Quick Look: Stealth Inc. 2: A Game of Clones

This is phat.

I disagree; it's totally sick.

Nah, it's ill!

Took you guys long enough. This was out on Wii U six months ago. Great game.

damn dan sounds like the whitest dork at the start of this

Didn't this come out last year?

Yes, only came out on Wii U last year I think.

So now we can add music to the list of stuff Dan suprisingly doen't really understand.

They don't seem to tell you but apparently if you drop a fully inflated buddy on the turret it will explode. Someone has some splainin to do?

Well this first level points out the obvious problem with the first game. It introduces mechanics without explaining them at all beforehand. Clearly this second game has the same problem.

Edit: And now having seen the solution, yep something not explained at all.

@betaband said:

Dope!

I agree with @DanRyckert; the background is a bit too busy. Sometimes it was hard for me to distinguish between a wall and the something you could just walk through.

Shit's rope.

Really do want to watch this..

But its a puzzle game where they are doing things they have not yet solved/do not have a solution right on hand. Which means that if you happen to figure out the puzzle 10 (or in this case 20+) minutes before they do, it becomes an infuriating, frustrating experience.

A baddly designed puzzle game is one of the worst possible experiences. Like, you don't get that "aha! I did it!' you get a "Those idiots didn't even tell me I could do that!" after completing it. Ugh.

I confuse this game with Stealth Bastard. Watevs, ditch those and play Mark of the Ninja .

@ripelivejam:

I agree.

The Video Was Phat.

@cyberfunk: It was originally Stealth Bastard. Changed to Stealth, Inc. to be less edgy, I guess?

Anyway, first was a whole lot of fun. I'll check this one out, too.

Wow, seeing the solution to that puzzle makes me want to totally write this game off.

The dev had to change the name to be published on the PS3/Vita

@cyberfunk said:

It is the Stealth Bastard series, just they changed the name because the certification requirements for some of the consoles require that you can't have offensive language in the title of the game.

I'm so rope they call me Mr Roper.

Aside from the stealth aspect, they're completely incomparable games though.

Cloning Clyde T-Shirt

Brad, what the heck are you on about, everyone says phat beats.

Yea, it's a shame they're trying so hard to actively ignore anything on Wii U that isn't impossible to ignore. Despite the recent PS4/Vita release there has still been no Scram Kitty Quick Look, another brilliant former Wii U exclusive from last year. But hey, at least they finally looked at Stealth Inc 2...

"a game of clones". i already don't like this game

This is the 2D version of stealth espionage action I always wanted. Stealth Bastard is really good and Stealth Inc. just made it better. I hope if there is a next version it focuses on sneaking past humans and includes boss levels or something similar.

Also, I can confirm the beats are phat.

@def: dont be sad anyone who owns a wii u already knows exactly what titles to buy - I guess you could make the argument it would be cool if everyone else saw how cool the game was. But we cant play em either way

Brad cementing his reputation.

Came out on Wii U last October. Bummer it didn't get it's due at release or the couple of times it's been discounted since then.

Music almost sounds like its from Attack the Block.

Another video that really didn't need to be nearly an hour long, guys. I know GB's known for long videos, but most games don't need to be shown for that amount of time.

"Who woulda thought?"

"Me!"

Almost spit out my dang coffee there, Dan!

The name of this game kinda bumming me out.

Want to echo the sentiment that it's super lame that this game didn't get any coverage when it came out months ago. Wonder if the same indifference is going to keep them from looking at something like Affordable Space Adventures.

Someone say shit rope?

@falling_fast: I think you meant to say "I already don't like this name"

Game, you have to be better at puzzle design. Teach the player the game mechanic before making a puzzle out of it. Valve is super good at that stuff, play Portal 2, or listen to the commentary.

By that I mean- make sure the player uses the mechanic by accident and sees what it does.

Let's say place a turret under the player, under the floor, and a climbable ledge right next to the player, but just beyond reach. When the player uses the inflatable block thing to climb it, the block passes through the floor and the turret goes boom (make sure that that is the only outcome, and that the turret will ALWAYS blow up). That shows the player that hey- this is how you can use this thing. I guess that's almost what they've been going for there, but really did not pull that off?

Or, you know, make sure it's super obvious the first time that you have to use it. Like, make the puzzle laughably easy, just to create that connection in the player's brain.

@wemibelec90 said:

Just don't watch as much of it and pretend the video was however long you wanted it to be.

@owl_face said:

@larrydavis said:

@professoress said:

Shit's rope.

I'm so rope they call me Mr Roper.

Someone say shit rope?

How about you fuck off, Lahey, you stupid asshole, and take your fatass cheeseburger whore with you.

@twolines: Thanks for the comment twolines. I was lead level designer on this game, and have probably watched around a thousand people play through this game at various expos and internally.

This puzzle usually isn't a problem. However, I do find that when people record playthroughs while simultaneously narrating and having a conversation with someone else, their brain isn't really focused on solving puzzles as efficiently as it should be, and I certainly wouldn't redesign a game because of one user experience.

Also, the example you describe of forcing a situation where a block lands on an enemy to explode... this literally happens 2 or 3 levels before this one. It also happens during the intro to the game where a Clone gets exploded in the same way. This was done intentionally for the sake of the player's muscle memory. I suppose there are enough videos out there of the first chapter though, so the GB guys wanted to show something different.

@larrydavis said:

@owl_face said:

@larrydavis said:

@professoress said:

Shit's rope.

I'm so rope they call me Mr Roper.

Someone say shit rope?

How about you fuck off, Lahey, you stupid asshole, and take your fatass cheeseburger whore with you.

Jeeze. You know the classic B-Boy line and a classic Lahey diss ...and you have a Vinny avatar.

You're a triple-threat!

(I have this eerie feeling I'm actually going to bump into you at the rally in Halifax tomorrow)

Sorry, I wasn't trying to badmouth the game, or the work that was put into it. I guess I'm a nasty case of a backseat designer, which, I know, is the worst. I do think the game is neat, I just hate getting stuck in video games like this, but I guess that happens even if the game is polished, and the ideas thought-through.

Also- it's neat that the people that do the work read these comments, but you really shouldn't take what's being said here too seriously. I'm just an internet asshole.

Anyhow, I was overly harsh saying it needs to be better at puzzle design. After all, this is only a Quick Look and I have not seen the final product.

@twolines: Hey! No problem, I didn't mean to make you feel bad, I know how the internet is! Your suggestions were sound.

I can tell you this much though, every game you ever comment on, you can be pretty sure that many people on the dev team will read it. Having just spent months or years (sometimes decades!) making it, the internet is a great place to find honest impressions ;)

Makes sense. It's what I would do.

@ajaxpliskin I think you can take comfort in knowing that your game has "phat beats".

AjaxPliskin, the first warning sign was Brad playing a puzzle game, it never ends well !