You play as a fatter, balder, brittle Sam Fisher, armed only with a pair of goggles that lets you know how visible you are in the game's impressive dynamic 2D shadows. Birthed as one of an infinite number of clones, you're dropped into a series of test chambers that take on a particularly-Portal like sadism. You'll even see Splinter Cell: Conviction's projector text on the walls, offering helpful advice or bemoaning your fall into one of the environment's appropriately infinite traps. You'll almost hear GLaDOS chuckle in the background, for this is where the game gets its title. The bastard is not the player character himself; it's the environment that's being a total bastard to him.
Through this premise, Stealth Bastard Deluxe takes on a Super Meat Boy-like pace, with shades of I Wanna Be The Guy thanks to environmental elements designed entirely to destroy you. It is less of a pure stealth title, and more of a puzzle platformer - but that's no sleight against the game. Levels can take anywhere between thirty seconds and a minute to complete, with
Steam leaderboards offering competitive replayability. There are multiple solutions to each level, but these depend upon equipment unlocks added in the Deluxe version, such as optical camouflage and holographic decoys. Unfortunately, these take far too long to unlock; players of the original Stealth Bastard will find themselves repeating similar puzzles before they have the chance to get truly creative.
Thankfully that puzzle solving process is still an enjoyable one. Death conies quick, but checkpoints are relatively generous. There is a small aspect of trial and error as not all switches have their effect communicated before pushing them - but that's the setup for the environmental bastardising.
Though you'll first be encountering cameras, lasers and less-intelligent robots, the game's dynamic light and shadow system becomes more important as you begin to encounter roving drones and omniscient sentinels. Sound actually begins to matter, too.
The deluxe release also ships with a full-featured level editor, and Steam support means finding and playing community levels is cleanly integrated with the game's interface. Surprisingly, players have created more bastardly (its a word) levels than the developer itself.
Some additional story text and collectibles round out the Deluxe additions to Stealth Bastard, which - coupled with the locked-away gadgets - may make the game feel a little repetitive to players of the free version. But it's still a fantastic package, and a genuinely unique take on the puzzle platformer.
Developer: Curve Studios
Publisher: Curve Studios
Price: $9.99
Out: Now
Web: stealthbastard.com
System Requirement
CPU: Dual Core 2.5Ghz
System Memory: 2Gb or greater of RAM
Video RAM: 256Mb or more VRAM
GFX Card: DirectX 8.0 compatible
OS Support: Windows XP SP2 or better, Vista, Win7
Input: Keyboard / Mouse, Xinput supported controllers (i.e. Xbox controllers for Windows)
