Gloomwood is my new favorite knocking-guys-out simulator

I have no idea how most people play stealth games, but for me, the genre is primarily about one thing: knocking guys out. What is my mission in any given Deus Ex or Metal Gear Solid level? Stopping a war? Saving the world? No. It is sneaking around a compound, making people not awake anymore, and stacking them in a little pile before I leave. By this admittedly specific standard, Gloomwood may be one of the best new stealth games around.

Gloomwood launched in early access on Steam last month, and I still haven’t finished it; I’ve spent a couple hours working through the first of (I think) three current areas. The project is heavily inspired by the Looking Glass tradition of games, particularly Thief — its developers, part of a collective...

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