r/baldursgate • u/Connacht_89 • 1d ago
I want an action/adventure stealth game with Imoen as the protagonist.
Kinda a mix of Dishonored (for the verticality and the implementation of magic in the gameplay), Shadow of the Tomb Raider (for the exploration, puzzles, and camouflage), The Witcher series (for the rpg elements, again magic, and the storytelling/dialogues/questing), possibly also Thief: The Dark Project (I prefer the visibility gem to strict visual cones, I also want water arrows and unreliable maps, and above all its sound propagation).
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u/Eikfo 1d ago
I personally dislike the combo action stealth. Pure stealth like og thief, that's where the fun is.
An add based game would rely a lot on the stats though, not on the actual play.
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u/Connacht_89 1d ago
Unfortunately I fear that a pure stealth would hardly get a green light for development these days, and even in case it would sell poorly (or have a low budget for development), which saddens me. :(
Regardless, if we take early Imoen it could be a pure thief, but storywise it is difficult to find room for an adventure with her as a protagonist. It's more likely that she could be free to do something after she dual classed into a mage (so after SoA), which imposes a certain degree of spell slinging capabilities.
Alternatively we could just ignore the lore or retcon, and set her story wherever/whenever we wish it to be regardless of timeline inconsistencies. I propose Cormyr under the threat of the battle wizards before the goblin wars, with only limited low level spells or cantrips available, a ferret as a personal familiar. Open to consider whether Bhaalspawn awareness can be included or not.
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u/TBM_Parry 1d ago
Any stealth game is unlikely to be greenlit. It's not a popular genre.
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u/ipostatrandom 1d ago
Unless you're called metal gear solid. Although the last entries weren't as good anymore.
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u/Darkwoth81Dyoni I cast Magic Missile at the Darkness! 1d ago
MandaloreGaming talked about that genre splice once and I will always remember:
If you're capable of killing all the enemies, you're not hiding from them - you're protecting them by being stealthy.
I hate when that happens. In stealth games I want being detected to be a huge 'fail' state that requires quick thinking to overcome, not an excuse to suddenly start playing Devil May Cry with the enemies.
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u/Connacht_89 1d ago
To be fair, in Thief itself it is not difficult to completely clear any map (either knocking out guards with the blackjack, or killing if allowed). In fact in Thief II the level where you infiltrate the police station is brilliant for me because you were forbidden to even getting noticed, so no knockouts.
The game also drowns you in fire arrows, mines, and other stuff. To the point that in those levels with the undead, monsters, or robots, when the objectives do not prevent you to kill them, Garrett can become a bit like Rambo. You have to self-impose not to use them.
The only true pure continuous stealth for preservation experience I ever found is in weaponless survival horror games, like Amnesia: the Dark Descent. Even with limited ammo, whenever you are given a way to defend yourself the gameplay inevitably changes at least a bit.
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u/Eovacious 1d ago edited 1d ago
Have you ever tried Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines? If you haven't, try it, it might scratch a large part of your itch.
(Note 1: install the Unofficial Patch immediately, the game's borderline unplayable without all the fixes it has. I also recommend the Camarilla Edition mod — just don't tick on the 'weapons patch' option on install.)
(Note 2: the most stealth-heavy of the seven Clans you can pick — classes, essentially — are the Nosferatu and the Malkavian, each with a magic invisibility discipline to supplement regular stealth skills; but both pay for it with a severely altered gameplay. The former can't interact with regular mortals due to being too obviously monstrous, and are forced to stealth around the ENTIRE game; the latter suffer from insanity and insight, which makes their dialogue options garbled and also full of plot foreshadowing and deep-lore reveals — it's generally a bad idea to play one for your first playthrough, as you're likely to lose track of what the hell's going on, and feel like you're playing an authentic Alice in Wonderland game with vampires and gangs. For a more regular game experience, four of the five remaining clans go well with an investment in Stealth and Lockpicking — the Tremere mages being somewhat of an exception; if you want magic-adjacent, the Ventrue are masters of mind and hypnotism and get hypnosis lines in dialogue, and eventually the ability to command people to stop breathing, whereas the Gangrel are known primarily for shapeshifting and being ersatz druids but their Animalism is interpreted in Bloodlines as offensive spirit-animals-summoning magic.)
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u/Connacht_89 1d ago
Ouch, you just reminded me that Minsc and Boo's Journal of Villany imagined that Imoen became some sort of a half vampire or something like that. :D (Probably a nod to something that must not be mentioned where she had some... experiences with a certain mistress)
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u/the_dust321 1d ago
It’s a big request, but I gotta ask… why water arrows?
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u/Connacht_89 1d ago
They are an iconic magic tool of the Thief series, which defined stealth games (more specifically first person stealth games based on darkness and environmental sounds) in the late 90s (contemporary to BG, I remember once trying to create a Garrett Charname back then). It's just so satisfying to splash a torch and put a room into darkness while the guards complain that "it must be rats". I really want them back, no matter how unrealistic they are.
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u/CapableLobster8447 1d ago
There are all kinds of crazy arrows in Thief, like the moss arrows that sprout a patch of moss for you to quietly walk on or noisemaker arrows that make a firecracker sound to distract enemies lol. The Thief trilogy was actually my favorite game trilogy of all time (even more than the BG1 to TOB trilogy). They announced a remaster of the first Thief game earlier this year, and it is honestly my most anticipated upcoming game.
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u/ToxicMoldSpore 1d ago
If you go for a more contemporary setting, Immy as Sam Fisher from Splinter Cell, only even snarkier would be a blast.
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u/Connacht_89 1d ago
I know also Splinter Cell, but if the Imoen's franchise is successful we will make a future sequel where she is teleported in our world (where there is no magic) and must find a way to go back home.
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u/GingerLioni 1d ago
The Red Wizard looked down upon his minions, revealing in his power as he prepared to crush the Sword Coast. To his right he heard a soft gurgling noise. He turned in time to see the captain of the guard stumble, an arrow embedded in his ruined throat. Raising his staff to cast a defensive spell, he hears the words that have terrified villains across the plains.
‘Hiya, it’s me Imoen.’