History Main / UselessUsefulStealth

* Averted in ''VideoGame/{{Allegiance}}''. Of course it's a multiplayer-only game, so AI cheating and limitations don't really play a role. Still, it is essentially a Real Time Strategy game with human players directly controlling each of the individual units, and some of the most feared ships in the game are stealth-based. A good team can sneak stealth bombers into an enemy sector to strike when the enemy has no chance of successfully defending, and competent players can use stealth fighters to quickly take out the miners that are the back-bone of every team's economy. Even units that are not designed to be stealthy can take steps to lower their chances of being detected, and this often adds greatly to their effectiveness. One of the most feared factions in the game (when in the hands of a veteran commander) has stealth as their [[PlanetOfHats hat]]. Trying to keep your forces stealthy and to keep enemy stealth units from sneaking up on your team are significant elements in the strategy in the game.

* Interplay's ''[[Franchise/TolkiensLegendarium Lord of the Rings]]'' allowed you to use the `sneak' skill to get into a lot of inaccessible places. You could walk around the wall of a haunted mansion, and a sneaking NPC could slide in from some unknown place offscreen and you were in. You could also get into the town of Bree at night, when they locked you out, just by walking along the wall away from the guards. Unfortunately, it was not so good for avoiding fights. Sneak into the mill without the One Ring, and the Orcs quickly slaughter your wimpy characters. Also, the sneak command didn't work against certain obstacles or guardians, since there wasn't any way to move offscreen and get a guy inside, or if the force of a character's personality was so great that the whole party had to stand directly in front of them and not go anywhere until they said "none shall pass!"

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[[folder:First Person Shooter]]

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[[folder:Stealth Based Game]]
* In some sidequest missions in ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedI'' it is necessary to assassinate people without being seen. If you have the stamina for it, you can often just slaughter your way through hordes and hordes of guards to get to your target without any stealth at all. However, this is also averted with some missions that fail you for detection. Also, quite a few of the plotline assassination targets cannot be assassinated without a confrontation that results in them making a break for it and Altaïr or Ezio having to chase them. Starting with ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedBrotherhood'', the devs try to avert this by making a StealthRun of several missions necessary for OneHundredPercentCompletion.

* A lot of areas in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid2SonsOfLiberty'' made stealth worthless, owing to the relatively small areas and the delayed alert phase mechanic. For an alert to actually happen a guard had to not only see you, but also radio it in. If you just sprinted through cartwheel-kicking guards before they could get to their radio it didn't matter how many saw you: you'd more often than not make it to the next area before they got back onto their feet, and since going to the next area unloaded all the guards in the room you went through the alert would never come. ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3SnakeEater'' addressed this by having much larger areas, enabling guards to see you from much farther away, and making it so taking out the guard who spotted you before he got to his radio only ''delayed'' back-up.

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** Using stealth to bypass enemies in ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins'' isn't a terribly bright idea, however, there are plenty of ''other'' uses for stealth. A rogue who strikes while stealthed gets an automatic {{backstab}}, inflicting a multiple of base damage or insta-killing enemies outright. The fight against Kolgrim is traditionally considered fairly difficult. Stealthing past the warriors and assassinating the Mages (pretty easy for any Rogue, even in straight combat) is an option that makes it almost trivial. Kolgrim is tough, but without the Mage support he can't do that much damage. A rogue with the second tier and higher version of stealth can use items while stealthed without being seen. This includes ''grenades''. [[GameBreaker That's about as broken as it sounds.]] A rogue soloist with a huge supply of grenades will never take damage again, except from certain bosses who see through stealth. A rogue with enough stealth levels also doesn't break stealth when disarming traps. At least in ''Origins'', enemies love to camp out in rooms full of traps and a sneaky enough rogue can make such fights a great deal easier by clearing the floor of traps right under the enemies' noses.

** ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIDaggerfall Daggerfall]]'' has a Stealth skill that somehow governs whether enemies will react to your presence. Sometimes an enemy will wander around despite you; sometimes an enemy will not turn if you approached from behind; despite it, enemies are still more than likely to rush towards you. There are spells like Invisibility True (constant invisibility until the time ran out) and Shadow (conceal yourself in shadows better), but any lesser concealment spell is useless in practice unless you stand still. The combat ability that makes Stealth worthwhile, Backstabbing, requires a Stealth check, but, despite doing more damage on the first stab, stronger enemies will then notice you and pummel you like normal. Other thief skills are based on separate skills, and the really powerful, bothersome enemies - the undead and the Daedra - can see an Invisible opponent.

** ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion Oblivion]]'' turns a proficient stealth-based character into a GameBreaker, averting this trope until it is suddenly demonstrating the trope again. While Invisibility and Chameleon work the same as in the predecessor game, stealth-based characters using the Sneak skill now have the chance of remaining undetected regardless of what they did in the game world. The only enemies this doesn't work on are animals (which makes sense, as they can most likely smell you no matter how well hidden you are). This becomes incredibly apparent in the Arena, where the entire questline can be won legitimately without even moving from the battle starting area. This trope is usually applied when you're trying to stealthily kill enemies. If they're in a group, every other enemy will immediately know that you're there and where you're hiding no matter what you used to kill them. It's understandable if you stabbed them or used a spell, but not when you shot them with an arrow while hiding in a bush half a mile away.
** ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim Skyrim]]'' attempts to balance ''Oblivion''[='s=] stealth system by adding levels of detection. Being closer to an enemy and/or in the light will make you more easily detected, while distance and shadows make you harder to detect. This stops you from being able to sit in front of enemies undetected and also helps you stealth kill enemies without them all seeing you. A glaring oversight to the balancing is that if you killed one enemy with a bow from the shadows, [[ConspicuouslySelectivePerception his buddy still might not detect you and not even flinch at his friend falling over dead]]. In one particular ThievesGuild mission, the player is joined by two mandatory companions, and the party must sneak or fight their way through more than one room full of Falmer. Falmer cannot see, so one would think the stealth option would be fairly easy to pull off, but almost inevitably one of your companions ([[InformedAbility who are supposedly]] very successful thieves) will [[ArtificialStupidity make a noise or walk into one of the enemies]], triggering a massive fight.

* In the ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' games that let you catch and raise Pokémon, there are trainers that will force you into a battle if they see you. You have the option of fighting them right away for money and experience or avoiding eye-contact and battling them at a later time.

** And besides, he can get a better InfinityPlusOneSword in said final quest. And another in his chapter by beating a BonusBoss. Talk about BraggingRightsReward.
** However! The leveling limitation only applies to ''humans''. There's a bit of grinding involved, but it's relatively easy to clear Oboromaru's chapter at lv. 16[[note]]there's an enemy that generates two spirits each time you enter a certain shed about a third of the way through[[/note]]. This is ''absolutely'' necessary to beat a couple of [[BonusBoss Bonus Bosses]] in the chapter.

*** However, once you do have all of these, sneaking becomes ridiculously overpowered. There's actually a Stealthboy upgrade for PoweredArmor that makes you invisible while standing still, but even without it a stealth-specialized player can bump into enemies in the dark without them being able to draw a bead on them, or squat around in plain sight while enemies stare at them without noticing them. While wearing Power Armor. Attacks from stealth also have a higher crit chance, and sneak criticals with high-powered silenced weapons like the Gauss Rifle pack enough punch to instakill pretty much anything in the game without risking return fire.

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXII'' lets the player become invisible using [[https://finalfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Vanish_(Final_Fantasy_XII) Vanish]], but this wears off as soon as a player character targets something or bumps into an enemy. Furthermore, [[ArtificialBrillance enemies can detect player characters through ways other than sight]]: they can hear footsteps (this at least can be solved by also casting Float), elementals can sense the casting of magic, undead can sense characters low on HP, and beasts can smell characters. There are some niche uses, but in general it's not needed.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Warcraft}}'' and ''[=WarCraft=] 2'', Invisibility spells are useless against computer opponents due to TheAllSeeingAI.

** Not to mention that (with the infuriating exception of ambushes as mentioned above), your stealth affected ''all'' [=NPCs=] regardless of hostility. EscortMissions meant decloaking so that your ally could actually see you, unless they had enough perception buffs to overcome your stealth (and that, in one infamous case, [[LeeroyJenkins caused its own problems]].