Gamers who played their fair share of stealth games remember moments of pure suspense. Imagine, in Hitman, Agent 47 only has his trusty fiber wire and Silverballers to take out enemies in highly-populated areas. Meanwhile, Sam Fisher has to make full use of his MAWS Rifle and signature Multi-Vision Goggles to dispatch hostiles in his Splinter Cell missions. Each assassin has to use their environment to its maximum potential. Moreover, should time permit, they need to be as creative with their kills as possible—the result: sheer suspense, pure awesomeness.
However, in a gaming world where players treat gaming recommendations as a sacred treasure, one game has to stand at the top of the stealth genre pedestal. Will Agent 47 and his policy of clean kills dominate, or will Sam Fisher's military prowess take the crown?
10 Hitman: Wear The Shoes Of An Assassin
Players of Hitman take on the role of Agent 47, an assassin working for the International Contract Agency. Unlike other members of the agency, Agent 47 is a clone - a storyline that the games will explore. As a hired assassin, players get immersed with being briefed in contracts, meeting high-profile clients, and being supplied with dangerous weapons.
Immersion-wise, Hitman serves as an excellent game for players enthralled with spy-fi and fiction surrounding assassins. This premise captures the idea of moving in a hostile environment with no backup, and with Agent 47 only relying on his skills.
9 Splinter Cell: Deep Dive Into Military Realism
Despite the lack of any involvement from the acclaimed Tom Clancy, Splinter Cell takes a lot from other Tom Clancy titles such as Ghost Recon and Rainbow Six. Unlike the other games, Splinter Cell puts players in the shoes of just one agent - Sam Fisher - working for the National Security Agency (NSA). However, like the other titles above, Splinter Cell approaches the genre from the perspective of military realism.
This premise means that players can expect Splinter Cell titles to take a lot of military concepts in real life. These concepts range from weapons and armaments, organizations and missions, and even stories in the game itself. Players who want to experience games from the perspective of spec-ops agents can expect an incredibly realistic take on tasks from Splinter Cell.
8 Hitman: Eliminate Targets
As with the game's title, Hitman puts players in missions where they have to assassinate assigned targets. Since Agent 47 is a hitman, he's given the freedom to approach tasks in a variety of means. Ideally, the game rewards players for approaching missions stealthily. Thanks to a handy Suspicion Meter, Agent 47 needs to plan his approach carefully as enemies get suspicious quickly. However, Agent 47 has a couple of tricks up his sleeve. These skills include making disguises, hiding unconscious enemies, and even using the environment to his advantage.
Likewise, Agent 47 can also outright slaughter his opponents. With enough weapons, Agent 47 can enter his target's location and eliminate them alongside other hostiles. Hitman gives players the freedom of choice in their missions. Thanks to Elusive Targets, recent Hitman games now offer players the ability to pursue special targets - these time-limited targets can only be pursued once and will never be available to eliminate once they fail.
7 Splinter Cell: Acquire The Objective
Splinter Cell amps up the difficulty for players with the nature of its missions. Across all games, Splinter Cell encourages players to remain hidden and accomplish objectives without detection. Sam Fisher comes equipped to eliminate targets should the need arise, but the emphasis on stealth makes every mission a fun challenge.
Moreover, cooperative modes in future installments let players work together to achieve missions while remaining stealthy. This factor gives players the feeling of working as a "Splinter Cell" or an elite specs-ops team. Future games give Sam Fisher the means of upgrading his loadout throughout missions, making his weapons much more customizable.
6 Hitman: Get Creative With The Open Environment
Stealth fans love Hitman not just for the open environment, but the flexibility it provides them. Unlike other stealth games, recent Hitman titles allow players to use the massive mission setting to plan their respective approaches to taking out their mark. Moreover, titles like Hitman 2 can offer sprawling environments with hundreds of NPCs with their routine and reactions to situations involving the player.
The openness of mission settings allows players to conduct their missions in different ways. They can opt for the usual "disguise until you're with the mark alone" approach. More creative players try to find environmental triggers or items that their marks can interact with and kill them, such as poisons or being electrocuted.
5 Splinter Cell: Get Creative With Restrictions
Unlike Hitman, players of Splinter Cell find Sam in more restrictive environments. They have a particular objective to do, and they often need to do it in enclosed spaces filled with enemies. In most Splinter Cell titles, most NPCs are hostiles. And coupled with the stealth-first approach of the game, Splinter Cell immediately gives an air of challenge to players.
Whereas Hitman's open environment helps players get creative, Splinter Cell does the same with its settings. Since missions occur in small areas, Sam has to fully make use of everything in his environment to his advantage. These elements, coupled with various mission objectives, make Splinter Cell much more challenging.
4 Hitman: Essential Kills
While Hitman offers multiple approaches to missions, the goal is the same: eliminate a target. In the series, Agent 47 can choose to kill no one but the mark or kill everyone and the target. It's really up to how the player plans their approach and what enemies blow their cover. Thanks to Agent 47's arsenal of weapons and skills, players can easily take care of enemies that get in their way.
However, players who want a bit of challenge can test themselves and see how they can take care of their targets silently. The vast open nature of the game lets players go all out with their creativity.
3 Splinter Cell: Essential Stealth
Many players praise Spinter Cell due to its faithfulness to the stealth genre. Some missions in the series require Sam to go to specific locations or steal pieces of data, meaning players don't necessarily have to kill any enemies in missions.
Moreover, most of the games reward players with achievements for completing the entire game without any kills. Players know proceeding in missions without killing anyone can be ridiculously hard. However, the fact that devs see this challenge and actively reward players who pursue this make Splinter Cell incredibly memorable as a stealth title.
2 Hitman: Go For The Replay Value
Stealth players don't just love Hitman for the memorable missions and open environments. They also love Hitman for its sheer replay value. Players who want to improve their stealth game can go back to any level and approach their missions differently.
Thanks to NPCs and their targets having routines and responses to interactions, players can never play any two missions the same way. With these elements in mind, Hitman can quickly get into anyone's best stealth game due to the replay value. One can get just one Hitman game and have hundreds of hours' worth of content.
1 Splinter Cell: Go For The Spy-Fi Story
Unlike Hitman, many Splinter Cell fans love the series for its immersive and realistic take on the spy-fi genre. Whereas other stealth games can go ridiculous with its concepts of secret agents and clandestine organizations, Splinter Cell tries to be as real as possible with its concepts. As such, both newbies and enthusiasts of the spy-fi genre can recognize and learn about real-life weapons and ideas that often get depicted exaggeratedly by other genres.
Fans of Splinter Cell can go back to the series and play the entries again not just for the replay value, but with the level of realism present in each level.