Designed as an homage to Metal Gear Solid on PSOne, Spy Drops adopts some rogue elements into its retro sneaking action. Fans of the original MGS will appreciate the callback, but I fear newcomers that do not understand its inspiration will be left scratching their head.
The nods to PSOne MGS is obvious. From the codec conversations, to the purposely pixelated blocky 3D textures, to the story beats, this is an indie-spin on this fan favorite. However, there are some key differences. Once the initial mission is cleared, the player is free to tackle several rotating missions in any order. Fail, and you can restart or try something else, so this isn’t one large cohesive world or story.
Clearing missions and acquiring resources becomes the gameplay loop. The more you clear and the better you play, the more that becomes available. For example, one stage might require some reconnaissance using a drone, but this mission can only be accessed if the player has accumulated the proper funds to purchase said drone. So there is always something to do and something to upgrade. Unfortunately, the more you play, the more you realize the mission variety and overall set pieces are limited in overall variety. Also, it is tedious to sneak your way through the stage but then need to double back to the entrance to make exit, a gameplay element implemented in most stages.
While I appreciate the low-poly PS1 visuals complete with a free roaming or top-down perspective options, the play control always remains clunky at best. The camera can swing widely and even the very first shot is confusing as the camera is trying to look through bushes, which doesn’t make a good first impression. On top of that, combat is stiff and cumbersome, requiring multiple button taps to do something simple. I found myself fumbling during firefights which can cause restarts through no fault of the player. Search lights, for example, are nearly impossible to distinguish between the lousy lens flare effect, making it easy to walk through an alarm sounding danger zone without knowing. Plus, there are many times when a security camera is pointed right at the door, so the player doesn’t have a chance to plan accordingly upon exiting. These cheap moments, especially when they cause game over, are frustrating. Gun play, melee attacks, and even items use are all troublesome thanks to the unintuitive control scheme. There is, however, PvP multiplayer for dedicated players.
Spy Drops is a little rough around the edges, but I still appreciate its approach even though there are some obvious missteps. The opening developer logo cutscene is creative, as a simple example, but the first opening static image awkwardly doesn’t even fill the entire screen. So for each step forward, there is one step back. Still, fans of PSOne era action titles should curiously put this on their wishlist if they have fond memories of this game’s inspiration. That, or wait for the upcoming Spy Drops 2D pixel sequel demake scheduled for later this year.
SCORE: 5.5/10
By: Zachary Gasiorowski, Editor in Chief myGamer.com
X/Twitter: @ZackGaz
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