Spy Drops Review (PC) – Spy Flops
When something appears too good to be true, it most likely is. I should have heeded this mantra when I fired up Spy Drops.
Watch one trailer or see a single screenshot of this game, and you’ll immediately know everything it’s about. This is a classical homage to Metal Gear Solid (MGS). So close does it pay its respects, in fact, that it borders on a copyright infringement lawsuit. However, I love Metal Gear Solid, as does almost three-quarters of the planet (probably), so surely emulating its formula could never be a bad thing, right? Right?! Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiggggghhhhttt?!
You already know the answer. Of course, it’s a bad thing. There are elements to Spy Drops I don’t utterly detest, but that’s about as good as my compliments for the game are going to get. This knock-off MGS clone must encompass the same shock and awe displacement energy that MGS2 fans felt when they realised that Raiden was the protagonist for the majority of the game. While Raiden came into his own and is now beloved, Spy Drops won’t be achieving the same kind of redemption arc.
Spy Slops
The comparisons to Metal Gear Solid 1 hit home right off the bat. The opening is identical, save for the fact that our espionage agent tactically inserts via the air rather than sea. Top-down camera, pixel graphics style, leaning against walls, snowy exteriors with sterile militaristic interiors. All that’s missing is a DARPA chief heart attack for the full house. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good homage as much as the next genetic clone (see UnMetal), but Spy Drops isn’t just on the nose, it’s a photo-realistic carbon copy of the nose.
Unfortunately, the depth and pioneering precision of MGS is immediately shown not to have been inserted with Spy Drops. The camera bobs and shakes all over the place as you try to navigate. The mini-map is glitchy and unintuitive. Patrolling enemies can barely see a meter in front of them and are marked with big glowing arrows upon entry into a room. Gear is cumbersome to use, while the tutorial quite literally gave up before I did by just saying “you’ll work it out”. I won’t, because I likely won’t care long enough to find out.
Lean up against a wall, and you’ll have that 25-year-old problem of not knowing which way to angle the analogue stick to match the camera. Sometimes the camera will just face the floor or the sky when you trigger a lean. I know focusing on the game is tough, but when even the in-game camera is trying to avoid it, you know something is seriously wrong. Spy Drops sets a poor first impression, and only continues to demonstrate how it has such little grasp of what made Kojima’s PS1 classic special, aside from surface visuals and mechanics.
Spy Chops
I mentioned enemies before, so let’s talk about the stealth… or lack of. You have three concerns in Spy Drops: patrolling guards, cameras and laser alarms/traps. Guards have the response time of a fully loaded kettle attempting to boil. Cameras have one ridiculously clear cone of vision that’s easily evaded. Laser-triggered traps can be ignored with a gadget you can procure or buy early on for missions.
Sneak up on a guard (which you can do at almost full speed) and you have the option to knock out, kill or interrogate, with point penalties for fatalities (though not for alerts?). Stick them in lockers or bins if you want, but they’re so easily evaded you basically don’t need to care. You gain access to weapons and have a variety of equipment to find or purchase, but by and large, they’re all as useful as Otacon seeing a cyborg ninja and soiling himself.
Missions are randomised in Spy Drops, with repeating objective types like “find the documents” or “save the prisoner”. Each mission has a star rating indicating difficulty, but it would be better described as just more stars = more rooms to laboriously run through. Rack up enough intel (through a tool used on guards) and you’ll unlock a story mission with a named character. That’s the entire gameplay loop, and it’s as riveting as it doesn’t sound.
Spy Nopes
Those named characters? Of course, they’re meant to be Spy Drops’ version of the Foxhound Unit. You guessed it, they have none of the charm, personality or backstory. In fact, the very first mission involving them just straight-up glitched on me entirely. I ended up stuck in the room having procured the document, only for the game to refuse to let me back out. I’m sure there’s a joke in there about being trapped in a never-ending hell that’s akin to trying to play this.
To its credit, Spy Drops does have an extensive equipment and shop system, allowing you to purchase all manner of gear or weapons before heading out. Even if very little of it is useful, at least it’s there. The stealth is, unfortunately, just too basic, and the combat is frankly laughable. Trigger an alert, and enemies won’t even break patrol to come after you, for example. I wandered through an entire level just triggering every alert state and barely had a whiff of interest from the AI.
Spy Drops is sadly just a poor, incompetent and inferior clone of a game made over 25 years ago. It lives under the pretence that Liquid Snake did – determined to be chained to its perceived fate as the “inferior gene”. There are better Metal Gear Solid imitators out there, so just go play Undetected or, better yet, the actual Metal Gear Solid instead.
Spy Drops is available July 31st on Nintendo Switch and PC via Steam (review platform).
Developer: Rainy Night Creations
Publisher: Rainy Frog Co.
Disclaimer: In order to complete this review, we were provided with a promotional copy of the game. For our full review policy, please go here.
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