Seriously, no one who played Deus Ex should say that hiding in some silly "dark corner" wasn't cheap. Seriously, if I wanted to sit safely in a dark corner, I could do it in real life. Also, where are you supposed to hide if there isn't a convenient dark corner around?
Have you played Thief? Or Splinter Cell? Or any stealth game ever? Seriously. Hiding in a dark shadow is entirely logical, realistic and believable. It's effectiveness varies based on distance. The further away a guard is, the less dark the shadow has to be for you to remain concealed. If the guard is close, the shadow has to be pitch dark for you to stay hidden. Deus Ex's implementation of light-based stealth was fine. The problem is that the AI was dumb and their general awareness was minimal. Again, this was an AI issue, not an issue with the stealth mechanic.
To reiterate, hiding behind cover is present in
every stealth game. It is a fundamental aspect of stealth. It's not some new or revolutionary concept. It's stealth at its most basic level. Stripping away the light and sound mechanics doesn't make stealth more interesting. It makes it dumbed down.
Implementing light into an AI's visibility calculations opens all sorts of gameplay possibilities. You shoot out the lights, flip on the night-vision and voila, you can reenact Silence of the Lambs. Of course, the AI could use the same tactic against you depending on what augmentations or equipment they have. You could even use this against them. Shoot out the lights, forcing them to turn on night-vision, then shine a flashlight in their eyes, severely blinding them.
If the stealth in DX3 is stripped down to
only cover, it is a step back.
This comment was edited on Oct 5, 00:18.