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A question about female characters in video games that rely on Stealth for the majority of gameplay.

Mayar

Member
There really aren't many games with female characters with this mechanic, and most of them have already been named here. I can probably only add a little-known game from 2016 - Shadwen.
I'll say right away that it's not a masterpiece.
 

PeteBull

Member
So sad that these women lie to themselves. I can guarantee you that if confronted with this choice for real (as in you put the woman into a wooded enclosure and she chooses if a bear or a man joins her in there), they would all choose the man.
Its enough to asses this stuff when u see most women(not all, some country girls are tuff and used to many wild animals) react to seeing spider/mouse/rat/tiny snake :p
 

The Cockatrice

I'm retarded?
I mean...dishonored 2 protagonist is not exactly fragile or unable to fight.

She has powers and fighting prowess with the sword, you can actually face 2-3 enemies at once and still win, even on hardest difficulty.

Her powers are mostly for stealth and she is still physically weak so she must rely on being sneaky. In combat, thats just your skill, but she aint meant for combat.
 

GymWolf

Member
Her powers are mostly for stealth and she is still physically weak so she must rely on being sneaky. In combat, thats just your skill, but she aint meant for combat.
But op asked for a protagonist were combat is completely off the table, this is not the case in dish2, you are perfectly able to dispatch enemies.

And powers like domino can be perfectly used in combat, you link 4 enemies and then kill only one and bam, all 4 dead.

But she is not really a girlboss.
 

The Cockatrice

I'm retarded?
But op asked for a protagonist were combat is completely off the table, this is not the case in dish2, you are perfectly able to dispatch enemies.

And powers like domino can be perfectly used in combat, you link 4 enemies and then kill only one and bam, all 4 dead.

But she is not really a girlboss.

There are no games where combat is off the table. All stealth games have optional combat even in Plague Tale you can just go rambo throwing rocks at enemies as if you're a killing machine and same in Alien isolation, once you get the flamethrower you're just basically unkillable.
 

Sorcerer

Member
From the Gamecube/PS2/Xbox era:

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Much later:

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Game and soundtrack free on Steam (short 20 minute game):


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Women are generally smaller than men, but even if you have men and women of equal height and build, the man will generally be stronger than the woman due to "biological differences in muscle mass and hormone levels, with the strength disparity being most noticable in upper body strength; this is generally true even when comparing individuals with similar body composition."

From a biological standpoint, the gender virtually always matters.
Generally speaking yes, but there's a lot of factors where a woman could be stronger than even a "larger" man. But in this specific case one is being called out as if impossible while overlooking that of a guy taking out a bigger guy while ignoring the skills and tactics that allow to surpass someone going against another of greater strength.

Are we SERIOUSLY debating if Bruce Lee and a woman are the same in a fight against a larger opponent? No one bats an eye because Bruce Lee was a damned LEGEND and could sell the fight.

Let's go to the tapes, shall we??
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We all know Chuck would be unstoppable with a beard.
 

GymWolf

Member
There are no games where combat is off the table. All stealth games have optional combat even in Plague Tale you can just go rambo throwing rocks at enemies as if you're a killing machine and same in Alien isolation, once you get the flamethrower you're just basically unkillable.
Leaving everything else aside, i'm pretty sure there are full stealth games where combat is actually off the table, where you get a fail state if discovered, pretty sure that pure stealth as a genre exist, i just don't play many (or any) of them and many of them are probably indies or AA so less known.
 
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NeonGhost

uses 'M$' - What year is it? Not 2002.
They made super DEI predator movie not that long ago, total disgrace for the franchise, flopped sales wise too ofc

Only good thing from that movie/trailer is- we finally get proper "what if" to the question asked to women:

Prey was a great movie and it broke a bunch of viewership records when released
 

Three

Gold Member
Are there any examples of games where the protagonist is a woman who knows she is at a disadvantage against much larger enemies, so she has to rely on stealth to take them down? I mean the character has to be self-aware about it. A well-timed dagger to the throat will take anyone out
Ellie is pretty much like this in TLOU1 though the way she jumps in with her dagger isn't that well timed. More jump on their back then dagger throat. I'm pretty sure she would have been overpowered and tossed off their back in some animations.

People also hated the MJ stealth in Spiderman 1 but that's another good example of "stealth over power" for a female character. People complained even about that though.

 

The Cockatrice

I'm retarded?
Leaving everything else aside, i'm pretty sure there are full stealth games where combat is actually off the table, where you get a fail state if discovered, pretty sure that pure stealth as a genre exist, i just don't play many (or any) of them and many of them are probably indies or AA so less known.

Pure stealth with female protags? Can't think of any at the top of my head atm. Or at least any good ones. Havent seen a pure stealth game in ages and I'm a stealth gamer at heart.
 

peek

Member
Abby from TLOU2. She had to use her smaller stature to expertly hide in the larger than life bushes that allowed her to stay hidden away from the much more powerful men.
 
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