Metal Gear Solid sends Solid Snake, a former Special Forces operative, into Shadow Moses, a nuclear weapons facility taken over by a rogue unit called FOXHOUND. You can fight your way through, but stealth is highly encouraged, with a radar to keep you out of sight of the guards. Get spotted and the base goes into Alert mode until you lose them. Hideo Kojima told the whole story in cinematic cutscenes with voice acting throughout, and the game is often called the founding father of the stealth genre.
Once you have hidden under a cardboard box or crawled past a patrol with your heart pounding, plain shooters feel a little empty. These are the 25 games players recommend most to Metal Gear Solid fans, ranked by how many different people named each one. The Metal Gear games themselves are left off, since you have probably played them already.
25 Games Like Metal Gear Solid Where You Stay Out of Sight
Manhunt (2003)
Manhunt is a stealth game from Rockstar North, played from a third-person view. You are James Earl Cash, a death row inmate forced to star in snuff films by killing the gang members sent to hunt him on camera. Like Snake, Cash survives by staying hidden. Every scene is full of dark spots where enemies cannot see you, and a standard trick is to tap a wall to draw a hunter over, then strike from behind once he moves away.
The big difference is how far it goes. Executions come in three levels, each more violent and graphic than the last, and you are graded with one to five stars at the end of each scene. It was not a commercial hit, but it built a big cult following. Play it on PS2, PS3 or PS4.
Death Stranding (2019)
Death Stranding is the first game from Kojima Productions after the studio split from Konami in 2015, so it comes from the man who wrote and directed Metal Gear Solid. You play Sam Porter Bridges, played by Norman Reedus, a courier carrying supplies to isolated colonies across a broken United States. Sneaking is still part of the job. Sam uses a device called an odradek to find invisible enemies and creep past them.
The big difference is the job itself. Most of your time goes into carrying cargo across an open world. Kojima calls it the first "strand game", and he compares the label to the way Metal Gear was called an action game before the stealth genre existed. It won the most Game of the Year awards of any game in 2019. Play it on PS4.
The Last of Us Part II (2020)
The Last of Us Part II is a third-person action game from Naughty Dog where you fight human enemies and zombie-like creatures, often by staying hidden. You move through post-apocalyptic buildings and forests to push the story on, and Naughty Dog pushed the PlayStation 4 hard to build them. Like Metal Gear Solid, it is a game people remember for its cutscenes as much as its fights.
The big difference is the story, which is about revenge. Its themes of revenge and retribution grew out of creative director Neil Druckmann's experiences growing up in Israel. Critics loved its gameplay and audio design, while the story divided them. It sold over four million copies in its release weekend, the fastest-selling PS4 exclusive. Play it on PS4.
Hitman: Absolution (2012)
Hitman: Absolution is a stealth game where you play Agent 47, an assassin for hire. It is the fifth game in the series and the sequel to Hitman: Blood Money. Like Snake, 47 works best when nobody knows he was there. The story takes him to the town of Hope, South Dakota, where he can wipe out an entire gang without anyone seeing him do it.
The big difference is the Contracts mode, where you make your own objectives for any mission in the game and share them with other players. That keeps it going long after the story ends. Absolution had sold over 3.6 million copies by March 2013. Play it on PS3 or Switch.
Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory (2005)
Chaos Theory is the third Splinter Cell game endorsed by novelist Tom Clancy, and it refines the series' stealth. Sound is the big idea. Sam Fisher has to make less noise than his surroundings or the guards hear him, and every noise raises their stress until they put on heavier armor and set up choke points. Bodies only trigger an alarm when a patrolling guard or a security camera finds them.
The big difference is the knife. Chaos Theory gives Sam a combat knife for interrogations and for breaking door locks. The tone is darker than the earlier games, with more combat and the option to kill the people Sam interrogates instead of knocking them out. Play it on GameCube or PS2.
A Plague Tale: Innocence (2019)
A Plague Tale: Innocence is set in Aquitaine, France, in the middle of the 14th century, during the Hundred Years' War. You play Amicia de Rune, running with her sick little brother Hugo from soldiers of the French Inquisition and from hordes of rats spreading the black plague. Like Snake, Amicia is badly outnumbered. Soldiers kill her instantly if they catch her, so for most of the game you stay hidden.
The big difference is the rats. Fire and light keep the hordes back, and you use them to push forward while solving puzzles. Later you take control of Hugo, who can control rats and sneak through small spaces. It sold over one million copies by July 2020. Play it on PS4.
Styx: Shards of Darkness (2017)
Shards of Darkness is the sequel to Styx: Master of Shadows, and it plays the same way. Styx can still clone himself and turn invisible for a short time, and you choose whether to fight guards or avoid them. Ropes and grappling hooks help him reach high places. It runs on Unreal Engine 4 with a larger budget than the first game, and the levels feel bigger for it.
The big difference is the co-op mode, where a second player takes control of one of Styx's clones. The story takes place several decades after Master of Shadows, with Styx working in Thoben, a slum town infested with goblins. Play it on PS4.
Fear Effect (2000)
Fear Effect is set in Hong Kong around 2050, where the daughter of a powerful Triad boss disappears and three mercenaries go looking for her. Like Metal Gear Solid, it is a PS1 game that wanted to look like a movie. It mixes in survival horror and stealth, and some moments ask you to sneak behind a guard for a stealth kill.
The big difference is the shooting. The controls are like survival horror tank controls, except your characters can run and shoot at the same time. With a gun in each hand they can hit several enemies at once. The story gets very strange, with a surreal journey through Hell. A prequel, Fear Effect 2: Retro Helix, followed a year later. Play it on PS1 or PS3.
Assassin's Creed Unity (2014)
Assassin's Creed Unity is a third-person stealth and action game set in Paris during the French Revolution, from 1789 to 1794. You play Arno Dorian, an Assassin trying to expose the true powers behind the Revolution while hunting the people responsible for his adoptive father's murder. Unity rebuilt the series' stealth along with its combat and parkour, and it is the Assassin's Creed game stealth fans name most.
The big difference is the open city. Paris is an open world to explore, and up to four players can team up for story missions. It launched with so many graphical issues and bugs that Ubisoft apologised and gave away the Dead Kings expansion. Play it on PS4.
Deus Ex: Human Revolution (2011)
Deus Ex: Human Revolution is an action RPG with first-person shooting and stealth. Set in 2027, it casts you as Adam Jensen, a security officer for Sarif Industries, a company that makes controversial artificial organs called augmentations. Like Metal Gear Solid, it is a conspiracy story full of soldiers rebuilt by technology, and its story looks at the growing power of megacorporations.
The big difference is the choice. You upgrade Adam's abilities with Praxis Kits, and critics praised its player-driven plot. You can sneak past whole areas or shoot through them. The original version sold 2.18 million copies by November 2011, and a director's cut with more content followed in 2013. Play it on PS3.
Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun (2016)
Shadow Tactics is a stealth game where you command a small team on missions of espionage and assassination. Enemy guards have a visible cone of vision, much like the guard cones on Metal Gear Solid's radar, and you have to stay out of it. Missions ask you to clear guards one by one without raising the alarm, with ambushes or staged accidents. You can hide bodies in bushes and wells so nobody finds them.
The big difference is that it is real-time tactics. You control a whole team from above, in the style of the Commandos and Desperados series. Even birds and standing water can give you away, since guards hear the noise they make. Play it on PS4.
Ghost of Tsushima (2020)
Ghost of Tsushima is a third-person samurai game from Sucker Punch, inspired by samurai cinema and the films of Akira Kurosawa. When you meet enemies, you can face them head on with Jin's katana or use stealth to assassinate them. Later you unlock chained assassinations, which let Jin strike several enemies one after the other before anyone can react.
The big difference is the sword. Critics praised the melee combat and the story, and some criticised the stealth, so this is a game you sneak through when you feel like it. The open world is huge and very pretty. It had sold over 13 million units by September 2024. Play it on PS4.
Deus Ex: Mankind Divided (2016)
Mankind Divided is the sequel to Human Revolution, and Adam Jensen is back with his mechanical implants. It is an action RPG with first-person shooting and stealth, and its main hub is Prague. Hiding behind cover switches the view to third person, a little like pressing against a wall in Metal Gear Solid.
The big difference is how much you can talk your way through. Conversations offer different responses, and your choices at key moments change how events play out. You can shoot your way through or stay unseen, and the game rewards you either way. The story deals with transhumanism and discrimination. Play it on PS4.
Alien: Isolation (2014)
Alien: Isolation is a survival horror game built around stealth, modelled on the original Alien film rather than the action-heavy Aliens. You avoid, outsmart or fight enemies with the tools you scrape together. A motion tracker shows you where the Alien is moving, and it works a lot like Snake's radar.
The big difference is that the Alien cannot be defeated. It hunts you by sight and sound, and if it is close enough, even the tracker's sound draws it in. You have to put the tracker away as soon as it picks something up. A noisemaker can lure enemies in another direction. It sold over two million copies by May 2015. Play it on PS3, PS4 or Switch.
Splinter Cell: Blacklist (2013)
In Blacklist you play Sam Fisher of the Fourth Echelon, out to stop the Engineers, a group of terrorists trying to make the United States recall all of its troops stationed abroad. It is a third-person stealth game, and you can finish levels without any enemy noticing you by taking cover or scaling ledges. Kill someone and the other guards are alerted when they see the body.
The big difference is the mix of styles. Blacklist blends the action of Conviction with the stealth of the older games. Mark and execute returns, so you can mark several targets and kill them all at once. It was the first game from Ubisoft Toronto. Play it on PS3 or Wii U.
Dishonored 2 (2016)
Dishonored 2 gives you two heroes, Emily and Corvo, each with their own supernatural abilities, and you can skip the powers entirely if you want. Missions can be done with anything from non-lethal stealth to open violence. The ending changes with how much chaos you cause, and critics found its stealth more challenging than the first game's.
The big difference is the magic. Emily can Mesmerize enemies into a sedated state or use Domino to connect several of them so they share the same fate. Karnaca, the new city, is based on Larnaca in Cyprus. In one mission you get a device to glimpse three years into the past and shift between the two times. Play it on PS4.
Mark of the Ninja (2012)
Mark of the Ninja is a side-scrolling stealth game from Klei Entertainment. You sneak through levels out of sight of the guards and perform silent assassinations. Light and darkness decide everything, since guards see you in the light and miss you in the dark, so you put out lamps and slip through grates. Get spotted and you have to stay hidden for a while until the guards go back to their patrols, much like waiting out an Alert in Metal Gear Solid.
The big difference is that it is 2D. Fighting hand to hand is possible but noisy, and it can bring the whole area down on you. The cutscenes look like a Saturday-morning cartoon. A remastered version arrived in 2018. Play it on PS4 or Switch.
Aragami (2016)
In Aragami you play a shadow spirit summoned by Yamiko, a girl held captive by the Kaiho, an army of light adepts. You work through thirteen open-world chapters in order. Like Snake, Aragami is at his best unseen, and his big trick is teleporting to any shadow within range.
The big difference is that light is your enemy. Teleporting uses up Shadow Essence, shown as a meter on his cape, which fills when you stand in shadow and drains near bright lights like lanterns. The story has a twist about who Aragami really was, and it is better found than told. Play it on PS4 or Switch.
Prey (2017)
Prey is a first-person immersive sim from Arkane Austin set on Talos I, a space station overrun by aliens called the Typhon. It combines first-person shooting with role-playing, stealth and Metroidvania exploration, and it gives you many ways to tackle each mission. Like Snake, you can sneak around a problem or blast through it.
The big difference is the powers. Neuromods rewire your brain to give you new abilities, including superhuman ones. Arkane built the game as a spiritual successor to System Shock, and several gaming publications have since called it one of the best immersive sims ever made. Play it on PS4.
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice (2019)
Sekiro is an action game from FromSoftware built on stealth and combat. The project started from Tenchu, the ninja stealth series tied to FromSoftware. A grappling hook lets you vault between tree branches and rooftops, so you can scout a castle from above before you drop in, and reviewers praised the stealth options for giving you freedom without frustration.
The big difference is the boss fights, which the whole game builds toward. The difficulty is high enough to split players and critics. When you die, a resurrection mechanic can bring you back, and one reviewer called it "genius". It won Game of the Year at The Game Awards and has sold over ten million units. Play it on PS4.
Styx: Master of Shadows (2014)
Styx: Master of Shadows is a stealth game from Cyanide Studios where you keep to the shadows to survive. Guards adapt to what you do, so you study their patrols and lure targets somewhere quiet for a silent kill. You can also set up "accidents" to stay undetected. Like Metal Gear Solid, it rewards patience more than quick reflexes.
The big difference is Styx himself, a goblin with magic. He can turn invisible and clone himself, and the clone can scout without risk or create a diversion. He can also use amber-vision to spot hidden foes. It got a sequel, Shards of Darkness, in 2017, and a third game, Styx: Blades of Greed, came out in February 2026. Play it on PS4.
Syphon Filter (1999)
Syphon Filter is a third-person shooter from Eidetic, and it began as an attempt at a new super-spy genre mixing stealth action with puzzle solving. You play special agent Gabe Logan, sent with Lian Xing to catch a German terrorist. A radar in the corner shows enemies and mission objectives, and the missions run from the narrow streets of Washington, D.C. to the wide plains of Kazakhstan.
The big difference is that the action comes first. The core of the game is shooting your way through levels, and a danger meter rises as you get into fights. The story is about a bioweapon called Syphon Filter that can be programmed to target specific groups of people. Critics praised its gameplay and plot. Play it on PS1, PS3 or PSP.
The Last of Us (2013)
The Last of Us casts you as Joel, a smuggler escorting a teenage girl, Ellie, across a post-apocalyptic United States. You face hostile humans and creatures infected by a mutated fungus, and stealth is one of your best weapons against them. Shivs and Molotov cocktails can be found or crafted from the items you collect, so every scrap matters.
The big difference is the bond at its heart. Joel and Ellie's relationship was the focus of development, and every other part of the game was built around it. Naughty Dog made it alongside Uncharted 3, splitting the studio into two teams for the first time. It came out on PS3 to critical acclaim, and The Last of Us Remastered followed on PS4 in 2014. Play it on PS3 or PS4.
Thief (2014)
Thief is a stealth game from Eidos-Montréal set in the City, a dark fantasy world inspired by Victorian and steampunk looks. You play Garrett, a master thief on missions to steal from the rich. Like Snake, Garrett gets through on stealth, and violence is a last resort that barely works. You hide in shadows and peek through keyholes to track the movements of the guards.
The big difference is the stealing. Levels are full of coins and valuables to steal, which turn into money for equipment and upgrades. Garrett carries a blackjack to knock guards out and a bow that can kill or distract them, plus a claw for grappling onto high ledges. Reviews praised the stealth and the replay value. Play it on PS3 or PS4.
Dishonored (2012)
Dishonored is a first-person stealth and action game from Arkane Studios, set in Dunwall, a plague-ridden industrial city inspired by late nineteenth-century London and Edinburgh. You play Corvo Attano, bodyguard to the Empress of the Isles. Like Metal Gear Solid, it lets you finish missions through stealth or combat, or both. You can even finish every mission, targets included, without killing anyone.
The big difference is the magic. A being called the Outsider gives Corvo magical abilities, and they are designed to combine with your equipment for new effects. When testers found ways to exploit the powers, the designers changed the levels to make room for them. The story changes with how violent you are. Players recommend it to Metal Gear Solid fans more than any other game. Play it on PS3 or PS4.
Which one to play
There you have it, the whole list of games like Metal Gear Solid. Some copy its guards and radar closely, and others keep only the sneaking.
If you want spy missions like Snake's, start with Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory or Syphon Filter. If you love hiding in the shadows, play Thief or Styx: Master of Shadows. If you want the freedom to sneak or fight, go for Dishonored or Deus Ex: Human Revolution. For a story that hits as hard as Shadow Moses, try The Last of Us. And if you came for Hideo Kojima himself, Death Stranding is the first game from his studio after it left Konami.
