This thought occurred to me while playing CP2077, but it's prevalent in a TON of games - instant kills by sneaking up behind enemies.
I usually play stealthy if given the option, I find it more fun than just wading through people in an ocean of blood, but this mechanic is almost game breaking in most places it appears. No matter how outgunned you are, all you have to do is wait til the enemy NPCs backs are turned for an instant, low-risk kill. Sure, some games make you grab them first before the kill, leaving a slight window where you can be spotted by another enemy or whatever, but with the tiniest modicum of planning that risk is almost nil.
In the case of CP2077, the stealth kill is available right from the start as well, so for someone like me who likes to play the stealthy way, there's barely any reason to spec into any other shit (except for the abilities which make it easier for me to sneak around dudes for the instant kill, lol).
If instant stealth kills weren't a thing, there'd be much more challenge in trying to ACTUALLY be stealthy, i.e. sneaking around enemies without killing/incapacitating them, completing your objective, then sneaking back out unseen. Of course, there are some games that reward this playstyle (MGS for example). But plenty of other games (including '77, not trying to dunk on it exclusively it's just freshest in my mind) will give you bonus rewards for "not leaving a trace behind" (i.e. not having a combat alert) when you've actually left a trail of snapped necks.
I don't really know what I'd like to see instead - I guess games where there's better application of stealth are usually ones that are designed with the stealthy playstyle from the ground up (the Arkham series, MGS). And I appreciate they're trying to give you a reward for creeping up on people, but like I said, it's almost game breaking with its effectiveness in most games. What do y'all think?
100%. Sure, it’s a video game, some parts of it have to be “gamey”, like “oops I walked into this dude’s line of sight, luckily I have two seconds before the meter fills before he’s actually seen me”. But the instant kill feels cheap. I know i could just not use it, but it’s so central to the play style.
I don’t know how you’d improve the mechanic. For a start I’d do away with being able to instantly kill anyone when you don’t even have a weapon equipped. If you’re unarmed in an enemy controlled area it should be about evasion at all costs imo.
Is it Skyrim where you have to unlock perks that eventually end in 10x damage from behind while sneaking? Something like that is better than an instant kill on any enemy that you have unlocked from the start of the game, lol. It’s still dependant on your weaponry and other stats and the enemy’s too.
Stealth is just so half-assed and tacked on in most games. I appreciate that so far Cyberpunk is at least letting me do things in an entirely sneaky manner for the most part, plenty of games will let you be stealthy to a certain degree and then railroad you into a big gunfight.
The perk you're thinking of in Skyrim is assassin's blade. It gives you some ridiculously high crit multiplier but only when wielding a dagger. It could be combined with shrouded handwraps to deal like X25 damage on a sneak attack, so while it is practically a one hit kill you have to specialise specifically into stealth kills.
Edit: for some reason autocorrect changed hit to guy.