Bathhouse – Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory

Of the many places that Sam Fisher has infiltrated, you wouldn’t think a bathhouse in Tokyo would provide many challenges. Nevertheless, Chaos Theory’s Bathhouse mission, which involves gaining entry into the location and discovering Douglas Shetland’s contact, is surprisingly tense. After Fisher eavesdrops on the conversation, he’ll then need to survive a battle between the I-SDF and mercenaries before subsequently neutralizing Shetland’s bombs. On the plus side, at least the player can decide to stab or throw Shetland off the roof instead of shooting him since Sam finds it more courteous (we think).

Note that we’ve kept entries in the feature to one game per series, so don’t go expecting seven Metal Gear Solid games (even though that sounds like a pretty great list).

So with all that said, let’s begin.

METAL GEAR SOLID 5

Might as well kick it off with a Metal Gear Solid game, right? And what a game it is. The Phantom Pain certainly has its issues, of that there is little doubt, and these issues do a lot to bring down its overall quality as a finished product, or as a satisfying entry in the series. But purely from a gameplay perspective, viewed purely on the merits of its stealth mechanics, The Phantom Pain is nearly flawless. Making use of a complex web of systems, MGS5 delivers dynamic, reactive, and emergent stealth gameplay the likes of which we haven’t seen in many games. It is, plain and simple, a stealth masterclass.