Death to Spies: Moment of Truth

At first glance, I am in doubt whether this game is an engrossing game or just a low budget game from an independent small studio as well. Turn out, it is engrossing. The gameplay is realistic and challening, better than more arcade Splinter Cell series and closer to Hitman : Blood Money in terms of freedom. The graphics is good, for a small independent Russian studio and for 2009, this game's graphics is quite good and detailed in almost every aspect. The sound, not much sound but it still effective. You don't need a loud background sound if you're gonna stealth all the way around. Buy it, this is one underrated gem and unique game that you will fall in love with eventually.

Death to Spies: Moment of Truth is a WWII themed take off of the Hitman series. Although very similar in play to the original Death to Spies, the game significantly improves basic functionality over the original and is, in my opinion, the one to buy. The game is extremely demanding and relies heavily on trial and error. You shouldn't expect to complete a mission on the first attempt although if you do, it is an incredibly gratifying feeling. There are only seven missions but the gameplay is drawn out through the high difficulty curve. The missions involve anything from stealing classified documents to assassination to sabotaging weapons, and more. The stealth is primarily social-stealth. You're not so much trying to stay unseen as you're trying not to blow your cover. Once you steal an enemy uniform, you can move more freely among the area although not every uniform works in every situation. Low-ranking uniforms won't grant you easy access to the most secure areas but you'll find it harder to fool the enemy if you're wearing the uniform of a very high ranking officer. Enemies can be stunned or killed, unless specified in the mission briefing, through means such as strangulation, chloroform, a swift punch to the head, gunshots, and other methods. Missions are quite open ended. There's usually a laid-out method to try but you can usually complete the mission however you wish, so long as the objectives, as described, get done. It might be smarter to try to poison an assassination target but you can just shoot him in the head if you can get away with it. You'll utilize lock picks, smoke bombs, noise-lures and more en route to a successful completion. The game can be quite unforgiving and downright cruel with things such as random frisk-searches and unexpected enemy reactions to certain actions, leading to some frustrating failures. If you're looking for the undercover espionage experience, favoring brains over brawn, then this game might be a good choice for you.

Great game if you're into stealth titles, you will not be disappointed. The game offers large expansive maps, offering you many ways to approach a mission. The game does have a steep learning curve, but that will change as you play through the game. Be prepared to die many times through trial and error, good part about this is that you the option to save, you will be spending more than 20 minutes per level. Longer, if you're playing blindly. If you lack the patience, or if you're one that gives up after 2 or 3 deaths, this game may not be for you. Unless you're glutton for punishment. ;D

Unfortunately, I can't agree with the other reviews of this game. Having played several other stealth titles, including the older entries of the Splinter Cell series (up to Double Agent), Hitman 2, Thief 3: Deadly Shadows and Desperados 2, I find this game to be unplayably clunky. In a stealth game, you should be able to stab/choke/strangle an enemy when sneaking up on him from behind without having to try 10 times and only succeeding once because of the obscure controls. Also, there is no hit feedback (blood, hit marker) and the weapon handling is nothing short of terrible, even compared to really old games like Mafia 1. Thank God it was only 5 Euros.