In the past couple of
years the “spy-based” genre of games has literally exploded. While some of the
games are very good: Metal Gear Solid and Splinter Cell, the majority of them
aren’t very good at all. To capitalize on this booming trend, Sammy Studios has
released their contender upon the gaming world, and it is titled: Spy Fiction.
Does this game have what it takes to stand up to the rest of the competition?
Read on to find out!
The players are a part of the S.E.A.’s (Special Execution Agency) Phantom Strike
Force, which keeps the world safe from terrorists. To prevent the world from
being destroyed they will have to go through many places sneaking their way past
guards and take out the psychological madmen before they can destroy the world.
One of the best things about this game is that players have the ability to play
the game as two totally different lead characters: Billy Bishop and Sheila
Crawford. Billy is the team leader of PHANTOM, and he is the best at what he
does. The advantage to being Billy is that he is stronger than Sheila, and can
take more damage. Sheila is the only female in PHANTOM, and she has the ability
to morph into any NPC found, male and female.
Another big difference between this game and other games that have multiple lead
characters is that each has their own special paths to take through a mission
and multiple endings. This helps give this game an outstanding replay factor
because you can play through the game at least twice and see a lot of different
things that you will not see if you play as the opposite agent.
The coolest feature in this game is what the developers call the O.C.T. (Optical
Camouflage Transparent) system. This system requires two things, 3DA Camera and
Chameleon Suit. This system has two different and unique uses. First of all if
players remain motionless they will be able to make the character invisible to
all of the enemies. The other, far cooler, use for this is that players will
have the ability to mimic any NPC player in the game. All they have to do is
take a picture of them, find a place to hide and get the holographic projection
of the person they are mimicking up. This system really adds a lot to the spy
genre and makes stealing the NPCs identities extremely fun.
Most of the game is about trying to solve puzzles. For instance, you might have
to get access into a highly secure building. In order to do that you will have
to find a way to get close to a high ranking official and take his picture so
you can mimic him and get in. This sounds a lot easier in practice then it is in
action. You will have to overcome several obstacles in your way so you can
obtain the disguise to even get in the building to continue your mission.
Getting caught is never fun.
Even though this is a spy game, and staying hidden from sight is your main job,
there are times when you do get caught, and this is one of the biggest problems
with the game. The first thing is that if you get caught there will be a timer
at the top of the screen. If you have taken out all of the guards in the area,
or have found a safe hiding place you will have to wait upwards of a minute or
more until the “alarms” will stop going off and the “heat” to be off your tail.
While this doesn’t sound so bad, wait till you get caught several times, and you
will see how annoying it will be to wait for that timer to go down.
If you get caught, one thing you can do is take out the guards either by killing
them or knocking them out. The problem here is that to shoot a gun or go
hand-to-hand uses the game button. So if you are shooting some people, then want
to switch to melee combat you will have to press a button, which pauses the
gameplay, un-equip the gun, and then go at it. There is a quick button to
un-equip, but you will forget about it many times when you are in the heat of
battle. The melee combat in this game is a joke. You can hit-kick an enemy three
times, then you have to wait a second or more till you can hit again. This is
really a disappointment and makes you want to avoid any hand-to-hand combat.
The AI for this game is pretty well done. For instance, in the first level if
you take the disguise of a guard, if you start running around and acting like a
fool, the other guards will get highly suspicious. They might even come towards
you and check you out to find out if something is up or not. This always keeps
the players on their toes to make sure that they will not do anything that will
give them away.
The game has a very “anime” inspired theme to it. The reason you might say this
is that the characters look like something you might see if you turn on Adult
Swim. Billy has the whole “Spiky hair” thing going for him, and Sheila has the
“big eyes” thing going for her. There is nothing wrong with this in any sense,
it is just something that I wasn’t expecting a Spy game to have, but it is a
very welcome change of pace. The animations on the characters are top notch as
well. All of the locations that you will visit while playing this game are
really well done. Each of the areas are full of detail from lighting, shadowing,
and other effects that make the game look good.
Even Spies know how to enjoy the finer things in life.
The bad thing about this game is the camera. The developers should have looked
at some of the other spy games and mimicked their camera. While the camera in
this game is not bad, it could have been a whole lot better. The problem is that
while playing this game you might get in a tight spot and suddenly the camera
goes from being your friend to your enemy. So you have to straighten out the
camera, and by the time you do, the character will be half dead.
The music for this game is something that will be easily forgotten. While it
will not get on your nerves, you will find great comfort in using the mute
button. The voice acting in this game is on the cheesy side, and might make you
laugh as well. The sound effects used are good, but they could have been so much
better. The standard for this genre has risen tremendously over the past few
years, and this game didn’t keep up with that standard.
Spy Fiction is rated M for Mature for blood, language, sexual themes, and
violence. It will take up to 330 KB on your memory card for saves.
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Gameplay: 7.5
The puzzles for
Spy Fiction are fun and pretty challenging to do.
Graphics: 8.0
The game looks really good. I like the “anime styled’ characters.
Sound: 6.3
You will find comfort in using the mute button.
Difficulty: Medium
This game was pretty easy on some points and really hard on others.
Concept: 8.5
I really like the implementation of the O.C.T. (Optical Camouflage
Transparent) system. I like how I would take a photograph of anyone I saw, and
then actually mimic them. This is a great idea that made this game really fun to
play.
Overall: 7.7
Spy Fiction is a fun game that puts in a new twist to the spy genre. While
there are better games out on the market, this game will provide you with some
good times.
