I LOVE stealth games.

Such great fun, even if a tad stressful to pull off at times.

I love it. And I’m terrible at it.

I am however world class when it comes to killing everyone after a cockup.

Great video. I hope more stealth games learn from Freelancer and create gameplay where making small mistakes don’t induce complete fail states. I like stealth games for the moment-to-moment gameplay and for the puzzle of figuring out how to navigate a level unseen for that 100% rating, but I also hate stealth games for the constant reloading.

Ever since playing Disco Elysium I’ve started thinking more and more about the fail-forward design philosophy and the general desirability of making failure interesting instead of inciting save scumming. It’s a problem in a lot of games, but none more than stealth games, I think.

I’m still salty about how they fucked up Thief 4.