Finding out the research question.
I have a certain attachement to stealth games, from Metal Gear Solid 3, to Dishonored 2, much of my time in games has either been playing some overly complex roleplaying game like Pathfinder: Kingmaker and Pillars of Eternity or skulking around elaborately put levels, assassinating and thieving my way through metric tons of content. In fact, most games I have finished happen to be of the stealth genre.
It would appear natural, therefore, for me to eventually do or write something around the stealth genre as a whole. So, I knew my question was going to revolve around something I found particularly interesting was how the stealth genre conveys its atmosphere and information to the player. At first the question wasn’t necessarily obvious to me, but I had a habit of watching documentaries and making of videos of games like Mark of the Ninja, and Dishonored. Most notably, this one:
Funnily enough I had never been interested in Mark of the Ninja prior to watching this video, most of my stealth experiences had been along the lines of Hitman, Assassin’s Creed or Dishonored. I thought it would be interesting to discuss how this game and another (which I had no yet decided) would convey the sensation of being a stealthy assassin and rogue.
The problem was that Mark of the Ninja was a topic that many people had already dissected and examined to the point I would be hard pressed to find anything new to say about the game. It is largely recognised as the model 2D stealth game, and has since then proved to be crucial for any other stealth game since.
Feeling like I needed to use a game that provided a similarly niche level of detail and reputation, I discovered Thief: The Dark Project. I had heard of it before, of course, but never truly taken a proper look at it. Again, my main method of research for these games was video essays, documentaries and reviews.
With both games identified, I’ll give a quick once over of each game, some history behind the developers, and why I chose them.