One of the most underrated video game genres is stealth tactics. This genre, which emerged through series like Commandos, combines elements of real-time strategy and stealth games to create an experience where players can feel the sense of satisfaction that comes with slowly wiping out an entire stronghold of soldiers one by one and being forced to react on the fly if enemies spot them.
While many of these games are great, they’ve failed to catch and go mainstream. Mimimi Games, the developers of some of the best examples in this genre, such as Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew and Desperados 3, even had to shut their doors last year. The good news is that the genre isn’t dying with that studio, as Devolver Digital and Artificer are releasing Sumerian Six.
Sumerian Six harns back to Commandos, the crown jewel of this genre, with its World War II setting. However, it takes a more science-fantasy approach to the war as a ragtag group of super soldiers takes on Nazis using a powerful energy source called Geiststoff. While I found some of its characters and their banter annoying, upon playing through the first few chapters of the game, I saw that this was a very polished and competent take on the stealth tactics genre. Maybe Sumerian Six’s approachability and Guardians of the Galaxy-like crew of protagonists is exactly what the stealth tactics genre needs to be a hit.
In Sumerian Six, players are trying to defeat a Nazi scientist named Kammler. He was part of a group of scientists called the Enigma Squad who learned to harvest arcane energy called Geistoff, but defected to help Hitler build a weapon that could win the war. The game sees a new Enigma Squad form to take him down. The first few missions of Sumerian Six are spent introducing players to these playable characters and rebuilding the team.
It’s clearly going for a Guardians of the Galaxy-style vibe, as snarky characters with large personalities have to come together in order to stop a greater threat. I do think the writing lacks some of the nuance of Guardians of the Galaxy, so characters like main protagonist Sid Sterling come off as unlikable rather than devilishly charming, but I did appreciate that the game made an ample effort to get me to care about the people I was commanding.
This approach also allows Sumerian Six to emphasize the abilities of each of the six characters. Someone like Sid can hitchhike on moving enemies without getting spotted or throw a flash bomb to stun enemies, while his sister, Isabella, can swap places with an enemy or make herself completely invisible. Players must slowly make their way through levels by using these abilities to take down or get past groups of Nazis. The true fun of Sumerian Six comes from finding ways to get the abilities to interact, like having Isabella swap places with an enemy so that Sid can kill them.
While actions play out in real time, players can pause the game and map out commands for each of their squad members if there’s something very specific you need to time just right. In that way, Sumerian Six strikes all of the right notes for a stealth tactics game. I was also surprised to find that the game worked well with a controller, which isn’t always the case for stealth tactics games.
Sumerian Six is generally more approachable than other games in the genre due to the powerful character abilities and the fact that enemies won’t ever hear characters move. As such, I think Sumerian Six could be the approachable entry point the stealth tactics genre desperately needs, while also feeling distinct for more hardcore genre fans with its fantastical World War II setting and ragtag band of playable characters.
With this game and Commandos Origins coming out later this year, the stealth tactics genre will hopefully find new life and popularity. Sumerian Six will be released for PC on September 2.
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Google Play is borrowing one of the Nintendo Switch’s most useful little tricks. A new Sidekick tool called Playbacks captures a short clip after something interesting has already happened, sparing players from running a screen recorder throughout an entire game.
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