Spy Drops seeks to revive the stealth action of the PlayStation era

October 29, 2024 | Game

Spy Drops wears his inspiration on his sleeve. True to the words of its creator, Rainy Night Creations, this upcoming indie title promises “the PlayStation generation, low-polygon 3D stealth action,” and its visual language is so similar to its inspiration that any screenshot could be mistaken for the original. Solid Metal Fittings.

Playing the newly released demo, it’s clear that this also applies to the overall atmosphere. In the opening cut scene, a gruff-voiced colonel tells Ripley about his mission in a monologue filled with acronyms, name-checking artificial intelligence, and other common themes from Hideo Kojima’s iconic series. We haven’t seen enough to know if this is just lip service, or just an interesting plot twist.

The gameplay is very reflective MGS formula, tasking players with sneaking through levels using cover and darkness. I’m not sure the mechanic was in play during the demo, but the game’s website says that stages will have randomly generated layouts, which should drastically improve replayability.

Engage with the enemy

As you would expect, Ripley encounters enemy guards on her mission. While hand-to-hand combat is an option, sneaking up and capturing them provides the option of neutralizing or killing them. Before doing so, you can also interrogate them for gameplay clues which is basically a great addition.

I wouldn’t say that I was ever challenged during the demo – even when approaching guards directly from the front, it was easy enough to subdue them before they did much damage, and my only death occurred through a close-range accident with me (which the description claims it didn’t) can cause damage to the player character).

Items in general are an area that could be improved for a full release. New items arrived MGS are rare, and each has a specific purpose explained via the Codec dialog. On the contrary, Spy Drops throws new gear at you from all angles with little information about each gadget’s function, and that’s not helped by a clunky interface that can make it a bit of a hassle to assign and equip gear.

Promising signs

The only downside in terms of atmosphere is some of the audio choices – the guards sometimes sound as if they’re wearing stiletto heels, and don’t say much other than: “Where are you?†The music, however fits the bill in terms of mood, it is a short, imperfect loop that sometimes distracts from the action.

I also experienced some performance issues that I wouldn’t expect from a low-poly game, with lag between scene changes and animations – although hopefully that’s something that can be optimized before release.

I remain optimistic for Spy Drops – I always dreamed about what it would be like if someone tried to imitate it Solid Metal Fittings glory days, and this is already a remarkable achievement for a one-man studio – but it remains to be seen how well all the pieces will fit together, and whether it will manage to capture the tone and thematic elements that make the series so special .