Best Stealth Games of All Time: Top 35 on PC and Console

Stealth is a genre where patience and observation beat firepower and brute force. Instead of rushing in guns blazing, players hide in shadows, study patrol routes, distract guards, and plan every move — whether slipping into a target's mansion or sabotaging an enemy installation deep behind enemy lines. Over thirty-plus years, the genre has grown from a niche experiment into a rich cluster of sub-genres: social stealth built on disguises and social engineering, immersive sims with full freedom of approach, real-time tactical stealth with active pause, stealth horror, and clever indie experiments.

This list brings together the best stealth games of all time on PC and consoles — 35 games grouped by sub-genre. Inside you'll find definitive classics from 1998–2006 alongside fresh 2025–2026 releases: 007 First Light from IO Interactive, Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater, Assassin's Creed Shadows, and Commandos: Origins. If you're looking for a specific type of stealth experience, jump straight to the section that fits: Hitman-like spy games, Dishonored-like immersive sims, Commandos-like tactical stealth, 2D indie, classic stealth history, stealth horror, or open-world stealth.

The main and most recognizable subgenre: you are an experienced agent or assassin, and your task is to eliminate a target or complete an assignment without being detected. Here, you need to think several moves ahead, disguise yourself as enemies, distract them, and take them down silently. In this section, we have gathered both older masterpieces and entirely new projects from 2025–2026.

Hitman: World of Assassination is the unified version of the reboot trilogy (Hitman 2016, Hitman 2, and Hitman 3), which IO Interactive combined into a single live-service game and continues to support with new missions and contracts. You play as Agent 47 — a genetically engineered killer working for the international agency ICA. In each mission, the player enters a huge, living location, such as a party in Dubai or a race weekend in Miami, and has to eliminate one or more targets. There are dozens of ways to deal with a victim: disguise yourself as a waiter and serve a poisoned cocktail, push the target into a pool, swap a stage prop, or take out the mark with a sniper rifle. This is the benchmark for modern stealth action and one of the most critically acclaimed games of the decade.

007 First Light is a fresh 2026 release from Danish studio IO Interactive, known for Hitman. It tells the story of a young James Bond, who is still undergoing training and receiving his first 00 call sign. The studio defines the genre as third-person stealth action: the levels are linear, but each mission offers several approaches — you can get through everything silently, use gadgets, distract guards, or break through in combat. From Hitman, the game takes stealth sandbox elements and detailed locations, while its dynamic hand-to-hand combat is closer to the Batman: Arkham series, and its spectacle and cinematic direction recall the Uncharted franchise. The game turned out so polished and engaging that it could realistically win GOTY 2026.

Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater is a remake of the cult Metal Gear Solid 3 from 2004, released in August 2025 by Konami and Virtuos under the supervision of veterans of the original. The story takes players to Soviet jungles in the early 1960s, where special agent Snake carries out an operation to evacuate a defecting scientist while also searching for his former mentor. The series’ main feature is stealth through camouflage, disguise, and use of the environment: clothes have to be changed to match the terrain, animals must be hunted for food, and injured limbs have to be bandaged in the inventory. Delta was fully rebuilt in Unreal Engine 5 while preserving the original gameplay and cutscenes. As we wrote in our Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater review, this is the best way for newcomers to get into Metal Gear.

Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain is Hideo Kojima’s last major game published by Konami, released in 2015. The main difference from previous entries is the shift from linear levels to two huge open maps in Afghanistan and Africa, where Snake completes dozens of missions in any order. The player builds their own army, develops an offshore platform base, captures horses, researches weapons, and takes companions on missions — the sniper Quiet or the dog D-Dog. Stealth here is systemic: time of day, weather, enemy habits, and hundreds of small details all matter. Together, all of this forms one of the most elaborate stealth sandboxes in the history of the genre, as we wrote in our anniversary piece marking 10 years of Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain.

Hitman: Blood Money is the fourth entry in the series and, for many fans, its best iteration before the reboot. The game came out in 2006 and perfected the classic Hitman formula: huge open missions, dozens of assassination methods, the “Silent Assassin” rating for clean playthroughs, and the series’ signature dark humor. The story takes Agent 47 to New Orleans, Las Vegas, Chile, and other locations, where each level works like a small detective puzzle. In 2024, Blood Money received a Reprisal version for Nintendo Switch and mobile, while the original has a Metacritic score of 82.

Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory came out in 2005 and became the peak of Ubisoft’s Splinter Cell series. The protagonist is NSA operative Sam Fisher, recognizable by the three green lights on his night-vision goggles, who infiltrates guarded facilities, turns off lights, hides in shadows, and interrogates guards. Chaos Theory pushed dynamic lighting, advanced AI, and layered sound-based traversal to a level the genre is still trying to match. It is also worth remembering the cult Spies vs. Mercs multiplayer mode, where two teams play with different mechanics: spies hide, mercenaries hunt. Many players and critics still call Chaos Theory the best stealth game about a special agent.

Splinter Cell: Blacklist, released in 2013, is the most recent mainline entry in the series, where Ubisoft tried to combine three playstyles: pure “Ghost” stealth, non-lethal “Panther” takedowns, and loud “Assault” action. Each mission awards points based on the chosen style, which adds replay value. Sam Fisher looks younger and faster here. Spies vs. Mercs also returned in an updated form. If you want the most modern Splinter Cell while Ubisoft Toronto is working on a new remake of the original, Blacklist is the only full-scale option.

Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow is the second entry in the series, released in 2004. It was the game that first introduced the Spies vs. Mercs multiplayer mode, which was later refined in Chaos Theory. In the story campaign, Sam Fisher travels to East Timor, Jerusalem, and Paris to stop a terrorist attack involving biological weapons. The main difference from the first game is that the dynamic lighting system became deeper, while the levels stopped feeling like linear corridors. Pandora Tomorrow remains one of the most atmospheric chapters in the series, and it is often recommended to those who want to dive into Splinter Cell’s golden age from the beginning.

An immersive sim is a subgenre where the game does not point to the “correct” path but instead lets players solve problems in any way they can think of. Stealth here is only one of the tools: you can move silently, kill everyone, or avoid killing anyone at all. Every decision affects the story and the environment. It is a difficult subgenre to develop, but it has produced some of the industry’s defining benchmarks of the last twenty years.

Dishonored 2 is a 2016 sequel from Arkane Studios that many consider the peak of the immersive sim subgenre. There are two playable heroes: Corvo Attano from the first game and his daughter Emily Kaldwin, each with their own set of supernatural abilities, such as teleportation, time stop, or body swapping. The story moves to the southern city of Karnaca — here, Arkane built unusual levels, including a mansion with mechanical walls that rearranges itself during play. The game does not push you toward murder: you can complete the entire campaign without leaving a single body behind, and that will be a fully developed, carefully designed path. Dishonored 2 has a Metacritic score of 86, and critics regularly include it in lists of the greatest games of all time.

Dishonored is the original 2012 game from Arkane Studios that began the immersive sim renaissance. You play as Corvo Attano — the Empress’s bodyguard, who is framed for her murder. To take revenge and clear his name, Corvo receives mystical powers from the mysterious Outsider and sets out on eight major missions across the industrial city of Dunwall. The levels were designed so that each one could be completed in a dozen different ways. The number of people killed changes both the ending and the world itself: the more blood you spill, the darker the streets become.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution is a reboot of the cult Deus Ex series, released in 2011. The events take players to the near future, where people enhance their bodies with implants and corporations fight over technology. The protagonist, Adam Jensen, is a former special forces operative who receives combat augmentations after a near-fatal injury. The game combines first-person stealth, RPG progression, and a story with moral choices: you can wipe out an entire corporate headquarters, or you can slip silently through the ventilation system and hack a terminal. Eidos Montréal created a rare example of modern RPG mechanics working together with a classic 2000s immersive sim structure.

A direct sequel to Human Revolution, released in 2016. The story moves to Prague, where, after the events of the first game, augmented people have become second-class citizens. The gameplay kept everything players loved about Human Revolution, but deepened the combat system and expanded the arsenal of ways to complete objectives. The game’s main weakness is its abrupt ending: Square Enix cancelled the continuation, leaving the storylines unresolved. But in terms of pure stealth mechanics and level design, Mankind Divided remains one of the most complex and interesting immersive sims of the decade.

Deus Ex from 2000 is not only one of the best RPGs of all time, but also the game often called the origin point of the modern immersive sim. Ion Storm, led by Warren Spector, created a blend of first-person shooter, RPG, and stealth with a level of freedom that had not existed anywhere before. The protagonist, JC Denton, investigates bioterrorism in a dystopian New York City in 2052, and every mission is open to a dozen solutions: combat, hacking, negotiation, or complete silence. The graphics have aged, but if you install the Deus Ex: Revision mod, which updates the visuals and is available directly on Steam, the original still plays better today than most new representatives of the genre.

This is a special subgenre where the action unfolds in real time and the camera is placed overhead: you can see the map, enemy patrols, and lines of sight. Instead of a single hero, these games usually give you a squad of several characters with different abilities, and every action has to be planned with pauses. It is intellectual chess in stealth form: the genre has never been mainstream, but over the last ten years it has gone through a real renaissance thanks to German studio Mimimi. If you are interested in similar projects, also do not miss our list of the best tactical games.

Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun is a 2016 game from Mimimi Games that started the genre’s renaissance. The action takes players to Edo-period Japan, where a squad of five heroes — a samurai, a ninja, a female seductress, a marksman, and a teenage thief — carries out secret missions for the shogun. Each character has their own abilities: the ninja throws shuriken and climbs walls, the seductress distracts guards, and the samurai cuts enemies down with a sword. The main feature is Shadow Mode, which lets you plan simultaneous actions for all fighters and execute them with one button. The game received a Metacritic score of 84.

Desperados 3 is the next game from the same studio, Mimimi Games, released in 2020. It is a reboot of the cult Desperados series from the early 2000s, transferring the Shadow Tactics formula to a Wild West setting. The squad includes five heroes — the outlaw Cooper with revolvers, Doctor McCoy with poisons, the giant Hector with a bear trap, the young Mexican woman Kate with disguises, and the fortune-telling witch Isabelle, who can link enemies’ minds. Mimimi called Desperados 3 its peak, and many critics agreed — the game has a Metacritic score of 87.

Commandos: Origins is the return of the legendary Commandos series after 24 years of silence, released on April 9, 2025, by Germany’s Claymore Game Studios. In terms of story, it is a prequel to 1998’s Commandos: Behind Enemy Lines, telling how the commandos squad was formed and showing its first operations during World War II. Players get the same roster of operatives as in the classic: the Green Beret, the Spy, the Sapper, the Sniper, the Marine, and the Driver — each with their own set of skills. The game supports two-player co-op in campaign mode. The release turned out uneven: critics praised the level design but criticized the bugs and technical state at launch. Its overall Metacritic score is 78. Still, this is the only major new tactical stealth game, and fans of the series were pleased with the return anyway.

Aliens: Dark Descent, released in 2023 by French studio Tindalos Interactive, is an unusual hybrid of tactical stealth and horror set in the Alien universe. You command a squad of Colonial Marines on the moon Lethe, where a full-scale xenomorph outbreak is unfolding. Unlike the genre classics, the action here is continuous: you do not clear a level in one run, but return to base between sorties, treat wounded soldiers, and deal with squad stress. Stealth here is not a choice but a necessity: open combat with the Aliens is almost always fatal. The game received a Metacritic score of 78 and became one of the main discoveries of 2023 for fans of the universe.

Invisible, Inc. is the only turn-based game in this section, and it deserves its place. Klei Entertainment, the studio behind Mark of the Ninja and Don't Starve, released it in 2015. The action takes players to a near-future corporate world, where a ruined espionage agency is trying to survive by carrying out operations inside corporate offices. Each mission is a turn-based run with fog of war, limited time, and gradually tightening security. The game procedurally generates levels and combines XCOM-style tactics with classic stealth. Invisible, Inc. has a Metacritic score of 81.

Commandos: Behind Enemy Lines, released in 1998, is the game that literally created the tactical stealth genre. Here, you control a squad of six British special forces soldiers across 20 missions set in Europe and North Africa during World War II. The levels were brutally difficult even by the standards of their time: the slightest mistake leads to a reload, and every patrolman knows his route. The graphics are dated, but the Steam version with the re-release works correctly on modern systems, and for fans of the genre, playing through the original is still a worthwhile experience. Every later game in the genre, including Shadow Tactics and Commandos: Origins, continues the idea established here.

The games that laid the foundation. Without them, there would be no Hitman, Dishonored, or Splinter Cell. Their graphics have aged, but their game design work with sound, lighting, and guard behavior is still considered a benchmark.

Thief 2: The Metal Age is a 2000 game from Looking Glass Studios, the best entry in the Thief series and one of the high points of the genre as a whole. The protagonist, Garrett, is a master thief who infiltrates noble estates, churches, and factories. Stealth is built on two mechanics that were revolutionary at the time: the level of light falling on Garrett shows how visible he is to guards, while sound travels differently across surfaces — the clatter of boots on marble can be heard from far away, while footsteps on carpet are quiet. Thief 2 is a first-person game, which was rare for stealth in 2000. With the Thief 2 Tafferpatcher patch collection or the New Dark mod, the game also runs on modern systems.

Thief: The Dark Project from 1998 is the very first entry in the series and one of the founders of stealth. Many important components of the genre appeared here for the first time: real sound propagation, uneven lighting, and guard AI that reacts to the player’s actions. The story takes place in a dark steampunk fantasy setting with thieves’ guilds, cults, and ancient ruins. If you are willing to try only one game from the classics, pick this one.

Thief: Deadly Shadows is the third entry, released in 2004 by Ion Storm. Its main difference from its predecessors is the move to a full 3D engine, Unreal Engine 2. The levels became smaller, but between them the game introduced an open city where you can walk around, steal from passersby, and accept side quests. Knock-Knock — a mission set in the abandoned Shalebridge Cradle asylum — is considered one of the creepiest levels in video game history. This was the last entry in the series before the 2014 reboot, and many fans call it the best one specifically because of its atmosphere.

Metal Gear Solid from 1998 is the Hideo Kojima game that first introduced a wide audience to the word “stealth.” The protagonist, Solid Snake, infiltrates the Shadow Moses nuclear facility to stop a terrorist group and prevent the launch of a nuclear missile. The camera is isometric, guards see in a narrow cone in front of them, noise draws their attention, and the main screen shows Snake waist-deep in grass or pressed against a wall. At the time, the story cutscenes were compared to Hollywood films, and it was MGS that began the perception of games as a “cinematic medium.” If you want to start with this entry, Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1 is available on PC and includes the original game.

Indie stealth is valuable not for scale, but for bold ideas: independent developers experiment more often with camera perspective, detection rules, level design, and the very understanding of what stealth can be. These games can be small, strange, and uneven, but they often offer a fresh view of the genre.

Mark of the Ninja is a 2012 game from Klei Entertainment, widely recognized as the best 2D stealth game of all time. You play as a nameless modern ninja from the Hisomu clan, who seeks revenge for the destruction of his dojo. Movement is fluid, and the main innovation is the visualization of sound: you see which footsteps guards can hear, how loud an alarm is, and exactly where a passerby noticed a shadow in the window. There is no fog of war: what the enemy sees, you see too. Mark of the Ninja has a Metacritic score of 91. You can also play the 2018 re-release Mark of the Ninja Remastered, which improved the visuals.

Styx: Master of Shadows is a 2014 game from French studio Cyanide Studio. The protagonist, Styx, is a goblin thief with a cynical streak and dark humor, who infiltrates a giant elven tower to steal the Heart of the World-Tree. The stealth is honest and hardcore: open combat almost always ends in death, and the best solution is to study the guards, turn off the lighting, and sneak through upper routes or ventilation shafts. The game looks more modest than its competitors, but its level design is among the best in the genre, while Styx himself, with his sarcastic commentary, became a favorite among players.

Styx: Shards of Darkness is a 2017 sequel from the same Cyanide Studio. The game grew in literally every direction: the levels became larger, trap crafting appeared, and a two-player co-op mode was added. The story is still about a goblin thief, who this time heads to the dwarves and dark elves in search of a magical crystal. The humor stayed the same: Styx breaks the fourth wall, talks to his double, and comments on everything happening around him. If you liked the first game, the sequel is essential.

Aragami 2 is a 2021 stealth action game from Spanish studio Lince Works. Players control a ghostly ninja warrior from the Aragami clan, who uses shadows as portals for teleportation. The story is short and not the strongest part of the game, but the gameplay delivers pure pleasure: you leap between rooftops, vanish into the shadows, and leave the guards wondering where the protagonist disappeared to. The game supports three-player co-op in any mission — a rarity for the genre. The first Aragami from 2014 is also good, but the sequel polished the combat system significantly.

Gunpoint from 2013 is an indie experiment by British journalist Tom Francis, who made the game alone. You play as a spy in a trench coat who infiltrates corporate offices, rewires buildings’ electrical systems, and makes cameras open doors while doors turn off lights. It is a compact indie puzzle game of about five hours, but its circuit-hacking mechanic later influenced dozens of other games. It is especially loved because the designer openly comments on all his decisions in his blog — a rare level of transparency in the industry.

In these games, stealth is not a way to eliminate a target elegantly, but the only way to survive. Open combat almost always means death, and every sound could be your last. If you want to be not a killer in gloves, but a frightened person in the dark, this section is for you. You will find more similar projects in our list of the best horror games.

Alien: Isolation is a 2014 game from British studio Creative Assembly, which fans of the universe themselves call the best sequel to Ridley Scott’s 1979 film. You play as Amanda Ripley, the daughter of Ellen Ripley, who arrives at the Sevastopol space station in search of traces of her mother. The main antagonist is a single xenomorph whose AI is designed to genuinely learn from your actions: if you keep hiding in a locker, it will start checking lockers first. The game frightens not only with sudden moments, but with constant tension. It is the best stealth horror game in the modern industry.

A Plague Tale: Innocence is a 2019 game from French studio Asobo Studio. The story takes players to 14th-century France, during the plague and the Hundred Years’ War. The protagonists are 15-year-old Amicia de Rune and her younger brother Hugo, who are trying to escape the Inquisition and, at the same time, hordes of plague-infected rats pouring out from underground. Stealth here is based on light and sound: rats are afraid of fire, while inquisitors react to any noise. The game received a Metacritic score of 81 and turned out to be much deeper than it looked in the trailers.

A Plague Tale: Requiem is a direct 2022 sequel from the same Asobo Studio. Amicia and Hugo flee France for the south, to Provence and beyond, hoping to find a cure for the plague that has settled inside Hugo. The game became larger, more beautiful, and emotionally heavier. Its stealth mechanics grew deeper — Amicia now has more ways to distract and eliminate enemies, while Hugo received abilities of his own. Requiem has a Metacritic score of 84.

The Last of Us Part 2 is a 2020 game from Naughty Dog, primarily known as a story-driven drama, but it is also one of the best stealth action games of its generation. The heroines Ellie and Abby face both the infected and human factions, and combat encounters are almost always resolved through stealth: crawling through tall grass, distracting enemies with bottles, and silent takedowns. Enemies talk to each other, search rooms for you, and worry about fallen comrades — a rare case where opponents in a stealth game feel like real people. TLOU Part 2 has a Metacritic score of 93.

Stealth does not always live in corridor-based levels — sometimes it is built into a huge open world, where staying hidden becomes one of many available tools. These games show that a pure stealth playthrough is possible even in large sandboxes.

Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag is a 2013 game that most fans of the series still consider the best Assassin's Creed entry in terms of the balance between stealth, action, and freedom. The protagonist is the pirate Edward Kenway, who sails across the Caribbean Sea aboard the Jackdaw. The game combines classic assassin mechanics — hiding in haystacks, takedowns from cover, synchronization from high points — with a completely separate pirate sandbox featuring naval battles, boarding actions, and hunts for legendary sea creatures. Stealth works best in story missions built around infiltrating forts and colonial cities. The remake Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced is one of the biggest games of 2026.

Assassin's Creed Shadows is the newest major game in the series, released in March 2025 by Ubisoft Quebec and Ubisoft Bordeaux. The story takes players to late-16th-century Japan, where two protagonists’ stories unfold in parallel: the kunoichi Naoe — a stealth specialist with a grappling hook and a set of spy tools — and the real historical Black samurai Yasuke, who solves problems through open combat. The game introduced a dynamic season system, removed enemy highlighting through walls, and added the ability to extinguish lighting in locations. For Assassin's Creed, this is the series’ most serious return to stealth in the last decade.

Watch Dogs 2 is a 2016 Ubisoft game where stealth is built around hacking technology. The protagonist, Marcus Holloway, is a young hacker from the DedSec group in modern-day San Francisco. Instead of hand-to-hand fights and shootouts, Marcus hacks surveillance cameras, distracts guards with calls to their own phones, hijacks cars through the network, and deploys drones. The game can be completed without directly touching enemies. It is the most unusual modern stealth game in this list — and an example of how the subgenre can evolve by focusing on contemporary gadgets and technology.

The best starting point is Hitman: World of Assassination or Dishonored. The first offers a pure sandbox with many different ways to eliminate targets and does not punish mistakes too harshly. The second is a compact story campaign with a clear mystical setting and a small selection of abilities. If you want something lighter in terms of system requirements, try Mark of the Ninja: it is 2D, everything is visible on screen, and the learning curve is gentle.

Co-op play is available in Aragami 2 (up to three players), Styx: Shards of Darkness (two players), Commandos: Origins (two players), and Aliens: Dark Descent (through its squad command system). The cult classics of the genre — Hitman, Metal Gear Solid 5, and Dishonored — are entirely single-player.

From this list, Mark of the Ninja, Gunpoint, Invisible, Inc., Styx: Master of Shadows, the classic Thief 2, and the original Metal Gear Solid will run very well on weak configurations. Hitman: World of Assassination also works on modest hardware at low settings. We have a separate list of the best games for low-end PCs, where stealth titles are gathered alongside other undemanding games.

In pure stealth, remaining hidden is a condition for success, and being detected almost always leads to failure or a serious score penalty. In an immersive sim like Dishonored or Deus Ex, stealth is only one way to play: you can crawl through the whole game silently, cut everyone down with a blade, or avoid touching anyone at all. An immersive sim gives more freedom, but treats the consequences of your choices more strictly.

Dishonored 1–2, Deus Ex (the entire series), and Thief are played from a first-person perspective — these are mostly immersive sims and classics. Hitman, Metal Gear Solid, Splinter Cell, Assassin's Creed, and most tactical stealth games use a third-person view to better show cover and lines of sight.

The main recent releases are 007 First Light from IO Interactive (May 2026), Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater (August 2025), Assassin's Creed Shadows (March 2025), and Commandos: Origins (April 2025). Among upcoming titles, the most notable is the continuation of Splinter Cell in the form of a remake of the original, currently in development at Ubisoft Toronto.

What is your favorite stealth game? Did we miss one of your favorites? Share your picks in the comments — we will add the best finds in a future update to the list.

Finally, we have selected several more projects that did not make it into the main list, but still deserve attention.

Velvet Assassin, released in 2009, is based on the real story of Violette Szabo — a British saboteur of Polish descent who was sent into occupied France in 1944. The game is deliberately difficult and slow: Violette is weakened by injuries, guards do not forgive mistakes, and the main tactic is to hide in the shadows and take enemies down one by one with a dagger. The atmosphere and music create the feeling of a real war, not a Hollywood action movie.

Volume is a compact indie experiment by British game designer Mike Bithell, the creator of Thomas Was Alone. The story is a modern retelling of the Robin Hood legend: hacker Robert Locksley breaks into a corporate simulation and guides players through one hundred short puzzle levels where each guard’s field of vision is visible. The goal is to reach the exit without raising the alarm. Perfect for short sessions.

Republic Commando from 2005 is the only stealth game in this list set in the Star Wars universe. The player commands Delta Squad, a unit of four clone commandos, while also playing as the group’s leader — Sergeant Boss. Across three campaigns (on Geonosis, Kashyyyk, and in the wreckage of a Separatist ship), you constantly have to issue tactical orders: one clone hacks a door, another provides cover, and a third plants a detonator. Despite its age, Republic Commando is still considered one of the most memorable Star Wars games.