Explicit Detection Feedback

Perception is drawn on screen. Awareness may appear as a filling meter above a guard, a symbol at the moment of detection, a cone on the map showing where someone can see, or a marker for the last known position they are moving toward. Some games render noise as expanding rings. Whatever the form, the display describes the enemy's belief rather than the truth of the situation.

Konami Computer Entertainment Japan added radar and alert indicators to Metal Gear Solid in 1998 because a three-dimensional stealth game is otherwise played by guesswork. Camera limits made judging sightlines by eye unreliable, and nobody learns a system whose rules they never observe. Exposing the internal state converted a source of frustration into a tactical display, and turned difficulty into a matter of planning rather than luck.

Stealth became teachable, and skill shifted from cautious crawling toward reading and manipulating attention. Immersion pays for it. A cone drawn on a map is a chart rather than a place, and players watching the chart stop watching the world, which is why some games withhold the display or offer a mode without it. Where exactly the line falls between fairness and hand-holding remains unsettled.