So unless I'm misremembering, Ben at some point said that he died something like 18 times on one of the stealth sections during the bombcast. At the time I had yet to play the game so I didn't know if the stealth was just really hard or poorly designed or what.

Having talked about the stealth sections again during the most recent bombast, I remembered the above statement from Ben.

I died a grand total of one time across the entire games stealth sections and found them fairly fun and easy. The only one I died on was the first one with MJ infiltrating Tombstones shop.

So having said that, I'm genuinely curious if the general consensus was that these sections were hard? How many times did you guys die and was it a frustrating portion of the game?

18 sure sounds like a lot. I played at medium difficulty and messed up maybe three times in total.

I didn’t find them to be anything amazing in comparison to the spectacular gameplay as Spidey, but as far as stealth sections in games go, they definitely didn’t dent my enjoyment of the game in any major way.

For the most part, I cleared about half of them without dying. There was the one with Miles and Rhino that I died twice at the end, because I thought it was telegraphed poorly where they wanted you to go. I died another three times in the penthouse with MJ, but that was only because I tried to take down ALL the guards like it was an MGS badge of honor. I expected the Sable camp to be difficult, but I was surprised that I blazed through that one quickly. Otherwise, the game telegraphs it pretty clearly, so I didn't find it difficult.

Like previously mentioned, it didn't detract from the overall game significantly, for me. Sure, it was dull, simplistic, and slowed the game down. I didn't find it particularly distasteful, nor repulsive. I just wish these sequences had more plot payoff (like the penthouse one), for as many as there are.

I think I did the first two or three or so without getting caught. However, for the rest of them, I'd often die... let's say up to 8 times. They're very guided experiences, so if you see where you're going and take it slow, you're usually good. But if you, say, think they're hella boring and try hurrying through walking faster, throwing lures a lot, geting more people in the back than necessary etc, then your ass is gonna get caught a few times. Least mine was. That's part of why they felt so miserable to me, rather than giving me a freeform section to stealth through it felt like I was just trying to guess where the devs wanted me to go, and when you get caught it's see you later, Space Cowboy with no outs. Getting caught in such a frustrating way, for what feels like going outside of the rails and trying to be creative, exacerbates the frustration and makes me more likely to go in angry the next time too.

They brought one back for the DLC. Got caught several times on that one, too.

Maybe 4 times total, and they were my fault for rushing through

I listened to Ben describe those sections before playing them as well so I was expecting the worst.

To be honest I thought they worked well.

The MJ one in Grand Central Station was one of my favorite parts on the game

I think I died just once on a Miles one.

They are not a big deal and very short, so I really neher got where all the negative fuss came from. It's kinda ridiculous.

I get that a lot people think they aren't fun (they are not great) but all the rushing that then seems to happen is so counterprodcutive, it reminds me of every single video starring Brad.

@redhotchilimist: I don't think any of them outside of the Penthouse and Rhino/Miles ones last longer then 5 minutes of game time. So having said that, wasn't rushing through and getting caught as many as 8 times and having to reload, actually making them take way longer then they should have?

Once on the Miles one, and like three times on the MJ ones. They really aren't difficult, just boring and needless. They could have found a better way to convey plot from a different perspective, I'm sure. The only good one was the one where you are working in tandem with Spidey.

@liquidprince: Of course it was making it take longer. Do you think that made me more annoyed or less annoyed as I replayed them?

A lot because I was trying to rush through them

Once

Maybe 6 times total? And that was being impatient, rushing forward, and taking more risks than I probably should. The game is very forgiving of you almost running through everything. Basically wait for the person to turn their back (usually from a lure) and then sprint. They were mostly short sections that weren't hard. Even when you die they have pretty good checkpointing, so idk why Ben and Dan felt so strongly about them. It seemed like a minor distraction that didn't happen nearly as much or last as long as they implied.

Not much but like, that’s no excuse? They’re still awful (except the Grand central one).

I remember dying 2-3 times in the Rhino/Miles one simply because I didn’t know where to go. Every other time I died was because I was trying to rush through, but I did because of how mindlessly boring I found them.

They’re poorly designed and boring, never frustrating. I still wish they weren’t there, I’d take cutscenes over that any day.

Just want to make clear, I’m sure the dev had a better developed idea when they were thinking about those and it didn’t end up as wanted or they didn’t have the time to make them as interesting as they wanted. I’m not trying to attack them here.

A handful of times, mostly because I became too brazen.

I actually liked those sections for the most part. Fun diversion from the standard gameplay, easy enough, never too long and they kept changing things up later on.

Not too often. Probably the most during the Grand Central sequence, just because there are a lot of fun little quirks you can toy around with there. Did you know Mary Jane can use the Osborn platform to go invisible at one point? A lot of fun.

EDIT: Oh, wait. Hold on. Just remembered: Definitely had one trouble spot during the Rhino sequence and then quite a bit of trouble during the sequence where MJ is breaking in to the Sable compound to meet with the doctor. That one features a number of branching paths, making it hard for me to keep an eye on the crisscrossing lines of sight.

I probably died 5ish times total. Most of them was me just rushing through it (if there's a clear path to the checkpoint, nobody will spot you if you sprint). I think I died to a boss character once or twice because I was being stupid.

They were an ok little diversion to the main game, some were better than others. It was a little ham-fisted whenever it was set up. "Go meet MJ here and have her recap a stealth section".

Stealth sections were really designed for just about anybody to get through them. I can't imagine people having a hard time with them... The best level in the game was the Grand Central stealth sequence IMO.

Not more than once for any of them. I thought they were all very straightforward, if not a little too easy. I guess when you're swinging around carelessly for hours, but then you are asked to slow down and start contemplating your moves, that can throw your game off. But overall I don't understand the hate for the stealth sections. They were somewhat forgettable, but they were fine.

I think I only died twice, both as Miles. I failed the Spider-Man stealth challenges a few times because I was going for gold and I had to learn the guard patterns.

The ones I remember taking a few tries were the apartment, the compound, and Rhino. Like others mentioned, that Rhino one was poorly telegraphed, the others were on me.

They were at their best when you're working with Spidey.

I remember the retry taking too long, which added to the frustration. And they were like action game set pieces, in that when you fail them once whatever good they had going for them is gone and you're just going through motions.

Like, 3 times? They're pretty straight-forward. I think a couple were for the Rhino part. Oof. Felt like a Dead Space death, even without the gore. Other time would've been me being hasty in the apartment. Also unpleasant when you fail.

A LOT during the first real Miles one. Something didn't load properly in the game, so I couldn't see some stuff, like the broken glass RIGHT at the start of the level, so it took a few tries before I realized "Wait...I think I hear glass when I'm walking here." Also, during the Rhino "fight" I died a few times, because I was trying to move quickly through the stealth garbage so I could get back to the game being fun, and would actually go a bit faster than the game wanted me to go which lead to a lot of deaths.

...The stealth segments in this game were absolute trash. I hated them so damn much. I think I'm on the last MJ one right now, but as soon as I saw that it was transitioning to another stealth segment, I turned the game off and haven't played it since. I'll finish it sometime after RDRII.

I stepped on noisy shit on the ground a few times because I stopped paying attention but otherwise I don't see what's so bad about them. It's all very on rails, follow the path stop following the path when someone is looking at it, throw the thing to distract someone..ect.

They're not exciting enough to justify really having them but they were otherwise fairly harmless.

I got stuck a couple times during the section where Miles is attempting to sneak through the barricades to F.E.A.S.T. I remember taking the high ground route and being really confused about how to drop down and hang a right over the wall without the guard turning and seeing me; after a few fails, the game seemed to get it hadn't designed that route as well and just reset me back at the branching path which was nice.

I got caught once as MJ but I have no idea which mission that was on, and I got caught once again with Miles during the Rhino section but that was more of a puzzle section than a stealth section and I was legitimately nervous I'd screw up so of course I did. Otherwise I also found them a fine change of pace and thought it was a cool way to involve other important characters to the franchise that would/could totally get their own b plots in any given film or comic.

After reading through this thread, seems like most of the distaste for these sections comes from them not being exciting enough, or too much of a change from the regular game, or not being complex enough. Me personally, I enjoyed the change of pace and a chance to take a breath and see the world from someone else's eyes, and I really enjoy solving puzzles but I am not very good at them so I honestly loved all of the puzzle options in this game. From spectrographs to stealth, everything was pretty straight forward and simple, all you had to do was be patient and execute. I got the sense of accomplishment I was looking for, the sense of immersion I think the devs were going for, with none of the frustration I typically attribute to puzzlers, even other so-called straightfoward fare like Limbo.

I rushed through them and only got caught 5 times. They weren't my favorite parts of the game, but it was nice to play as the other characters and they weren't nearly as common as Ben made it seem in his review.

The only times I "died" were towards the end when I tried to rush through an area because I was fucking sick of doing these missions. Only the Miles one with Rhino was any interesting.

Actually, I take that back, the one with MJ in Grand Central where you trigger Spidey to take guys out was pretty good.

maybe once or twice because i just wanted to rush threw those garbage sections. they were pretty easy like most things in that game.

I died like twice, not sure why he has such trouble but I wouldn’t consider it a real issue at all.

Probably five times total. I wouldn't say the sections were fun (Grand Central exluded), but I definitely didn't have a problem with them.

I didn’t die until the Rhino section then I died like 15 times. I hated that part.

Late to the party, but I finally got around to Spider-man. Zero difficulty with any of the stealth or stealth-adjacent sections of the game.

I thought the stealth was simple casual stealth, like the Arkham games.

I died a few times between all the stealth sections. The only time I really stumbled was my first time walking by cardboard boxes as MJ. Learned that my hitbox was a littlr wide and moved on.

i died maybe twice. Easy refreshing palate cleansers before getting back into Spidey action.

2 or 3 times total for me, only when rushing, 18 seems completely over the top / hyperbolic tbh. I also thought they were a welcome break from the main open world stuff and they were short and easy enough to cause little stress or frustration.

I died quite a bit but I tried to go through them as fast as possible because I thought they were mind numbingly boring.

@sloppydetective: I died 3 to 5 times for similar reasons... I wanted them to be over ASAP. They were unneeded, boring, and the only thing I disliked about the game. The MJ stuff was really dumb since she kept putting herself in danger and surviving through luck.

I died a few times. They were terrible sections. I think it's funny that people took Ben SUPER DUPER literally when he said 18. He was just being hyperbolic because he hated those parts. And he justifiably hated them because they were bad.

It probably averaged out to about 3 deaths per section, though some were much harder than others. The checkpointing was usually good enough that they didn't bug me to play. My main problem with them is that they exist in service of providing the other characters something to do in the name of demonstrating how useful Miles and MJ are and how Peter needs to accept help from time to time but there isn't a one where it wouldn't have been better to be Spider-Man, which undoes all that. Is MJ really a better reporter than Peter is detective if all she does is narrowly escape death sneaking into deadly places he'd be able to clean out no problem?

I died no more than two or three times across all the stealth sections. They seeme designed in such a way to encourage you to rush through the area as quickly as possible, which was sort of odd. I believe the Miles one near town hall was the hardest for me. They're not great, but as long as I didn't linger or think too hard about when to travel it became a pretty natural hop from one hiding spot to the next.