Is it just me, or are stealth tactics games making a quiet, extended comeback? I spent years of my childhood being very bad at Desperados, only for the entire genre to feel like it took a lengthy sabbatical some time in the mid-2000s. But look at us now: We've got Shadow Tactics, a new Commandos, and—just revealed at the PC Gaming Show—Sumerian Six: A Nazi-punching Indiana Jones-like stuffed to the gills with vision cones.
It looks very Commandos, which I mean as a compliment. Sumerian Six puts you in command of the "Enigma Squad," a cadre of spooky researchers who have pooled their talents to help take down the Third Reich.
That means a bunch of characters with a bunch of different abilities. You've got the creepy Mentalist, who I bet has the power to distract and otherwise muck around with guards; the Chemist, who I'd bet actual money will be able to toss a poison grenade at some point; and the Werebear, who is a bear. They are large.
Plus other characters whose names mean I don't feel confident guessing at their abilities, like The Siblings and The Old Man. Whatever they can do, they've all teamed up to take down a former squad member, Hans Kammler, who's been futzing around with occult weapons, Sumerian artefacts, and a demon from another dimension in order to unlock dread chthonic powers for his bosses in Berlin.
So you'd best put a stop to that. And you'll do it by creeping around outside of enemies' lines of sight, deploying special abilities and equipment, and otherwise making life very difficult for the Nazi war machine in a hundred subtle ways. Or by turning into a bear and eating them. Whatever you need to do to preserve democracy.
There's no hard release date on this one, but the devs at Artificer reckon they'll have it ready by late summer this year. If, like me, you think there ought to be more stealth tactics in this grey old world of ours, you'll be able to find it over on Steam.
