Assassins Creed Chronicles Russia is a game I liked quite a bit, but that's not what I want to discuss right now. Instead I want to discuss one short sequence in the game that encapsulates everything I don't like about stealth games. For reference ACC: Russia is a 2.5D stealth platformer spin off of the Assassins Creed series.

In the particular sequence being discussed you're playing as an Assassin named Orelov and you're infiltrating a facility. I was playing no kill through the level for an achievement, but that doesn't actually factor into this particular sequence, where being able to kill enemies wouldn't change very much. It's also important to note that at this point in the game you instantly fail the mission if you get spotted. Yes, it's one of those.

The setup for the sequence is pretty simply. You need to get a code to get through a security door. That code is down a hallway, which is mined. So you have to do the following series of actions.

1) Steal a magnetic key from a guard who is in front of the door you need the code to enter, talking to another guard who is also watching him.

2) Go down the hallway to a room with a telephone.

3) Dispose of the guards in that room.

4) Use a telephone to distract the guard who has the code.

5) Steal the code from that guard.

6) Loop around behind the first set of guards and enter the code.

This whole process probably takes about a minute to a minute and a half, but though the actions you take are relatively simple they involve an intricate series of moves to pull off. For example to pickpocket the magnetic key that lets you bypass the mines you need to first get close to the chatting guards by hiding behind a pillar. Then you need to watch and learn their behavior loop in order to find a split second gap during which you can sneak in behind the guard while he's on the radio and the other guard is looking behind himself and pickpocket the key. This is a tiny little window of time. Then you need to book it out of there before they turn around and spot you. I'd say that this probably takes 2 seconds and the game gives you about a 2.5 second window to pull it off.

The other challenging moment here is when you're clearing the telephone room of guards. When you enter there's only one in the room. If you try to sneak up behind him another guard will enter from doors on the other side of the room and you need to immediately hide behind a pillar, let him pass, let the other guard pass, and then incapacitate that guard after the guard who entered through the doors has left through them. The guard always enters after you pass a certain point in the room (you can't just wait for him behind the pillar) and you probably have 1 second to get behind the pillar, a process that takes about 2/3rds of a second.

Everything else you do in this sequence is relatively easy, but those actions have miniscule room for error. It's very easy to mess up. The game is pretty touchy about where you are when you try to duck behind the pillar so if you're a few pixels off your character won't move and you'll get caught. Likewise in order to pickpocket the magnetic key you need to crouch first and then press and hold the steal button. If you press and hold the steal button before you're done crouching your character won't do anything and you're screwed. These are very precise actions with no margin for error. It's also possible to screw up other moments. For example when you go to steal the documents from the guard on the phone if you're running to him and you hit the crouch button to get ready to steal while running you will instead slide, and that will alert him and end the mission. Or if you press the attack button to incapacitate the guard in the telephone room at the wrong moment, like when he's in an animation to check the doors, you will hit him with your rifle instead of choke him and have to start the run again.

To learn what exactly what I had to do and to execute it perfectly took me probably 15-20 loops. Like many stealth games the game loves to spring surprises on you that you can't possibly react to if you don't know what's coming. The guard coming out of the doors behind you (which is programmed as a surprise, not on a timed loop) is the biggest example but there are lots of false windows to pick pocket things and there's another guard's search pattern that appears seemingly out of nowhere and is hard to avoid if you don't have its timing down.

That in and of itself is not a big deal, but the problem is that this sequence involves a ton of waiting. Even after the waiting you need to do to observe the guard loops and figure out when you can move, just for your first opening to appear you need to wait behind the pillar for like 20 seconds. Then after you trigger the guard in the telephone room you need to hide behind the pillar and wait. You need to wait for your moment to dart in behind the guard you distract by the phone and steal the code.

Many games require you to try difficult sequences repeatedly until you perfect them, but in most genres you're not just sitting there doing nothing. Even if you're fighting a boss with limited vulnerability windows you're at least dodging stuff, or parrying, or doing something besides...nothing. Looping through sequences over and over where most of the sequence involves just waiting for animations to play out is BORING and frustrating. I play video games to play video games. This is gameplay that's as engaging as sitting at a stoplight with your foot on the brake, which is not something most people enjoy.

Defenders of stealth games will say that some games don't spring nasty surprises on you, or give you the tools you need to make things happen, or are intuitive enough and tactically diverse enough not to run into these problems. They're right. I played through the Hitman 1 levels in Hitman 3 when that came out and while there is some waiting in that game you generally don't have to wait in the same place over and over. You can also save anywhere, instead of relying on checkpoints, so you don't have to repeat the same boring sequences over and over because you can just use saves to focus on the part that's giving you trouble. I really liked Hitman!

But Hitman is the exception rather than the norm. Most stealth games have sequences like this one. Areas where you have to spend a bunch of time just doing nothing. That may be okay if you're at least observing guards and learning something, but once you're just trying to mechanically execute something that you've already figured out, it's just dead time and it's bad design. I shouldn't have to suffer through a minute of waiting for 3 seconds of relevant action, especially when that action is incredibly precise and difficult to pull off consistently!

I don't hate stealth games. I even liked ACC: Russia itself. But I think that the makers of these games need to think more about wasting the player's time in the worst way possible...doing literally nothing. The best in the genre find ways around it, but most games aren't going to be the best, and a bad stealth game is more boring and frustrating than just about any other gaming experience.

I just basically have decided that if a game has frustrating or un-fun stealth, I'll either just power through it (if it isn't primarily a stealth game) and just not worry about being perfect, or I'll just drop it entirely if it IS a stealth game and is bad at the things you describe. One of the reasons I will go back to Mark of the Ninja every few years is because that game really finds this great balance of making you feel like a master ninja when everything clicks, it gives you the leeway to fuck up and still recover from it, and if you want to 100% it, it isn't THAT grueling because of largely good level and game design and checkpointing.

I only every tried AC: China of these sidescrolling AC games and it was enough to make me not want to play the rest of the series even though I am pretty sure I own them because I somehow own EVERY AC game.

@bigsocrates: I think im always drawn to stealth playthroughs of games or stealth games in general because there is something rewarding to being able to beat a level/game/section without being caught or seen. For me it stems all back to the original hitman game(long before the reboot), but some games really ruin stealth by either making it super boring (lot of waiting for one window) or by making it super unforgiving (losing at being seen, bad checkpoints). It sounds like this game miraculously does both in one section, which is an accomplishment in itself.

@imunbeatable80: When stealth works well it can feel great, but most stealth games expect you to learn levels by trial and error and I do not like trial and error gameplay. It really takes me out of the game and ruins the narrative etc... for me. Watching your character die 10 times before succeeding doesn't make me think "he finally made it" it just makes me think "well if this were an actual story he'd be dead."

ACC: Russia isn't actually a bad game. It's kind of a stealth puzzle platformer (very different from India and China in a lot of ways) but this section was really bad.

One of my biggest pet peeves in games is when developers can't get the controls to work perfectly but also don't want to make the game easier to match the fidelity of the controls that are actually in the game instead of the ones they wish were in the game and just kind of throws the whole mess in the players' laps and says "HERE! You deal with it!"

Usually by having to replay sections over and over until the controls work right.

@bigsocrates: oh we are in agreement there.. If the game is rewarding enough im willing to try a section a handful of times. But a bad stealth game means im either going to drop the game completely or give up and go loud (if that is an option)

@imunbeatable80: @bigsocrates Yeah the controls on stealth games have to be fluid with the actions on screen. It's why MGSV or Last of Us 2's ability to dive and hide at a second's notice was so satisfying without you even knowing why, for most gamers. I love stealth and enjoy the wait, the thinking out my actions, the planning, etc. So the mission failed you were seen thing doesn't bother me (splinter cell 1, I always plan to not get scene anyway.) as much as others. I figure if the game just makes it so I can run back and cover and the ai acts like I never got scenes I might as well play an action game and slash my way out. That's why I feel Assassin creed isn't or hasn't really been a stealth game since it incentivizes just ramboing if you want. I'm glad they added more sections where you can sneak and get through sections without fights. A big reason stealth games aren't made much, besides the age-old take that they're boring cause you have to wait around, etc, they don't sell to audiences cause of lack of action, and more, THE BIGGEST ISSUE is they can be short if your good at stealth. Ideally, your not scene, and a good stealth game has many opportunities to mess with ai and get past large sections. Execs aren't too happy that devs worked on a room for a month and the gamer got through it in 1 minute in a vent. Deus ex, is so much fun cause they say F it, let them mess with the game, skip entire sections, etc.

My favorite stealth attempt was when in Deus ex I found some boxes and figured I could stack them like stairs, so I did carefully, (they fell a lot) and climbed to the ceiling of a level (seemed like I wasn't supposed to, (walked around and noticed a vent, opened it, and got into the level, skipping an entire several sections due to my ingenuity. That's fun stealth. I agree unfun stealth can be too rigid. Hand-holding my stealth with only one path is no fun too. It's hard. Still like those chronicles games though I heard they got worst as they went on so maybe that's why that one was bad.

@topcyclist: Deus ex is a good example, but its also one of those games where if shit goes bad.. you can recover without having to do the whole mission over.

Its telling that my favorite "stealth" games are in fact games that you don't have to engage in stealth at all if you want: Hitman, dishonored, deus ex, splinter cell