming lately. Maybe it’s just because I’m getting older, maybe I’m getting more cynical, I don’t know. Who knows? Whatever, time to be all done. What’re your thoughts on stealth-action-with-crafting? Until next time.

                              @AztecSauce                                   @H4mmerBros