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Just in time for Metal Gear Solid 2's 20th anniversary, a new indie game has arrived on the scene to revive the classic top-down formula of the classic Metal Gear Solid titles. Undetected comes from solo developer Antonio Freyre, the man behind this year's The Chameleon. The Metal Gear Solid influence is noticeable immediately in the trailer: the classic top-down camera view, the familiar tapping sound of your feet as you scurry around, the music is reminiscent of the "Encounter" theme, the lead's voice is strained and gruff like David Hayter's Snake, even the enemies kind of look like MGS1's Genome Soldiers, in their white uniforms. At the end of the trailer, we get to hear a call that starts with a ring very similar to the iconic Codec sound from MGS, as we get to see one of the tools at our disposals - a decoy that projects a holographic dancer, which inspires guards to cheer and dance along, showing an offbeat humour similar to Kojima's signature style.

The biggest departure from MGS is that you will only be allowed to play non-lethally. An exclusive interview with Freyre from NME breaks down how the game will work, most notably that enemies cannot be killed or even put to sleep. Instead, you can only slow down, knock down (but not knock out) or distract guards. Without the option to go guns blazing if you get caught, there will be a larger emphasis on strategy elements during sneaking segments. Disabling lights, employing distraction tools, and monitoring sound (with an on-screen marker) will all play an important role in the stealthing here. There will also be no equivalent to Metal Gear Solid's Soliton Radar, instead giving you on-screen indicators of where enemies are, to help keep you immersed in the environment.

"It’s more of a problem-solving genre than an action genre," says Freyre. To that end, he has laid out his core three tenets of stealth game design in Undetected: information transparency (giving players all the info they need upfront to sneak past an area), intentions over execution (rewarding a player's tactics over their ability to execute their plan gracefully), and a low-punishment environment, so you can get back to planning quickly if you need to rework your strategy.

Undetected is expected to release in 2022.

Undetected Steam page

 

[actualkoifish]

I didn't know we were calling every style of game that was common/popular in the 90s a "boomer game" now. I've seen people call Quake a "boomer shooter", and now I've seen this. What's next, an RE clone called a "boomer horror" game?

 

[LainaGabranth]

I'm pretty excited for this. MGS1 is one of my favorite games ever, so more games like it are always a good thing.