Spy Drops attempts to revive PlayStation-era stealth action

29 October 2024 |

Gaming

Spy Drops wears its inspiration on its sleeve. In the words of its creator, Rainy Night Creations, the upcoming indie title promises “PlayStation generation, low-polygon 3D stealth action”, and its visual language so closely matches its muse that any screenshot could be mistaken for the original Metal Gear Solid.

Playing the recently released demo, it’s clear this is also true of the overall mood. In the opening cut scene, a gravelly-voiced colonel briefs Ripley on her mission in a monologue peppered with acronyms, namechecking artificial intelligence and other common themes of Hideo Kojima’s iconic series. We’re yet to see enough to know whether this is just lip service, or if it amounts to a compelling plot.

Gameplay closely mirrors the MGS formula, tasking the player with sneaking through levels using cover and darkness. I’m not sure the mechanic was at play during the demo, but the game’s website says stages will have randomly generated layouts, which should drastically increase replayability.

Engaging with the enemy

As you’d expect, Ripley encounters enemy guards on her missions. While hand-to-hand combat is an option, sneaking up and grabbing them presents the option to either neutralise or kill them. Before doing so, you can also interrogate them to gain what are essentially gameplay hints, which is a nice addition.

I wouldn’t say I was ever challenged during the demo – even when approaching a guard directly from the front it was easy enough to subdue them before they did much damage, and my only death came via a mishap with a proximity mine (whose description claimed it couldn’t deal damage to the player character).

Items in general are an area that could be improved for the full release. New items in MGS were sparse, and each had a specific purpose that was explained via Codec dialogue. Conversely, Spy Drops throws new equipment at you from all angles with little information on what each gadget does, and it’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 misfire when it comes to atmopshere is some of the audio choices – guards sometimes sound as though they’re wearing stiletto heels, and have little to say beyond: “Where are you?” The music, while fitting the bill in terms of mood, is a short and imperfect loop that sometimes distracts from the action.

I also encountered a few performance issues that I wouldn’t have expected from a low-poly game, with stutters between certainly scene changes and animations – although hopefully that’s something that can be optimised out before release.

I remain optimistic for Spy Drops – I’ve always daydreamed about what it might be like if somebody tried to emulate the Metal Gear Solid glory days, and this is already an amazing achievement for a one-man studio – but it remains to be seen how well the pieces will all fit together, and if it will successfully capture the tone and thematic elements that made the series so special.