Stealth Bastard, or rather Splinter Gear Thief

The goal of Stealth Bastard is to race to the exit in one piece by running, jumping, unlocking doors, solving puzzles and avoiding danger. At first this sounds pretty doable and it has you believing this especially in the earlier levels. As you progress, however, the levels get increasingly more difficult introducing cameras, lasers and mobile sentries.

Luckily, you are not entirely without defense as the shadows are your best friend. Your stealth bastard, in lack of better wording, is conveniently equipped with light emitting goggles indicating the level of stealth you are currently in. Green means safety while red equals danger. Being spotted often means imminent death so stick to the shadows.

You character is a spy skulking its way into an increasingly hostile base. At least, that is what the level design implies. You see, there isn’t a lot of story that comes with the game. This is not uncommon for indie games as these tend to focus a lot more effort on gameplay rather than story arcs. As an example look at Angry Birds where the game’s narrative is told by a single panning image.

However, there is some narrative and that is in the form of audiovisual design. The mood, art style and music immediately implies that your character isn’t simply walking into the front door of a pharmacy. The quantity of camera’s, locked doors and sentries give you the impression that there is something of value worth all this security. The environmental storytelling could have been improved by gradually introducing more sterile environments indicating progression in the bastards mission but this is by no means a reason not to play the game.

Gameplay wise this game is a gem taking inspiration from titles like Metal Gear Solid, Splinter Cell and Super Meat Boy. The 28 levels that come with the game introduce a great learning curve and hardly ever leave you to wonder how to solve a puzzle or complete a level. The introduction of portals, moving you from one spot in the level to the other, isn’t my favorite solution to level design issues and for me it breaks a part of the immersion although it is a flaw I can live with. As icing on the cake the game allows you to easily create, share and play levels of your own or others with its accessible level editor.

If platforming and stealth is your thing then I can assure you that this game is up your alley. With a bit of creativity the replay value is huge. Stealth Bastard gives you a tremendous amount of bang for no buck and honestly I can’t wait to see what this very promising studio comes up with next.