Assassin’s Creed may continue to grow and expand with each new entry and become less and less about assassinating itself, but its second game represents the series at its purest. Tsushima also shows a tonne of promise for the future of stealth games, which haven’t exactly been supported by the biggest companies in the industry over the last ten years. While not necessarily an outright stealth game (hence why it’s so low despite being a phenomenal game), Sekiro’s handling of stealth means that unless you embrace it, you might be in for a bad time. In a game that throws tonnes of enemies at you at once and a giant monkey who refuses to die, you have to take any help you can damn well get.

Definitely the smallest game on this list, Intravenous comes from an indie studio that wanted to deliver a hardcore stealth game with some immersive sim elements that really gets your creative murder cogs whirring. If you’ll excuse me, I have a letter to draft to Ubisoft. No, Ubisoft, putting him in every other Tom Clancy game but his own does not count. It doesn’t hurt that it offers the best gameplay in the series, either. Hitman had always been somewhat clunky by nature, seemingly to dissuade mass murder sprees. 2016’s Hitman, however, introduces the smoothest action seen yet with competent AI and reactive scenarios to still bring the challenge, as well as a much appreciated level of detail with so many different events triggering at once. You may baulk at the original game not getting a look-in as one of the best stealth games, and you’d probably be right to do so. It changed the face of gaming for the better by interspersing many different styles of gameplay into one cohesive experience, but it’s showing some signs of age. Mods may fix it, though Human Revolution is a more than decent alternative — I’d go so far as to suggest that it’s actually the better game.It’s a shame that its sequel, Mankind Divided, underperformed in so many areas, however, so much so that we may not see a new Deus Ex for quite some time. Often compared somewhat superficially to Hotline Miami, Intravenous is instead closer to the Splinter Cell games of old crossed with a top-down perspective. It’s unforgiving and perhaps a little too crude with its storytelling at points, but if you like games where it feels like an inch of progress is a mile, this is an indie gem worth seeking out. There’s a surprising amount of stealth that comes before shooting someone’s testicles all the way off. Sniper Elite 4 doesn’t massively change things from the third installment but instead has some welcome QOL improvements, which is why it makes the cut for the best stealth games.

Speech is levelled by buying and selling items, and successfully using the Persuade, Indimidate, and Bribe dialogue options.While there’s nothing revolutionary here in terms of stealth, there’s something to be said for making blood spurt out of someone’s windpipe like a fountain. While Manhunt was ahead of its time in many regards, time hasn’t caught up to it too harshly and is still a bloody joy to play. It may even still make you feel a bit queasy, despite its triangular nature. I have 100 in sneak, all the sneak related perks, light armor, level 22 (although I have other characters that are max level and they have the same issue), no pip boy light or radio on and I get detected outside, inside doesn't matter. Bearing that in mind, the most efficient items to steal are gems and jewelry, as they're high in value but low in weight - which means a higher chance to steal, as weight determines difficulty. A PlayStation favourite that came out a time when Solid Snake had only just made his PS1 debut, Syphon Filter never reached the fanfare of Metal Gear Solid, but it certainly had plenty of fans all the same.