Silent and Deadly – Stealth Inc 2: A Game Of Clones Review

<p><span style&equals;"font-size&colon; large&semi;">There are many games in today&&num;8217&semi;s market that offer a visually pleasuring experience&comma; but often incorporate elements of extreme violence&comma; dark comedy&comma; and a touch of social satire&period; Games such as <em>Braid<&sol;em>&comma; <em>Super Meat Boy&comma;<&sol;em> and <em>Abe&&num;8217&semi;s Odyssey<&sol;em> offer seemingly cute looking games with an unusual twist that is not for the child gamer&period; <em>Stealth Inc&period; 2&colon; A Game Of Clones<&sol;em> brings yet another merging of cute cartoon animation and bloody mayhem with stealth&sol;lateral gameplay blended in&period; The sequel to Curve Digital&&num;8217&semi;s 2011 game <em>Stealth Inc&colon; A Clone In The Dark<&sol;em> &lpar;originally released as <em>Stealth Bastard<&sol;em>&rpar;&comma; it blends both action&comma; platforming and stealth gameplay&comma; bringing an experience that&&num;8217&semi;s pretty close to &&num;8220&semi;<em>Metal Gear Solid<&sol;em> meets <em>Super Meat Boy&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;em>&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><img class&equals;" aligncenter" src&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;thereticule&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2014&sol;10&sol;box&lowbar;art001&period;png" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"812" height&equals;"437" &sol;><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><span style&equals;"font-size&colon; large&semi;"><em>Stealth Inc&period; 2<&sol;em> is set within a bizarre world&comma; where a major fast food chain explores the realms of science &lpar;other than genetically modifying hamburgers&rpar;&period; The company experiments with creating walking drones that kill people&comma; to cloning thousands of little guys who look like a cross between Stewie Griffin&comma; and a Minion from <em>Despicable Me<&sol;em>&period; The story feels similar to <em>Abe&&num;8217&semi;s Odyssey<&sol;em>&comma; telling the tale of cooperative greed and its impact on the helpless&period; Our narrative focuses on a lone and crazed scientist working the late shift&comma; while trying his best to be the employee of the month&period; <&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><span style&equals;"font-size&colon; large&semi;">Releasing a collective of clones for testing&comma; you take the role of a singular clone who&&num;8217&semi;s attempting to escape and save as many of his friends as possible&period; The Clone must venture deep into the complex&comma; solving a mass of puzzles and completing a series of tests in order to gain freedom&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><img class&equals;" aligncenter" src&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;dealspwn&period;com&sol;writer&sol;wordpress&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2014&sol;10&sol;inc22&period;png" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"1285" height&equals;"659" &sol;><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><span style&equals;"font-size&colon; large&semi;">It&&num;8217&semi;s a simple premise&comma; and one that allows for easy integration into the story for hardcore and casual gamers alike&period; The design is similar to the likes of <em>Metroid<&sol;em> and <em><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;epic-feels-ori-and-the-blind-forest-review&sol;">Ori<&sol;a>&comma;<&sol;em> where players are allowed to explore an open world and progress further via obtaining new gadgets and completing test chambers&period; The game&&num;8217&semi;s graphical representation looks pretty good&comma; with a stylish edge and intense atmosphere that&&num;8217&semi;s created through a world that literally feels alive&period; The complex reshapes itself the more you progress&comma; and the experience is only heightened with the advanced lighting and physics&period; <&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><span style&equals;"font-size&colon; large&semi;">Test chambers involve players using certain gadgets to complete them&comma; encounters involving boss like NPCs&comma; or testing your resourcefulness with attributes such as speed or lateral thinking&period; For example&colon; Players will obtain an adorable item called &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Inflate-a-Mate”&comma; where a life size balloon chum will appear&period; It can give you a boost over hard to reach places&comma; act as a decoy&comma; a shield&comma; and even to set off explosive mines blocking your path&period; Obtaining new gadgets will create new gameplay opportunities&comma; such as disguising yourself as an enemy robot or even controling them to fight other enemies&comma; as well as being used in a number of puzzles&period; <em>Stealth Inc 2<&sol;em> does a great job at creating a long line of divisive gameplay opportunities that only grows as the game continues&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><img class&equals;" aligncenter" src&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;co-optimus&period;com&sol;images&sol;upload&sol;image&sol;1391623733&lowbar;stealth-inc-ultimate-edition-screenshot-ME3050221986&lowbar;2&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"1283" height&equals;"722" &sol;><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><span style&equals;"font-size&colon; large&semi;">The game offers a range of different gameplay variations&comma; but focuses a great deal of its mechanics and overall experience on stealth &lpar;hence the title&rpar;&period; Being a 2D-platformer&comma; the controls are pretty straightforward&comma; with simple maneuvers and interactions that are easy to learn&period; All of your skills from speed&comma; to endurance&comma; to intelligence will be tested as you&&num;8217&semi;ll be tasked to sneak past cameras&comma; avoid many hidden death traps&comma; and figure out how to arrange an assortment of colorful blocks with friendly faces to open a sealed room&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><span style&equals;"font-size&colon; large&semi;"> The throwing mechanic&&num;8217&semi;s one thing that I felt needed tweaking&comma; as it can be either overpowered&comma; or underpowered when you least expect it&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s a slight pain&comma; as the game will increase in difficulty at random moments&comma; with tremendously high octane set pieces that require you to get a move right the first time&comma; or it&&num;8217&semi;s instant death with a simple mistake&comma;  along with the game pulling off a cheap trick or two to kill you off&period; It can be a little infuriating&period; But thankfully&comma; this is alleviated a bit with the help of a generous checkpoint system that takes away a great deal of annoyance&comma; and ensures you&&num;8217&semi;re ready to get back into the game&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><span style&equals;"font-size&colon; large&semi;"><em>Stealth Inc 2<&sol;em> is indeed a lengthy game and can last a good ten or more hours if you decide to revisit the world to find hidden collectables and take part in any of the test chambers once again&period; With leaderboards and grades to earn&comma; a competitive factor has been implemented to grab the best times and grades on levels&semi; meaning many will happily enjoy replaying every test chamber in order to beat their scores and many others&period; I know I did&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><span style&equals;"font-size&colon; large&semi;">Along that&comma; there are also a ton of secrets and rewards hidden in the game world itself&comma; with many being acquired after collecting a multitude of the gadgets and discovering a majority of the map&period; Plus&comma; you have to save all those little clones from certain destruction&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure style&equals;"width&colon; 829px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img src&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;images&period;eurogamer&period;net&sol;2013&sol;articles&sol;1&sol;7&sol;1&sol;6&sol;3&sol;1&sol;0&sol;-1414416235848&period;jpg&sol;EG11&sol;resize&sol;960x-1&sol;quality&sol;90&sol;format&sol;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"829" height&equals;"244" &sol;><figcaption class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Dress up in style<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p><span style&equals;"font-size&colon; large&semi;">There&&num;8217&semi;s also more than the single player campaign to enjoy&period; The level editor allows players to design their own test chambers filled with a number of different obstacles and items from the main game&period; It has a great level of depth and allows players to fully design the most outlandish&comma; dynamic&comma; and interactive tests possible and share them online as well&period; I did feel that any general help or tutorial when designing a level was needed&comma; as I felt confused on what to do in order to design a level – it was pretty much a guessing game&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure style&equals;"width&colon; 1271px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"" src&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;images-eds&period;xboxlive&period;com&sol;image&quest;url&equals;8Oaj9Ryq1G1&lowbar;p3lLnXlsaZgGzAie6Mnu24&lowbar;PawYuDYIoH77pJ&period;X5Z&period;MqQPibUVTcxvdGSm40B8&lowbar;geLCfKUzbnusmCuxDgOWc8JlH3MnhhpeM4WZjDt9fTbG&period;EfaHs&lowbar;o3CvkSVbj2FbPS&lowbar;FFW&period;icOzM3JIBA2N26o4hzVzdNsHJBiVTlyskYMBdHg&lowbar;XB0PxUQ2m2J0sBDuxIhY1UqV&lowbar;ZjFNFsVu8EevZomdYScOR3&lowbar;J4-&amp&semi;format&equals;jpg&amp&semi;h&equals;640&amp&semi;w&equals;1138" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"1271" height&equals;"762" &sol;><figcaption class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Better luck next time buddy<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p><span style&equals;"font-size&colon; large&semi;"><em>Stealth Inc 2&colon; A Game Of Clones<&sol;em> is a huge amount of joy for anyone who loves 2D platforming&comma; stealth&comma; and cuteness with a touch of blood lust&period; If you don&&num;8217&semi;t have the patience&comma; or if you don&&num;8217&semi;t like trial and error gameplay&comma; then you might want to miss this&period; However&comma; I highly recommend it&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;