h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

"The modern use of stealthy movement in video games began when the concept was used in Metal Gear Solid"

False. In fact, there were already stealth games on the Playstation, notably "Tenchu: Stealth Assassins" (clue's in the title...). This game placed much greater emphasis on stealth than MGS, in that while one could play both games as a blastathon, only Tenchu actively rewarded the stealthy player with bonuses.

But even this was not the start of the stealth-in-videogames thing - that probably goes to the original Hideo Kojima games, "Metal Gear" and its sequel. They are relatively little known in the west as they were only released for the MSX home computer format. They were 2D sprite-based games to which MGS was a sequel.

SoRB

Sniper Elite, where you play a WW2 sniper in 1945 Berlin is getting closer to pure stealth in video games. There are levels where you can spend your whole time crawling belly to the ground while waiting for shell explosions to cover your shots.

I agree with SoRB, MGS was not the first stealthy game at all.

Sorry - I am aware of Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2, but I meant to list Metal Gear Solid as the one which really popularised the stealth genre. Bad wording, I'm afraid

I think that was down to marketing as much as anything else. In terms of actual gameplay and "realistic" stealth, Tenchu was not only first, but much better. What it didn't have was the sort of cinematic pretensions of MGS. MGS was a Bond film, Tenchu was definitely a GAME.

SoRB

Tuh. You obviosuly never played the ninja VR missions.

Right - the Entry has been updated

Another good one is "Thief", the most recent of the series here:

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/action/thief3/index.html?q=Thief