It's a little bit Hitman, a little bit Hotline Miami, and a little bit awesome.
While gaming isn't exactly suffering from a lack of stealth games at the moment, it certainly is hurting from a lack of truly great stealth titles. Whereas once games like Thief, Tenchu, and pretty much anything with the Tom Clancy tag helped the genre rise to prominence, now it feels like fans of this style are lucky to receive a couple of truly great titles a year. It's time for a new champion of stealth gaming to rise from the shadows and immediately sink back down after realizing they've given away their position.
It's a role that the upcoming No Trace hopes to fill.
Much like the Hitman series, No Trace is a game that isn't necessarily opposed to you committing acts of violence but does prefer that you do so while avoiding detection. It's billed as a top-down stealth shooter that will allow players to return to the glory days of stealth gaming where the slightest move in the wrong direction may cost you everything. It's also got a rather lovely trailer that you can check out below:
Developer Square Mountain certainly seems to have been inspired by the Hotline Miami series based on the game's soundtrack and visuals, although the gameplay itself more closely resemble what may happen if Hitman borrowed the camerawork of the Commandos franchise. Besides the fresh perspective, the one aspect that stands out about No Trace based on the footage is the way it seems to emphasize several styles of play by presenting several solutions to a problem for each playstyle you may choose to adapt.
Fans of stealth games that still encourage you to take down everyone in your path will certainly be pleased to see that No Trace's combat style emphasizes the kind of fast-paced, aim-dependent combat that will make you feel like a true master assassin.
No Trace is currently set to release in the fourth quarter of this year for PC. There is no word on a console version at this time.
