Sneaking playstyle is impossible?

[Jonipoon]

Like I mentioned in the first impressions thread, I am quite disappointed that the sneaking system turned out to be nothing but a marketing ploy - just like I feared. I was actually fooled into thinking that I was going to be able to play through entire sections of this remake completely undetected, but that's simply not possible since every location is designed as an "action" encounter - just like in the original.

Or perhaps I just suck? If there's anyone out there who has managed to master the sneaking tool I will challenge my own opinion.

 

[bSTAR_182]

There were a few moments in the game where I had a small chain of stealth kills going but they were pretty few and far between for me as well.

I think the most I got was 4 stealth kills in a row (right after rescuing Ashley). Maybe even a small one going right when you get to the island.
As you mentioned, I think their main focus was intense horde fights.

 

[Turo602]

I don't really see the issue. The sneaking mechanic is very bare bones compared to most games, as it should be. It's not Splinter Cell and being able to dispatch entire areas in this fashion would defeat the point of it being more survival horror if you can just save your ammo stealthing everything. Besides, I think it comes up enough throughout the game to still be useful and help conserve a few bullets, though, at the expense of your knife. There's plenty of instances where enemies are unaware when you enter an area and are just begging to be stealthed. Though of course, there's still a skill curve to it as you don't want to get caught too early but it's also not so excessive that you'll destroy your knife doing nothing but stealth kills and be left with nothing to parry with during the full encounter. You can also crouch to avoid enemy attacks, especially thrown projectiles, and the Garrador fights and other shooting friendly encounters on the island make use of the mechanic too when you need to take cover.

 

[Ikawaru]

I feel that it was experimental for this game because it was actually much more than I initially anticipated and it should be improved upon because strong emphasis on stealth can be very beneficial for survival horror if done right and can actually make the game scarier if your forced to hide in the shadows. I'm not let down because I never thought they would even do as much as they did. The last thing I want Capcom to do is read the OP and be like "Aw, I guess it sucks better drop the feature entirely!" NO. Build upon it, and build upon the crafting system, you're on the right track.

The more I play RE4R, the more I see it as some kind of transitional game, not a fantastic game on its own. Enough to please the drooling classic RE4 fans sure but the rest of us should see all the little quirks that they can improve upon. Like a beta test for future RE games.

 

[Jonipoon]

I don't really see the issue. The sneaking mechanic is very bare bones compared to most games, as it should be. It's not Splinter Cell and being able to dispatch entire areas in this fashion would defeat the point of it being more survival horror if you can just save your ammo stealthing everything. Besides, I think it comes up enough throughout the game to still be useful and help conserve a few bullets, though, at the expense of your knife. There's plenty of instances where enemies are unaware when you enter an area and are just begging to be stealthed. Though of course, there's still a skill curve to it as you don't want to get caught too early but it's also not so excessive that you'll destroy your knife doing nothing but stealth kills and be left with nothing to parry with during the full encounter. You can also crouch to avoid enemy attacks, especially thrown projectiles, and the Garrador fights and other shooting friendly encounters on the island make use of the mechanic too when you need to take cover.

Well, OG RE4 was already less of a survival horror game when it came out so it's not like a fully developed stealth system would hurt that aspect of gameplay. That being said I was definitely exaggerating when I said that I expected to be able to play through the entire game undetected. What I really wanted was simply a more smooth stealth experience that didn't feel like an afterthought. Once you're spotted by one enemy in one area, you're no longer able to hide in that specific area again until the encounter is over. So the most efficient playstyle is still running around like crazy until you find what you're looking for, just like in the original.

 

[leon_hellppp]

Admittedly I haven't yet tried a maximum stealth playthrough, so I don't know how much you can get away with when playing the game that way. I hadn't given it much thought until now, but I guess stealth is kind of half-baked in RE4R. I see it as being supplementary to combat encounters, more so than a viable alternative to them. The slow crouch speed makes you not really want to bother with it, and enemies have such poor player detection that there's often no advantage to crouching anyway—you can run right up behind them and still get the stealth kill prompt usually. Despite the start of chapter 2 confusingly setting you up to believe it's going to be more integral to the gameplay, I would say stealth in this game is generally limited to a couple obvious sneak kill placements right at the start of encounters, before all hell breaks loose and you end up shooting. It's pretty inoffensive so I'd hesitate to call it "bad", but it does feel kind of redundant and a little bit like the devs were just following modern AAA trends. I can understand being disappointed if the marketing had led you to expect more, though.

Although still pretty bare bones, I'd say The Evil Within did stealth better. The atmosphere of those early village chapters is perfect for skulking, and the game's default balance really rewards you for conserving resources.

 

[Ikawaru]

There were two sections of the game I had where stealth worked great. The first was at the Village area when you traverse through the barn section the second time w/ Ashley right before the horde battle with Luis. I was able to sneak up on every ganado and take them out in a perfect weave and even managed to stealth kill the brute when he stumbled by as I was hiding in the barn, felt pretty good. The second time was the first part of the Island section where you have to activate those weird red lights stealth worked pretty good in that area as well. Worthless as Hell in the Castle in most other areas where you are seen by default.

DO BETTER CAPCOM

 

[Dr. Cheesesteak]

DO BETTER CAPCOM

To be fair, it's not a stealth game. But to be double fair, it does incentivize stealth (w/ rewards). So...yeah, I guess they could do better.

I do find it funny that the 3-kill stealth streak challenge seems to have just like

Spoiler

2 or 3 places in the entire game where it's possible

lol.

 

[Ikawaru]

To be fair, it's not a stealth game.

I believe you are missing the point. I would like survival horror game but one that offers multiple types of playstyles that's well balanced. A survival horror game that's 50% stealth and 50% action, to me, would be preferable to one that is 90% action and 10% stealth. Even better, perhaps throw in another type of playstyle, like science/ engineering where's you could take something like "resources" and put them into computer terminals that lock doors and stops bioweapons from breaking through or fires up turrets to mow them down.

I mean you should be able to play as you want, if you want to be an action hero, sure, but you would have to devote all of your "resources" to ammunition and weapon upgrades to accommodate yourself to it and put forth lots of effort to make sure you have the firepower to handle it. I'm just asking for a game that's scary as **** and sure as Hell could be called survival horror, but one which can accommodate different methods and approaches towards completion.

 

[Jonipoon]

Although still pretty bare bones, I'd say The Evil Within did stealth better. The atmosphere of those early village chapters is perfect for skulking, and the game's default balance really rewards you for conserving resources.

Oh man the stealth in The Evil Within was awesome. Now that's a game that truly managed to balance action with stealth, because the sneaking system felt both functional and rewarding without minimizing the action. I wouldn't say that RE4R should've followed the exact same template, but it's worth nothing that TEW took many inspirations from RE4. Perhaps taking a bit more inspiration from TEW would've benefited RE4R and served as a nice "full circle".

I'm glad I'm not the only one who noticed how bare bones the stealth was in this game.

 

[UniqTeas]

I agree somewhat. But I like that the stealth play HAS to be perfect for you to actually accomplish it. There are areas in the game where you can stealth kill a few enemies before getting spotted, but I like that the enemies can turn and find you, or an unseen enemy can alarm the other villagers to your presence and suddenly, there is a SWARM. But man, getting 2-3 stealth kills feels great in the game for ammo conservation. I like that there is a balance so that you can kill via stealth incrementally, but there is no area where it is a 100% requirement other than MAYBE where Leon is tied up and his equipment is in a room 2 minutes away. haha

 

[Frag Maniac]

Ya know, I was assuming stealth was pretty much same as described here after playing the demo, a couple sneak kills at best, then you get spotted. I just got the game a couple days ago though and I have been a bit surprised that there are more places you can use it than the demo leads you to believe. I even managed to stealth kill a brute at the farm.

To me, this game has a good mix of stealth and overt combat, and so far, most of the changes the remake brings are better than the original IMO.