Spy Drops PC Review 4/10 "Shadow Moses Island is burned harder into my brain than most of my actual memories." 🕵️‍♂️ @Hello_from_RNC #IndieGame #GameDev

Is imitation the best form of flattery? Rainy Night Creation’s Spy Drops coyly bills itself as being “inspired by stealth action from the 90s" but glancing at it for a second reveals the truth. This is Metal Gear Solid, slavishly recreating the 1998 PlayStation classic’s visual, audio, and atmospheric aesthetic.

I’ve played Metal Gear Solid more times than I can count, from its original launch up to the recent Master Collection re-release. I’ve played through the entirety of the Special/VR Missions add-on twice. The layout and vibe of Shadow Moses Island is burned harder into my brain than most of my actual memories.

I don’t need an excuse to wax lyrical about Metal Gear Solid. So I’m going to, right now. One of the smartest design moves is that MGS is essentially a two-dimensional game that removes camera control. That gives the designers control over what’s visible on screen, which lets them maximise the limited PSOne polygon budget, and create environments around this limitation. If you want an example of how it could have gone differently, try returning to the now-practically unplayable Syphon Filter.

MGS also has the best 3D environmental design on PSOne. Shadow Moses Island is a plausible place and (just about) makes sense architecturally. Each room has an in-universe purpose, consideration has been given to how the base functions as a whole, and care has been taken to include smaller details like papers on desks, stained toilets, and crawling insects. In terms of pure vibes, Shadow Moses Island is a masterclass, outpacing most vastly graphically superior modern games.

But we’re not here to slobber over MGS (god, I wish we were though) we’re here to talk about Spy Drops.

And, sadly, Spy Drops is… not good. But first, some praise. This really does look like MGS on PSOne. It recognizes that MGS (and PSOne graphics) aren’t simply low-poly with a short draw distance, it goes far enough to recreate the platform’s distinctive dithering. Now that I can respect.

Unfortunately, looking so much like MGS is a double-edged sword, as it underlines just how much worse a game Spy Drops is. Let’s take a deep breath and get through some of it quickly. The enemy AI is awful and completely breaks when you crawl under objects, the lead character animation is bizarrely wonky, the stealth system is barely functional, the controls are (incredibly) less functional than MGS in 1998, and the story is uninteresting and generic.

All that pales in comparison to the terrible decision to ditch MGS’s single environment infiltration in favor of randomly generated levels. At a stroke, this erases one of the best things about MGS, draining all sense of atmosphere into a series of interchangeable, bland rooms that quickly become overly familiar. I get why you would do this - it saves a ton of time on level design - but it makes exploration dull and the game repetitive.

One of my favorite aspects of Metal Gear is how the designers use deliberate pacing with a microscopic focus on every aspect of a level, like how the Tanker chapter in MGS2 subtly nudges you into using the many new mechanics introduced in the sequel. That level of authorial control just isn’t present in Spy Drops - it’s been handed over to an unthinking algorithm.

And another thing! Spy Drops uses AI-generated voice-acting. Cards on the table, it isn’t completely awful in Spy Drops, and I guess I can see why a smaller studio would save money here. However, AI-designed combat encounters and AI-simulated characters?! In a Metal Gear game?! I didn’t sign up for no S3 program, dammit!

SUMMARY
Rainy Night Creations are clearly huge Metal Gear Solid fans, and I feel bad giving it a bad review. But, with a heavy heart, I confirm that as far as MGS tributes go, this ain’t it. 

If you want to re-experience the joys of MGS, then just play MGS in the Master Collection. If you’re sick of that, play the VR Mission add-on (it’s great!). If you’re sick of that, check out Metal Gear: Ghost Babel!

Spy Drops is a game made with love. But, sadly, this battlefield has failed to bloom.

4/10

💦MELTED💦

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