Mixing stealth and competitive multiplayer seems like such an odd combination but, all things considered, the genre isn’t doing all that bad. One issue that often riddles those games is the lack of a solid multiplayer community. Stealth games are often slow and methodical, but they are also repetitive. Going through an excellent stealth game twice in a row doesn’t seem too inviting; why would that be different in multiplayer games?
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The solution to low player numbers is almost built into the genre: stealth doesn’t usually require high numbers. Trying to sneak past two guards as a single thief in Of Guards And Thieves is just as fun as if the numbers were multiplied by ten, making this the perfect genre for a small group of friends.
10 Hidden in Plain Sight
Metacritic Score: N/A
- Released: November 18, 2011
- Developer: Adam Spragg
- Platforms: PC, Xbox One, Xbox 360
Hidden in Plain Sight is a classic indie local multiplayer game about blending in by imitating the movements of an AI-controller crowd. The objective of the game is to dispose of the other players, but patience is the only way to get there in one piece.
That said, a match of Hidden in Plain Sight can get very chaotic very fast. But even in those cases, it’s often the player that stays blended in with the digital crowd that rises above the others. Even if it’s not what most visualize when they think of PvP stealth multiplayer, Hidden in Plain Sight is a great stealth party game for a small group.
9 Screencheat
Metacritic Score: 69
Screencheat is another unique multiplayer game that barely fits the traditional definition of stealth, but it’s certainly a game about walking by unseen and sneaky murder. It’s also plenty of fun with the right group, especially in local multiplayer. Most people who play games, especially those above a certain age, have had the experience of shooting their friends in the local PvP of a classic shooter.
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Those players will immediately understand the appeal of Screencheat, a game always played in split-screen, including the online multiplayer. All characters in Screencheat are invisible, and the only way to find them is by looking at the landmarks visible on their screen.
8 Run Prop, Run! - Puropu Pursuit
Metacritic Score: N/A
Run Prop, Run! is a colorful prop hunt game in which a team of hunters must take care of all props, the name given to the players that are hiding. As the name suggests, the prop players can hide not only by finding a good hiding spot but also by turning into a seemingly normal game object, like a carrot, a crate, a coin, and so on.
The job of the hunters in this weird game of hide and seek is then not to look into every nook and cranny. Rather, their most useful skill is to distinguish between real props and human players. The hunters need map memorization and a good level of intuition, making Run Prop, Run! a very rewarding, replayable PvP stealth game.
7 Hunt: Showdown
Metacritic Score: 81
Hunt: Showdown isn’t really a stealth game, but playing it as one is almost required in order to survive any encounter. This unique PvPvE extraction shooter tasks players with killing a boss and fleeing the map. It seems simple, except every other player has the same objective and the same incentive to let other players do the work before taking victory from under their noses.
The slow 19th-century guns and the character skills make a stealthy approach vital for success, even if the community seems to enjoy creating chaos a bit too much for the average stealth game enjoyer. Still, even the best stealth games include a moment where a guard is alerted or an alarm plays, and every plan is scrapped in favor of a good old panicked scramble.
6 SPECTRE
Metacritic Score: N/A
- Released: July 24, 2023
- Developer: Symbiosis Games
- Platforms: PC
SPECTRE is a hybrid of first-person shooters and third-person stealth, just like the classic Spies vs Mercs mode of old Splinter Cell games. But the inspirations don’t end there: many fans of the classic Ubisoft stealth series consider SPECTRE to be the successor of this now-abandoned multiplayer mode.
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In SPECTRE, two players take the role of heavily armed but slow guards, while another two control the fast but near-unarmed spies. But the asymmetrical gameplay reaches even deeper than that. The grunts are stuck in first-person mode, which almost emulates the lack of peripheral vision of most single-player stealth games. While SPECTRE doesn’t have a very active multiplayer community, four is the best player count for the game, so filling a server with friends isn’t too hard.
5 Of Guards And Thieves
Metacritic Score: N/A
- Released: December 7, 2016
- Developer: Subvert Games, Polygon Moon
- Platforms: PC
Of Guards And Thieves is a top-down stealth game where sneaking thieves attempt to steal valuables protected by highly armed guards. To help them sneak past the much more dangerous guards, the thieves have a variety of gadgets on their side, while the guards have increased resistance and, ideally, a few more members to their numbers.
Of Guards And Thieves has been in early access for almost a decade now, and development seems to have stopped a year or so ago. The game will almost certainly never have competent AI bots or new maps, but that’s not as bad as it sounds. Filling those servers isn’t hard: 3v3 matches work great, and strategizing with some friends is the best way to play the game anyway.
4 Intruder
Metacritic Score: N/A
- Released: March 2, 2019
- Developer: Superboss Creations
- Platforms: PC
Intruder is a 5v5 stealth shooter pitting two asymmetric teams of guards and thieves against one another. While it’s arguably more of a tactical shooter than anything else, it counts more than a few stealth games among its influences. And even if it didn’t, playing it as a stealth game is more than just viable.
In fact, Intruder is a mix of stealth and tactical shooter. Players are advised to use the in-game spatial voice system, meaning speaking into a microphone creates sound for anyone around, and the same goes for using a radio. The alternative to the in-game voice chat is the use of hand signals, which players must learn before using.
3 Deceive Inc.
Metacritic Score: 75
- Released: March 21, 2023
- Developer: Sweet Bandits Studios
- Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S
Deceive Inc. is a great extraction shooter mixed with social deduction stealth, or at least that’s the idea. In each match, players are tasked with completing an objective and leaving with the package, but only one player can end the game victorious.
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Players have plenty of tools at their disposal, but among all the different impossible gadgets, one reigns supreme. In just a handful of seconds, players can take on the appearance of any character in the game, including security or important guests. This is where the social stealth typical of the Hitman series comes into play, making Deceive Inc. a unique PvP stealth experience.
2 SpyParty
Metacritic Score: N/A
- Released: April 12, 2018
- Developer: Chris Hecker
- Platforms: PC
SpyParty is a great PvP stealth game for just two friends, and it’s best if those players are actually friends. By virtue of its small player count, SpyParty can be quite an intimate experience, but it’s not just that. Talking to the other players, taunting them, and bringing them into the open is the best way to have fun with this title.
SpyParty is a simple game: one player takes the role of a guest while the other looks at the party from afar, ready to shoot the spy at the first wrong move. But the first player can’t just hide: they have a list of objectives to complete, like joining a conversation or swapping a book from one library to another, all while hiding in plain sight.
1 Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory – Spies Vs Mercs Mode
Metacritic Score: 94
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory
- Franchise
- Splinter Cell
- Platform(s)
- Nintendo DS , Nintendo GameCube , PC , PS2 , PS3 , Xbox (Original) , Xbox 360 , Xbox One
- Released
- March 28, 2005
- Genre(s)
- Stealth , Action
The Spies vs Mercs multiplayer mode of Splinter CellChaos Theory used to be almost a legend of stealth multiplayer, but it’s not far easier to actually play. Getting into it might not be as easy, considering many players of the small but dedicated community have been at it for the best part of a decade.
Chaos Theory is often regarded as the best entry in the series and one of the best spy games ever made. It’s no surprise that this game’s Spies vs Mercs mode, a game of guards and thieves of sorts, is considered the best of any Splinter Cell game. Players willing to try this excellent, if dated, game mode would do well to check in with the multiplayer community’s discord servers before trying the (long dead) official serves.
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