Aurora Watching aka Soldier Elite: Zero Hour

Aurora Watching or Soldier Elite: Zero Hour may very well answer the age-old question: What if Metal Gear's Solid Snake were European? That's because this stealth action game, from Polish developer Metropolis Software, is clearly influenced by Konami's popular Metal Gear games. However, Aurora Watching is being designed for the PC, not the consoles.

The game is actually a follow-up to Gorky Zero: Beyond Honor, a stealth action game released last year. And Gorky Zero was itself a prequel to 1999's Odium, which was sort of a cross between X-Com and Final Fantasy. All three games share the same protagonist in the form of Cole Sullivan. An ex-NATO commando, Sullivan is once again recruited after a Russian submarine mysteriously sinks to the bottom of the Barents Sea. The first missions involve investigating a secret installation hidden in the frozen wastelands, and you have to sneak around, neutralize guards, and figure out ways to unlock and disable security systems. You use the mousewheel to select your character's speed, from a slow crawl, to a normal walk, to a run. Thus, it's relatively simple to sneak up behind a guard and either pistol-whip him or knife him.