We came to E3 dressed to impressed, but it was ourselves that walked away stunned: a surprising amount of stealth games were present. Though the absence of Thief 4 was disappointing, and the new Metal Gear cuts more than it sneaks, E3 2012 showed the stealth genre emerging from the shadows to stand alongside its louder, flashier, blockbuster brethren – literally and metaphorically. Sneaky Bastards infiltrated the Los Angeles Convention Centre and scoured the show floor for exclusive stealth interviews and hands-on time with the genre’s biggest upcoming titles. You’ll see these roll out on the site over the next month. For now, it’s time to wrap up the show with our first annual E3 Stealth Awards: The Blackjacks.

Mark of the Ninja

Klei Entertainment | 2013

Hands-on time with the entire first level of Klei’s sidescrolling ninja simulator left us with a single thought: this is the smoothest stealth we’ve ever played. The agility of the main character, the fluidity of his animation and the readability of the environment and its systems blend to serve up a stealth experience that feels as though it flows directly from your fingertips to the on-screen sneaking.

Hitman: Absolution

IO Interactive | November

Like the double-film cinema features and Robert Rodriguez homages this award shares its name with, Hitman Absolution is a game of two halves – complete with fake trailers. Thankfully, our worries concerning Absolution’s initial linear, scripted gameplay reveal were sent back in a suitcase during our hands-on and demo sessions. The classic Hitman gameplay persists beneath its more bombastic half, and it is excellent.

Splinter Cell: Blacklist

Ubisoft Toronto | 2013

The new Splinter Cell title did not have a good stealth showing at E3, preferring a hotter action-oriented spectacle that actually left fans feeling cold. So we interrogated Blacklist’s Game Director, Patrick Redding, and extracted exclusive details on the game’s stealth approach. All we can say for now is that if you liked the sound of our previous Trade Secrets interview with Redding, you’re going to get a kick out of Blacklist.

Tokyo Jungle

PlayStation CAMP | TBA

The most original game on the entire show floor also has some of the most hilarious stealth gameplay, by nature of its inherent absurdity. This modern-day, hierarchical animal survival simulator will have you sneaking pomeranians through patches of grass, or flipping a skip bin over your deer’s fragile form and box-stealthing past predators. It’s Snake Eater, as an actual snake.

Watch Dogs

Ubisoft Montreal | 2013

Nobody expected Ubisoft to reveal a game set in a modern-day, open, persistent world where everything is hackable. But the potential for a brand new mode of stealth is here: one where you’re hiding your own and hacking other peoples’ digital shadows. Stealth elements sizzled in the background of the reveal, but we won’t know how far the game pushes them until later this year.

Dishonored

Arkane Studios | October

There’s not enough space here to go into detail as to why Dishonored wins Sneaky Bastards’ coveted Golden Blackjack. But our hands-on time include five playthroughs of the same mission, including one successful and utterly thrilling ghosting run. Everything that is detailed in our recent stealth preview works beautifully.  We’ll say no more, other than congratulations to Arkane, and October blink here fast enough.