Everyone knows the best stealth games are the ultimate challenge. They encourage us to think outside the box as we plan our next escape, heist, or assassination. They've also given us some of the best replayable games, and there's often more than one way to go about your task, forcing you to get sneakily creative time and time again.
If you can hold yourself back from going in guns-blazing for long enough, you'll be able to appreciate how deeply satisfying a stealth game can be. Offering systems-based encounters that leverage reactive worlds against impossible odds, many of the greatest stealth games also turn into the best action games if you blow your cover. Whether geared toward horror, action, or realism, the games on this list are united by a common gameplay feature: stealth.
We've spent countless hours as ninjas, hitmen, secret agents, assassins, wanted fugitives, and everything in between to give you the best of the best titles. Naturally, we've also included one of the best Assassin's Creed games of recent years, as well as some of the best strategy games to boot if RTS is your style. So, if you're ready to sneak and sleuth your way through mansions, factories, spaceships, banks, military bases, and more, here are the 10 best stealth games you can play today.
The best stealth games ever, starting with...
10. Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew
Developer: Mimimi Games
Platform(s): PC, PS5, Xbox Series X
Our picks of the best stealth games kicks off with Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew. From the studio that brought us Desperados 2 and 3 comes a spooky pirate stealth escapade, equal parts Pirates of the Caribbean and Assassin's Creed. Afia Manicato and the other accursed shipmates aboard the Red Marley have unique skills and abilities to help you combat Ignacia and her lackeys.
These inquisitors seek to control the famed pirate ship. Experimenting with different party members and executing plans simultaneously is one of the most satisfying parts of Shadow Gambit, so if it's a well-paced stealth strategy game with stunning graphics you're after, look no further.
Read our Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew review.
9. A Plague Tale: Requiem
Developer: Asobo Studio
Platform(s): PS5, Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X, PC
The heart-breaking saga of Amicia and Hugo continues in A Plague Tale: Requiem. Following the events of the first game, you might have been hoping these baleful French children might've been spared future suffering. And you'd be very, very wrong about that.
The sequel takes the de Rune kids on yet another perilous adventure, using a similar alchemical crafting system and sneaky stealth mechanics we've come to know, love, and dread. Somehow, developer Asobo Studios has managed to vault the game's stakes tenfold. The story is richer, the crafting and combat even more intuitive, and that's just a few reasons why Plague Tale: Requiem is one of the best stealth games in recent years.
Read our A Plague Tale: Requiem review.
8. Mark of the Ninja: Remastered
Developer: Klei Entertainment
Platform(s): PC, PS4, Xbox One, Xbox 360, Nintendo Switch
You have to give kudos to Klei Entertainment for making a side-scrolling game that feels just as satisfying and stimulating as some of the best three-dimensional stealth games out there. Hell, the beauty of Mark of the Ninja isn’t in spite of its 2D make-up: it’s because of it.
That unconventional perspective forces players into new modalities of thinking, with puzzles and platforming becoming an integral part of the experience. The animation is also ‘slap-you-around-the-face’ gorgeous. Those dense, painterly textures and brooding backdrops really are a sight of the sorest of stealthy eyes.
Read our Mark of the Ninja review.
7. Thief 2: The Metal Age
Developer: Looking Glass Studios
Platform(s): PC
Forget the half-baked Thief remake from 2014: Thief 2: The Metal Age is the series’ seminal masterpiece. As one of the first stealth games to offer open-ended levels, responsive first-person controls, and genuinely emergent forms of gameplay, it paved the way for future titles.
Despite its age, Thief 2 hasn’t lost any of its original appeal. The impeccable sound and visual work preserve Thief’s world, ensuring the atmosphere is as captivating as it was seventeen years ago. All these years on, the game’s freeform design has kept its replay value alive and well to this day.
Read our Thief review.
6. The Last of Us Part 2
Developer: Naughty Dog
Platforms: PS4, PS5
The most intimately upsetting game on PS4 is also one of the greatest stealth games ever made. Building on Naughty Dog’s original apocalyptic adventure, The Last of Us Part 2 strengthens the original’s stealth elements to create a sequel that’s both harrowing and emboldening. The game’s greatest strength is that it hangs on a knife-edge between empowerment and total helplessness.
Depending on the weapons you’re holding, Ellie could be an unarmed, terrified girl hiding from a bloodthirsty German Shepherd or a tooled-up badass who could silently eliminate a half dozen enemies with a super-satisfying bow and arrow. Whatever you think of the game’s affecting (if polarizing) story, the meat and potatoes stealth in The Last of Us 2 is excellent… and uncomfortably personal.
Read our The Last of Us Part 2 review.
5. Alien: Isolation
Developer: The Creative Assembly
Platform(s): PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X
Possibly the greatest video game tie-in there’s ever been… and certainly the finest one that involves a nine-foot-tall, slavering beastie with a distinctly penis-shaped head. The genius of Alien: Isolation is that it leans into Ridley Scott’s hallmark horror, not James Cameron’s bombastic action sequel.
Jettisoning pulse rifles and firefights for motion trackers and quiet dread, The Creative Assembly taps into the pure “in space, no one can hear you scream” spirit that made Scott’s 1979’s masterwork one of the most influential horror films of all time. A spine-tingling stealth classic and one of the best survival horror games ever made.
Read our Alien: Isolation review.
4. Hitman 3
Developer: IO Interactive
Platform(s): PC, PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X, Xbox One
Probably the only game on this list where the concept of stealth usually involves very little with being hidden. As the closing part of the ‘World of Assassation’ trilogy, Hitman 3 once again rewards players for keeping Agent 47, well… very much in sight. The brilliance of this sequel – and the series at large – is that, while your seven-foot assassin is always visible, it’s rare any of the game’s NPCs realize just how deadly he is.
Blend in at a Berlin nightclub, then use the deafening noise of sweaty ravers to drown out all that stabbing and shooting. Dress up as a detective before entering into an elaborate murder mystery at a sweeping English manor. In Hitman 3, devious death and murderous social stealth are only a change of clothes away.
Read our Hitman 3 review.
3. Dishonored 2
Developer: Arkane Studios
Platform(s): PC, PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X, Xbox One
What can be said about a game that’s been gushed about non-stop ever since its release? And for an incredibly good reason. After Arkane laid down such a superb foundation in the original, it was inevitable Dishonored 2 would be a home run.
This is a sequel that builds upon its predecessor in almost every conceivable way. Throw in Arkane’s natural knack for unprecedented world-building (Karnaca is a Mediterranean dream of a sandbox), and you have a stealth game that’s only a few inches shy of perfection.
Read our Dishonored 2 review.
2. Assassin's Creed Mirage
Developer: Ubisoft Bordeaux
Platforms: PC, PS5, Xbox Series X, PS4, Xbox One
While there are plenty of upcoming Assassin's Creed games this one is still currently top dog in terms of stealth gameplay. Going right back to the stealth-centric roots of Ubisoft's flagship series, Assassin's Creed Mirage is a stunning return to form.
Featuring blackbox missions, assassin contracts, and an altogether more compact narrative and map experience, exploring Basim's origin story will feel like coming home to long-time fans of the series. Our in-depth series of features in On the Radar: Assassin's Creed Mirage will bring you closer to this world-class contract killer's slick, stylish beginnings.
Read our Assassin's Creed Mirage review.
1. Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain
Developer: Konami and Kojima Productions
Platforms: PC, PS4, Xbox One
Flaming unicorns! A sniper who really should be wearing more clothes! The cutest one-eyed dog in the history of games! Metal Gear Solid 5 is not a stealth game you can pigeonhole. What is it, then? Oh, just the greatest stealth adventure of all time… and it’s not remotely close. While it may have endured an infamously tortured development, The Phantom Pain remains a towering achievement. Whether you know your Octacons from your Ocelots, this is the most joyously free-form stealth game ever.
Empowering players with the sort of bold agency so few games ever have the guts to, this is an adventure where the depths of your sneaking success are only ever limited by your imagination. Be it asking your horse to poo on command to make that jeep in the distance skid on said filly feces, recruiting hundreds of guards with Snake’s personal ‘hot air balloon kidnap service,’ or using a mute sniper chum to tranq your enemies from a mile away, MGS5 revels in giving players a choice. This is Metal Gear at its most playful and adventurous. It’s truly glorious.
Read our Metal Gear Solid 5 review.
There are plenty of stealth titles amid the slew of upcoming Ubisoft games. You can also look ahead with our list of all the upcoming games heading our way this year and beyond.
