Beyond Castle Wolfenstein (1984)

Beyond Castle Wolfenstein is a pretty impressive sequel despite its continued use of wonky control conventions, and manages to establish the various options later stealth games would be known for.

Being the best man for the job after escaping Castle Wolfenstein with the war plans, your next mission is to infiltrate Hitler's secret base and drop off a bomb (also hidden in the base). Gone is the waiting 232 seconds for a chest to open - closets are instantaneously opened, and the locked ones have a pretty effective minigame where you guess a three-digit combination.

Items are slightly more usable than last time. You still have a gun with 10 bullets, but things like first aid kits, passes to get past groups of guards, money for bribery, and daggers for silent kills add to a multitude of options to get through the three floors. There's even an ability to drag guards to avoid detection! The bomb itself is a very unique item, producing a timer upon pickup that you can reset at anytime - as long as guards aren't watching.

Guards have also upped the ante as well - featuring an (irritating sound) alarm system, guards can notice the slightest thing wrong if you don't have your pass or a bribe handy. Shooting and moving is still done in eight directions and the player still moves nonstop, so it can be pretty easy to mess up even if you got a plan in mind for the next room.

It's a very similar layout to the first Castle Wolfenstein, but Beyond makes it much more interesting with a variety of options that good stealth games build upon - pursue the objective your own way, but make sure to make it out alive!