Posted May 04, 2015
This is too long for the "Reviews" area, so I'm posting it here.. Also, this is my first review, so please accept my apologies for any deficiencies it has.. :)
Death to Spies is a good stealth game that can be hard at times. If you like minimizing your kills and knockouts, you will find some difficult challenges. If you prefer guns-blazing style, tools are provided for that; such as fully-automatic rifles, grenades, and the ability to plant mines and explosively booby-trap doors and bodies. I haven't played it guns-blazing, preferring to stealth my way through.
At the beginning of each mission you are given a briefing in the form of a cut-scene followed by a "portfolio" you can browse at your leisure. You then choose your gear load-out (although a few missions start you with pre-selected gear). There is a weight limit, so you can't bring everything. If you are a "maximum sneaker" you can save weight by leaving the rifles, grenades and mines at home. You won't need them.
Most missions have a number of objectives. usually you can fulfill them in any order (for example, if you are supposed to find some papers and follow-up by eliminating a target, you can eliminate the target first). Sometimes you can skip an objective (for example, if an objective is to first identify someone and then afterwards go do something, you may be able to skip the identification objective).
Like Hitman, you can take outfits from others and change into them, but not if you shoot or knife the person. There are several ways to take out targets, both lethal and non-lethal. Some methods make noise and some don't. Some are fast and some are slow. So there are a variety of tactics you can choose from, depending on the situation.
You also have to "act" like the person you are imitating. For instance, if you wear a guard's uniform, you will be deemed suspicious if you are crawling prone on your belly or are running at top speed, or if you have the "wrong" kind of rifle. Regarding stances, you can stand upright, crouch or go prone. For each stance you can move "normal" or "fast". Each stance and speed makes a varying amount of noise, and has a different radius in which you may be spotted. In addition, you can soundlessly "sneak". Sneaking makes no noise but is very slow - you aren't fast enough to sneak up on moving (walking) targets, but while NPC's are stationary you may be able to silently sneak up on them, depending.
Almost everything you do makes some amount of noise. Just opening and closing doors may be heard and investigated by an NPC. Hiding bodies can make noise. You need to always be careful and mindful of your noise and visibility. Of course, you can also use that to your advantage.
The in-game map always displays every NPC's "friendliness" and sight-cone, even behind walls. Also, when you make a noise, the sound propagation radius is displayed on the map. The map can be hotkey-toggled on and off at will during game-play. When it is off you don't see the indicators. In addition, the game options has a setting for some of the indicators. This allows tailoring the amount of "indication" you have.
There are a small variety of vehicles, such as trucks, cars and motorcycles. But except for one mission, they are very underused. Actually, except for that one mission, I didn't use any of the vehicles at all.
If you are not a stranger to stealth game-play, you may be pleased to note there are many split-second situations; where you have to wait for the exact right moment to do something stealthily and not be heard or spotted. Some of these can be alleviated by "taking out" more NPC's. But if you prefer the challenge, there are plenty of difficult situations you can pull-off in the midst of groups of NPC's. I was not able to "ghost" any of the missions. You pretty-much have to incapacitate NPC's. The challenge is to minimize the number.
At the end of each mission you are given a rating, with scores for professionalism, aggression, noise, etc. You aren't given any exact counts, such as how many NPC's you killed vs. knocked out; something I wish was provided.
The game can be run full-screen or windowed. The "engine" seems very stable. I've let it run for days paused, unpausing it now and then to play a bit; and it has never crashed or hiccuped.
Overall, Death to Spies is an enjoyable stealth game, with open missions and challenging situations.
Death to Spies is a good stealth game that can be hard at times. If you like minimizing your kills and knockouts, you will find some difficult challenges. If you prefer guns-blazing style, tools are provided for that; such as fully-automatic rifles, grenades, and the ability to plant mines and explosively booby-trap doors and bodies. I haven't played it guns-blazing, preferring to stealth my way through.
At the beginning of each mission you are given a briefing in the form of a cut-scene followed by a "portfolio" you can browse at your leisure. You then choose your gear load-out (although a few missions start you with pre-selected gear). There is a weight limit, so you can't bring everything. If you are a "maximum sneaker" you can save weight by leaving the rifles, grenades and mines at home. You won't need them.
Most missions have a number of objectives. usually you can fulfill them in any order (for example, if you are supposed to find some papers and follow-up by eliminating a target, you can eliminate the target first). Sometimes you can skip an objective (for example, if an objective is to first identify someone and then afterwards go do something, you may be able to skip the identification objective).
Like Hitman, you can take outfits from others and change into them, but not if you shoot or knife the person. There are several ways to take out targets, both lethal and non-lethal. Some methods make noise and some don't. Some are fast and some are slow. So there are a variety of tactics you can choose from, depending on the situation.
You also have to "act" like the person you are imitating. For instance, if you wear a guard's uniform, you will be deemed suspicious if you are crawling prone on your belly or are running at top speed, or if you have the "wrong" kind of rifle. Regarding stances, you can stand upright, crouch or go prone. For each stance you can move "normal" or "fast". Each stance and speed makes a varying amount of noise, and has a different radius in which you may be spotted. In addition, you can soundlessly "sneak". Sneaking makes no noise but is very slow - you aren't fast enough to sneak up on moving (walking) targets, but while NPC's are stationary you may be able to silently sneak up on them, depending.
Almost everything you do makes some amount of noise. Just opening and closing doors may be heard and investigated by an NPC. Hiding bodies can make noise. You need to always be careful and mindful of your noise and visibility. Of course, you can also use that to your advantage.
The in-game map always displays every NPC's "friendliness" and sight-cone, even behind walls. Also, when you make a noise, the sound propagation radius is displayed on the map. The map can be hotkey-toggled on and off at will during game-play. When it is off you don't see the indicators. In addition, the game options has a setting for some of the indicators. This allows tailoring the amount of "indication" you have.
There are a small variety of vehicles, such as trucks, cars and motorcycles. But except for one mission, they are very underused. Actually, except for that one mission, I didn't use any of the vehicles at all.
If you are not a stranger to stealth game-play, you may be pleased to note there are many split-second situations; where you have to wait for the exact right moment to do something stealthily and not be heard or spotted. Some of these can be alleviated by "taking out" more NPC's. But if you prefer the challenge, there are plenty of difficult situations you can pull-off in the midst of groups of NPC's. I was not able to "ghost" any of the missions. You pretty-much have to incapacitate NPC's. The challenge is to minimize the number.
At the end of each mission you are given a rating, with scores for professionalism, aggression, noise, etc. You aren't given any exact counts, such as how many NPC's you killed vs. knocked out; something I wish was provided.
The game can be run full-screen or windowed. The "engine" seems very stable. I've let it run for days paused, unpausing it now and then to play a bit; and it has never crashed or hiccuped.
Overall, Death to Spies is an enjoyable stealth game, with open missions and challenging situations.