Since the late nineties and early 2000s, Metal Gear Solid and Splinter Cell have been the biggest stealth franchises around.
Naturally, this has led to constant comparisons between the two. Some people love walking around in cardboard boxes and tranquilizing guards in Metal Gear Solid. Others prefer hanging from pipes and eliminating light fixtures in Splinter Cell. Now that the future of both franchises is unclear, it is the perfect time to decide which is/was the best.
For this list, we’ve put the emphasis on stealth, so we’re not comparing stories or characters, instead, we’ve come up with five reasons why each series is the definitive stealth series.
10 Metal Gear Solid: Sleeping And Knockout Mechanics
Knocking out or putting to sleep any guards in your way is a viable strategy in most stealth games. In Splinter Cell, enemies can only be woken up by another person, whereas in Metal Gear Solid, they also can wake up on their own if enough time passes.
While it’s a small addition, it can add plenty of tension to certain sections, as if you’re in one area for a while, you have to keep checking whether any unconscious guards are about to wake up. Plus, watching the little Zs or stars above their head gradually go away (signifying they’re about to get up) can be nerve-racking.
9 Splinter Cell: Climbing
Sam Fisher has always been very athletic. He can climb pipes, buildings, and even do the splits between the walls of a narrow hallway (as shown in the image above). The Metal Gear Solid protagonists only ever really climb waist-high boxes, hang from ledges, or roll.
Sam’s surprising athleticism adds an extra dimension to every situation as you don’t always need to rely on crawling by guards. You can sometimes jump out of the window and shimmy to a different one or climb a pipe that takes you above everybody. Additionally, if sneaking past isn’t your thing, then Fisher’s climbing abilities can also be used to set up some cool aerial attacks.
8 Metal Gear Solid: Boss Fights
Most stealth games avoid boss battles for the most part, which makes sense as a full-fledged fight with a difficult enemy isn’t exactly sneaky. However, on occasion, the Metal Gear Solid series has incorporated stealth into some of their boss battles to great effect.
One of the most famous examples is the fight against The End. The potentially multi-hour long sniper duel with the aging Cobra Unit member requires you to use all of your skill (and equipment) to hide from and simultaneously find him. Being able to have big climactic battles like the one against The End without sacrificing stealth is amazing.
7 Splinter Cell: Lighting Mechanics
The Splinter Cell series does a great job of implementing lighting into its gameplay. Using shadows or dark areas to hide isn’t exclusive to the Ubisoft series, but few do it as well as Splinter Cell. It’s the way you can manipulate the lighting as Sam Fisher that makes the series stand out in this department. Shooting light bulbs, using EMPs, or simply switching off the light, can make a bright room more stealth friendly.
Additionally, it makes you vary your strategy based on the location you’re in. In an outside area during the day, you may need to stick close to buildings for shadow, whereas when you’re in a brightly light building, you may need to risk alerting guards by shooting or switching off a light to create some hiding spots.
6 Metal Gear Solid: Use Of Camouflage
One of the best things Metal Gear Solid 3 brought to the MGS series was camouflage. Wearing the uniform and facepaint that most closely resembles the terrain you’re in means you are less likely to be seen by enemies. It adds an extra element to stealth as finding and wearing the right camo in MGS3 is as important as staying out of sight (although it never feels as vital in the later Metal Gear Solid titles).
Also, after playing thousands of games where the main character is wearing camouflage, it’s awesome to see it actually do something instead of just being cosmetic (like it is in Splinter Cell: Blacklist).
5 Splinter Cell: PvP Multiplayer
PvP multiplayer isn’t the easiest thing to incorporate into a stealth series as usual game modes like Team Deathmatch, Capture the Flag, and King of the Hill, don’t suit them. Both Splinter Cell and Metal Gear have attempted to put multiplayer into their series, however the Ubisoft series has had more success.
Splinter Cell’s Spies Vs. Mercs is one of the best multiplayer stealth modes in gaming history. Forcing the spies to have to sneak around the more combat-ready mercs was a genius way to keep stealth alive in PvP multiplayer.
4 Metal Gear Solid: Different Types Of Stealth
The Metal Gear Solid series likes to keep players on their toes by switching up the gameplay regularly. In some of the games, there are Hitman-like sections where you need to wear a disguise and avoid people who can see through it. While disguised, knocking out guards and crawling around as you usually would, gives away your ruse.
Then there are occasions when you need to follow someone around, which necessitates a different strategy than simply sneaking past people. There are even a few situations where you have to escort someone while remaining stealthy. The multiple variations in missions and situations add a nice challenge to the games, as you can’t always rely on the same tactics and equipment.
3 Splinter Cell: Co-op
Since 2005’s Splinter Cell: Choas Theory, the series has implemented co-operative play into their games, from full campaigns to specific modes. Sneaking around with a buddy, shooting lightbulbs, and taking out guards, is always tons of fun. Plus, it’s nice that the co-op campaign tends to be separate from the single-player as it gives you two enjoyable campaigns to play through.
Unfortunately, it’s one of the only stealth franchises to have co-op as most games in the genre are solely single-player adventures. Metal Gear Solid did attempt it in Peace Walker, which was okay, but it felt more tacked on and certainly couldn’t match the quality of the Tom Clancy series’ co-operative offerings.
2 Metal Gear Solid: Revolutionary
While the Metal Gear Solid series can’t claim to have invented stealth games, the series certainly played one of the biggest parts in the genre’s development.
Both the Metal Gear Solid series and its predecessor the Metal Gear series, introduced many features that we still see in the latest stealth titles, such as security cameras, the ability to climb through air ducts, and collective A.I. (which is where A.I guards communicate with each other to find you), just to name a few. Without the Metal Gear franchise, who knows where the stealth genre would be today, franchises like Splinter Cell and Hitman might not even exist.
1 Splinter Cell: The Games Still Hold Up
The problem with long-running franchises is if you want to play the whole thing through, then you usually have to struggle with the outdated controls, mechanics, and camera angles of the earlier titles.
Splinter Cell has managed to avoid that for the most part, as the original title is still a very playable and fun game. Yes, the graphics and animations might not be as great as they once were, but most of the other aspects of the game hold up. Ubisoft deserves credit for creating a game that has stood the test of time. So, if you’re interested in playing a stealth franchise all the way through from the beginning, then Splinter Cell would be a great choice.
NEXT: The 10 Best Stealth Games Of The Decade, Ranked (According To Metacritic)
