PC Gamer - UK (2022-02)

Paid homage to in every halfway-stealthy game

from Crysis to Deathloop, the Predator is the

nearest we have to a patron saint of invisibility in

games. The weirdness of invisibility in the film –

not just a Clancy-esque gizmo, but an assault on

the viewer’s consciousness – reflects the

startlingly varied forms invisibility takes in

different species of game. Invisibility can be the

ultimate power fantasy, as anybody who’s ever

been brain-jacked by Sombra in Overwatch can

attest. By extension, it can be a nightmare to

balance, whether you’re designing a PvP shooter

or simulating the reactions of AI guards to a

cloaked invader. But it can also be an atmospheric

device, a source of dread and uncanniness even in

the mind of the camouflaged player. At its most

arcane, it speaks to a long association between

computer technology and magic, between feats of

stage illusion and the ocular

tricks all videogames necessarily

consist of.

BEHIND THE CURTAIN

Among the Predator’s least

expected descendants is Maid

Marian or rather, Marianne, one

of the playable characters in

Sumo Newcastle’s bloodthirsty

medieval heist game Hood:

Outlaws & Legends. A grisly

retelling of English folklore,

Hood is all about completing

objectives undetected: two teams

of four must escape with a treasure chest while

quietly murdering each other and fending off AI

guards who double as a map-wide surveillance

system, flagging anybody they spot on the enemy

team’s HUD. Marianne is the team’s assassin

(Robin Hood, of course, is the sniper), and while

she doesn’t have infrared vision, she’s every bit as

fearsome in the right hands as the interplanetary

terror she’s inspired by.

Hood’s AI is slower to notice Marianne than

other characters, and her passive Shadow ability

lets her perform assassinations from the front.

She can also toss smoke bombs to set up multiple

targets for a takedown. But her most devastating

trick is Shroud, which untags her and turns her

character model semi-transparent. “We wanted it

to almost feel like God mode,” says Andrew

Willans, game director. “This ability that allows

her to literally to walk in front of AI to assassinate

them and chain those assassinations together

HIDDEN AND DANGEROUS

More clever examples of invisibility in games

SCREENCHEAT

Old school splitscreen

shooter in which

everyone’s invisible – so

you can only see where

others are by looking at

their screen.

INVISIBLE ELEPHANT

A puzzle game where you

move an invisible object

around a grid map with

movable blocks, then see

if you can deduce and

draw its shape.

CRYSIS

Your nanosuit’s stealth

mode turns you

translucent, but

watch out – your

recharging power

reserve is small.

Invisibility

FE ATURE

In Invisigun, every

player is invisible

until they attack.

THE PREDATOR

IS THE NEAREST

WE HAVE TO A

PATRON SAINT OF

INVISIBILITY

IN GAMES