Stealth movement
Movement mechanics tuned for avoiding detection — crouching, sneaking, using cover and shadow, controlling noise — that trade speed for concealment. Metal Gear and Splinter Cell build their traversal around the tension between moving quietly and moving quickly, where every step is a choice about exposure. Designers use stealth movement to make positioning and patience the core skills, to create tension in traversal itself (crossing an open room becomes a decision), and to give the player tools to manage the detection systems (light, sound, sightlines). Key decisions: what movement affects detection (speed, crouch state, surface noise, light level), the feedback showing the player their own visibility and noise (light meters, sound indicators), the speed/stealth tradeoff steepness, and cover/shadow systems that give movement tactical texture. Pitfall: stealth movement fails when the player can't read their own detectability — if it's unclear whether you're hidden or how much noise you're making, stealth becomes frustrating guesswork; clear, legible feedback on visibility and sound is what makes the sneaking feel skillful rather than arbitrary.
- Dev effort: Medium
- Timing: Real-time
- Common in: stealth
Seen in
- Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
- Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory