>>16541316
Well, we had Styx. Didn't tried the second one but the first was neat. It still didn't lived up to Thief but it was pretty decent and did had far more verticality too.
I mention that game because it features one of the most common pitfalls for Stealth games that ends up ruining the whole thing: treating Stealth as a puzzle.
I recall that a lot of the level was setup by rooms that worked not unlike the "arenas" in the new Doom game. They were mostly self contained areas you could come and go from but the enemies would most often just patrol that area without leaving it and you were expected to "solve it" before moving on.
And when you noticed that, you'd see the sand pits and the torchs, the chests\wardrobes near the patrol routes, the ledges to grab someone from, the routes you can take almost as lanes, all the environmental hazards, etc.
Suddenly the game no longer looks like a stealth game but instead it's clearly a puzzle. There's a "solution" to every guard in the area, you just have to figure out what it is, where it is and what resources it costs you, then go over the motions and the area is complete.
Puzzle games are fun, but they make for terrible stealth games since a solved puzzle does not provoke any tension or suprise nor does it require quick thinking or even outsmarting your opponents. It's just a long tedious observation session with mild sneaking around to explore the scenario and then implementing the solutions you already know will work.
Dark was another game about vampires where your powers were mostly used to solve "guards" and access routes around the map in most the same way and it was even worse than Styx in this department. Dunno how the sequel fares but I have little reason to think it goes much differently than this, even if it's still a neat game.
Dishonored might treat stealth as just another tool instead of making the game revolve around it, but at least it can incorporate some of the elements from the stealth genre well enough (namely, having to make split decisions fast, plan ahead, gather information about your surroundings before acting, being capable of improvising when things don't work out well) which still ends up making it a fun game, if an easy one.