Summary
There are only two ways to win in enemy territory: risking a fight or slipping by. When the odds are bad, it’s better to play it smart. Sometimes, shadowy takedowns just don’t cut it, and just as hidden military bases and battlefields can be dangerous, so can ballrooms and crowded streets. While a typical stealth game involves crouch-walking behind conveniently placed crates or waist-high concrete walls,social stealthprompts the player to blend in with the social environment by using specific disguises and behavior to seem as though they belong there.
While the stealth genre is a dying art, social stealth is even more endangered, which is a real shame, as nothing quite beats the heart-palpating feeling of pulling off masterful espionage right under an enemy’s nose and then slipping away into the herd. Getting the AI to work right and coming up with new and clever ways to hide in plain sight has a much higher development cost than thetraditional crouch-‘n’-stab formula, which might explain why this beloved subgenre is so rarely seen.
Social stealth inVampire: The Masquerade: Bloodlinesplays more of a role than traditional stealth. There is always a tension between unleashing vampire abilities and keeping the mask party under wraps. As well as hiding from the non-vampire herd, players have to navigate the complex web of higher vampire society.
WhileVTM: Bloodlinesdoesn’t focus exclusively on social stealth, keepingthe whole bloodsucking vampire thinga secret from the population is always prioritized (“masquerade” is in the title, after all). While they do have an array of subtle powers to aid them in the task, players must ensure they feed in dark alleyways and keep their powers under wraps, lest they be cast out from the clan.
A social manipulation element is woven into theWatch Dogsseries, perhaps no more than inLegion, in which the population of London can be recruited to liberate the city from cyber oppression. to unlock new characters, the player has to find ways to earn their favor. Certain characters come with special uniforms that give them “uniformed access” to specific locations, such as police stations or hospitals.
Perhaps because of its open-world, sandbox nature, its implementation is far from perfect (for example, recruits from specific areas can be “discovered” at their own workplace), butsocial stealth makes for a powerful toolwhen the alternative of going in guns blazing can mean instant death, which makes pulling off a costumed quest very satisfying.
While social stealth games tend to be on the big, expensive, and difficult-to-program side,The Slaterstands out as an astonishing example of what a single game developer can do for a beloved but massively overlooked genre.The Slateris about an ex-cop investigating his father’s murder.
The eponymous Mark Slater must navigate a criminal network by taking out one target at a time. By taking the bad guys' clothes and identities, he can infiltrate the inner ranks one by one, shutting down a drug distribution ring while getting revenge against his father’s killer.The Slaterhas a consistently high difficulty, mostly due to the old-school lack ofcheckpoints to save the player’s progress, which can sometimes make the game as frustrating as it can be blood-pumpingly tense.
Although the graphics date this game somewhat,Death to Spies: The Moment of Truthis one of the finest examples of a social stealth game that makes a point of conditioning players into thinking like a super spy. Sneaking around ducts or through grass is possible, but since the disguise system is so robust, it wouldn’t make sense to get down in the dust or mud all the time. It’s always clear which disguises should be used and in which areas.
The developers made sure to close logical gaps that would break immersion as much as sense. For example, the player won’t be able to simply take the clothes of a high-ranking officer, since their real face would be so well-known by the subordinates in their area of command. Shooting someone at close range will also causeblood to sully the player’s outfit, so they are incentivized to keep their operation clean.
Although many fans often express their frustration aboutAssassin’s Creed’s lack of a crouch button throughout the series' history, the focus from the beginning was always social stealth. Blending in with monks, manipulating crowds by tossing coins, and hiding between two other calm-headed bench-enjoyers was the way assassins hid in plain sight among the population.
The social stealth elements of the series peaked inAssassin’s Creed 2, as players were asked to withhold their instincts to simply murder everyone in sight and instead think about how they could simply appear as part of the background. The follow-up,Brotherhood, had a multiplayer mode in which friends could test each other’s eyes by pretending to be one of the NPCs before striking out with deadly hidden blades if another player dropped their act at the wrong time.
The true genius ofAmong Uslies in its ability to get real-life human beings to pull off most of the social mechanics required for a social stealth experience. One alien impostor is dropped in with the rest of the ship’s crew. The impostor’s job is to pass all the vibe checks made by their friends as they simultaneously go about slaughtering those foolish enough to walk about in the ship’s guts to fix broken parts by themselves.
The game’s simple appearance masks a highly complicated experience that plays out mostly over chat, using the players' real-life ability todeceive, divide, and conquer. Gamers must truly blend in if they hope to convince other players that they are innocent, especially when they’re not.
Bytreating assassinations like puzzlesthat require a little insight into predictable human behavior and a little identity shifting via various disguises, theHitman: World of Assassinationtrilogy stands as the pinnacle of the social stealth genre.
Players are expected to study routine behavior, master certain expected social cues, and watch for opportunities as they present themselves while thinking logically about how NPCs might perceive them as they undertake their infiltration.
