Shade
You’ve just been murdered, and now you have to find out why. You are now a shade, a newly-formed ghost caught between the worlds of the living and the dead. To dig up the truth, you must enter into the minds of your closest friends and family to pry out their darkest secrets. But this new world is a dangerous one, crawling with bizarre creatures and threats. And what you do with the truths you uncover may set you free, or seal your fate forever.
Key Features:
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Play through an engaging stealth system where you use light, sound, and your wits to outsmart enemies.
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Channel unique powers to manipulate the environment and turn the odds in your favor.
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Unlock game-changing traits to play the game your own way.
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Dig through a twisting story to uncover the truth about your identity, and the hidden secrets of those you thought you knew best.
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Sink into an imaginative world filled with lush, hand-drawn art and an original soundtrack.
Read More: Best Singleplayer Indie Games.
Where’s My Lunch?!
Easily the best game released in 2021. The mechanics are incredible, the animation is beautiful, and the voice acting is beyond anything I’ve ever seen. I am so excited for when I get to eat my next lunch. Thank you.
– Real player with 0.3 hrs in game
Read More: Best Singleplayer Funny Games.
Styx: Master of Shadows
SLIGHTLY IMPERFECT BUT WELL-EXECUTED AND TRUE STEALTH GAME
There are three things you need to know about this game.
1. It’s chock full of potty-mouthedness, including from the main character.
2. It is NOT a game you want to play if you like being the alpha badass.
3. It ranks up there with the original Thief games and others (skip down if this is all you care about).
I’ll address these and more in sequence in this review. It’s a long one, but maybe worth the read.
First off, as regards #1 above, if you’re too young, or if you, your parents, or your professed god do not approve of you being exposed to cussing and other adult humor, skip this game, cuz it’s not for prudes. That said, it’s all just words, put-downs, and sarcasm–only a little more advanced than the stuff that your average first-grader might hear daily on the playground or in the back of the school bus. I didn’t see any nudity or erotic content, so you won’t have to worry about that. Nobody was particularly racist, gay-bashing, etc., although masculine status does get insulted in a few spots. There was at least one subtle joke about masturbating–again, nothing that kids don’t know about already. Guards pee, and you can see the stream from any angle, but the source organ is never rendered; in fact, pants never come down, although associated movements do occur. I’d give it a PG-13 if it were a movie.
– Real player with 138.0 hrs in game
Read More: Best Singleplayer Fantasy Games.
Caveat: the recommendation is intended for existing fans of the stealth genre. If you’re not familiar with espionage/infiltration gameplay, you’re unlikely to gain an appreciation for it in “Styx.” Though the story is decent, that plot progression is gated behind some maddeningly patience-trying stealth sequences, especially at the end.
Hope you’re looking for a challenge, because “Styx”, like DMX, is gonna give it to ya. Some of this difficulty is deliberate (enemies such as Knights and Elves, difficulty selections such as ‘Goblin’, mission insignias, etc). Sadly, some of it is a consequence of mixed design goals and sloppy controls/interface. What’s more frustrating than getting caught because, instead of dropping off the ledge to slip past a patrol, you instead slid across that same ledge and climbed up onto the next platform? Rather than the clever use of environmental interaction that worked in the same situation earlier, the same commands now send you on a completely unanticipated course, like some kind of slapstick scene in a comedy show. And in full view of the two Knights and elite crossbowman who had nothing better to do than hang out on the same balcony. All. Fucking. Night. The answer my friends is nothing. Nothing is more frustrating than that.
– Real player with 74.6 hrs in game
Dark effigy
I enjoyed the strange scorpion fellow. The games audio is bad, the jump scares suck, and the character models are terrible. But then again, what did you expect from a two dollar horror game.
– Real player with 0.4 hrs in game
Good job.
– Real player with 0.3 hrs in game
Filcher
Never played thief. I come from a childhood of Splinter Cell. At first I didn’t like it due to the weird mechanics like 2D sprite enemies and lack of a sound meter, lighting that doesn’t exactly look how it acts on the player. But it really does grow on you. A couple missions in and I had got the hang of the game (not to say that it was easy by any means). I love old-school stealth games that are super hard and I’m glad to say I ended up enjoying it. The story is pretty good too, even though it’s decently shallow. I hope to see a sequel at some point.
– Real player with 35.8 hrs in game
THE GOOD: Did you like Thief? You’ll love Filcher. It’s as simple as that. Long, dark shadows, sharp, moody lights, art-deco style, and film-noir tone, ambient sounds that bring nostalgic tears to your eyes, and Dark Engine-like mechanics that bring a familiar smile to your face.
THE NEUTRAL: Some may find the 2D sprite-based enemies and objects strange, but the atmosphere makes up for it.
THE BAD(ISH): At least the protagonist could have been voiced if nothing else. Because that’s all that’s missing from a complete, 100% experience, some good voice performance for greater immersion. Also, the auto-closing feature of the doors is a pretty questionable design choice for this type of game.
– Real player with 15.8 hrs in game
HITMAN™ 2
After 700 hours of playing I’m still enjoying this game.
The storyline of the game (not including Hitman 1 DLC missions) will give you at least 180 hours of gameplay (360 hours including Hitman 1 DLC missions; Sniper missions and Patient Zero DLC ) if you go for all the challenges.
Spoiler alert: the Mumbai challenge “Feed the Birds” is bugged so you cannot achieve 100% game completion (I find this extremely annoying) :|
– Real player with 740.1 hrs in game
I do actually like this game, and I’m probably gonna buy Hitman III instantly when it launches on steam next year, but IO Interactive’s anti-consumer policies is preventing me from recommending this game.
Cons:
•Always online DRM system for a singleplayer game, if your internet disconnects for a second, it tells you either to try to reconnect, or switch to offline mode, which brings us to the next point.
•Your progress in offline mode is null, void, inexistent, since the game only tracks and saves your progress only when you’re online.
– Real player with 235.6 hrs in game
Hitman: Blood Money
Classic Hitman! There’s a reason people say this is the best Hitman game so far, and I totally agree.
I used to play this game in my early teens, and bought it again so I could have it on Steam (yeah, it is THAT good).
The missions are well thought-out, and take place on very unique locations. Each level is completely different from the other, and you never get the “I think I’ve done this before” feeling, because this game completely ditches the “Just go there and kill that guy” mechanic. The methods you choose to kill your target (or targets) really do feel unique, and the same thing will never work twice. You have to analyze your surroundings, the relationship between your targets and think about what will happen if you do X (this is one of the few games I ever played where the mission briefing REALLY is worth reading, because it gives you very important insight on the targets).
– Real player with 74.6 hrs in game
To start off, this game is awesome, and surprisingly good considering its age. I’ve never played a Hitman game before this one, it was cheap and had higher reviews than the other older games in the series, and I would now definitely consider myself a fan of the series.
This game is a “social stealth” game, meaning that you hide in plain sight, utilizing disguises, subterfuge, and clever tricks of your environment to take down your targets, and walk away nonchalantly from either the chaos (if you like a more comedic high profile approach), everyone’s lack of awareness that any killing happened at all (if you want to be a ninja), or from everyone’s shock that a chandelier “accidentally” fell on the party host’s face RIGHT when his wife blew up from a faulty BBQ propane tank (the best, most difficult, and rewarding way to do things).
– Real player with 33.8 hrs in game
Hitman: Contracts
Hitman: Contracts can be summed as “The Dark Hitman”. The ambience of this game is oppressive, with dark environments and terrifying music. This is presented with improved mechanics and a better game flow. Contracts is not as epic as the last one but it has an identity of its own, shuffling from slow, dark moments, to action pieces.
This game was rushed and it shows, with an underdevolped training section and weapons cache, weird graphics and glitched animations (especially the fiber wire ones). The game was also too short so Codename 47 missions were remade (not necessarily surpassing the originals). Contracts is noticiably easier than Hitman 2: Silent Assassin, as gameplay is more consistent, but the fun in this game is to try the many different approaches to missions.
– Real player with 45.0 hrs in game
Of all the games before the success of Blood Money, Hitman: Contracts may not only be the most approachable entry from the classic series, but it also may be the most straightforward in its convoluted mess of a plot. Considering how unbelievably botched was the first game and how questionably broken was its sequel, the state of Contracts as a playable game as well as a modern Hitman entry is an accomplishment in of itself. While this game may play very similar to Silent Assassin, there are enough fine touches to make the engine feel more distinguished from its predecessors, although you can certainly use the same exploits known to the Glacier engine from before.
– Real player with 33.6 hrs in game
Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell®
Splinter Cell is Ubisoft’s response to Metal Gear Solid, and boy did they deliver! The game has amazing graphics for 2002, with light and shadow environments, cloth physics and movement caption, with the epic voice of Michael Ironside as the ex-Navy SEAL, and now NSA agent, Sam Fisher. You are helped and guided by a team of specialists from the Third Echelon, a super secret branch of the National Security Agency (NSA). The controls present some neat flexibility to the player, giving the stealth genre much needed maneuvering space. The game is set in the Clancyverse, so you can expect the usual high-class military-political intrigue coupled with the rough military guys surrounded by state-of-the-art tactical gear; the green googles being the trademark of the Splinter Cell series.
– Real player with 80.4 hrs in game
Splinter Cell is a stealth title that was created as a “Metal Gear Solid 2 killer”; a MGS2 killer it is not.
A good game it is.
Rather than the MGS formula of using enemy line of sight as the danger, Splinter Cell uses light as the catalyst to all stealth play. At the bottom right you have a small bar that shows how visible you are; light sources shoot this bar all the way up and any enemy looking in your general direction will be alerted to your prescence. Sound also plays a role in this, as you can adjust Sam’s move speed by 6 or so degrees. Different floors (wooden, grates, concrete) make different sounds, but the general idea is that in addition to staying out of sight, you must also stay out of sound.
– Real player with 69.0 hrs in game
Dishonored 2
Dishonored 2 - is this a game for you?
Right now, the game is undergoing a spell of patching after a very poor PC release. The game worked for some, but not for many, and so your mileage will vary depending on your PC (not necessarily how powerful it is either - but how balanced, how much VRAM you have and such). As most reviews already centre around performance issues, I won’t spend too much time on those because I’d rather review the game itself but please bear them in mind (they are mentioned in the ‘not so good’ section below)….
– Real player with 111.9 hrs in game
My experience with this game can be summed as thus: every update I found myself testing the changes, nodding in satisfaction, then quitting the game to await the next update.
Arkane knows how to make a good game. No question. But if you film an Oscar-worthy movie and the lens is smudged while filming, you can’t judge what’s underneath without acknowledging what’s been marring your experience the entire time.
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PERFORANCE
Everyone is aware of the performance issues, and these still persist to this day. It runs much better than at launch, where it was literally unplayable, but that’s because the game looks worse than before - the most noticeable change being the extremely aggressive LOD scaling. Out of the corner of your eye you notice the shapes of window frames and posters on distant buildings morphing in shape, or the furniture at the opposite end of a long hallway suddenly blinking into existence. FPS dropped to 15 when stabbing a gravehound, so they simply removed the inky visual effect that was causing the problem instead of optimizing it.
– Real player with 111.0 hrs in game