Spy Drops

Spy Drops is a game with very obvious limitations—the kind that sometimes make it clear that its ambition outstrips its resources.

Recently revamped and improved old-school-inspired 3D stealth action experience on Switch

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.

Calling Spy Drops a clone could potentially give the impression that it’s a well-made copy of a PS1-era classic. This is not the case: it feels more like someone tried to copy a game that was made nearly 30 years ago, but wasn’t talented enough to pull it off. It has a lot of the same features, but none of the quality that made MGS so beloved.

Whether in terms of its muddy visuals, poor controls, or muddled gameplay, this is a mess

Spy Drops tries to capture the surface-level feeling of Metal Gear Solid without understanding what made it a landmark title in 1998, or why it’s still considered one of the greatest games.

Spy Drops is a game with a novel concept but bad execution. The idea of smaller missions for a bite-sized stealth experience is neat, and the game mostly nails the graphical aesthetic of a top-tier game from the original PlayStation's timeline. Everything else, especially the stealth mechanics, are so poorly done that the whole experience feels like an absolute chore to get through. Unless you're the forgiving type who's absolutely craving any kind of stealth experience, don't bother with Spy Drops unless it massively overhauls everything with patches.

Despite being a pretty ambitious undertaking and a handful of decent ideas, Spy Drops fails to make the kill.

Spy Drops desperately wants to be an authentic homage to the original Metal Gear Solid, but fails in almost every aspect. Riddled with issues, from the camera, to the AI, to the level-breaking glitches, there's simply little redeeming quality to this low-effort copy. Just do another re-run with Solid Snake himself and save yourself the pain of this.

The usage of AI voicework shouldn’t outshine some of Spy Drops‘ main appealing features. I gotta give the developers credit where credit is due: they promised us a roguelike take on classic Metal Gear Solid, and that’s exactly what they’ve delivered, despite its many, many, MANY shortcomings. That said, I can’t say I wasn’t having a bit of fun with it. The idea is sound; it’s the execution that felt half-baked, though I understand a chunk of it was a consequence of the game’s minuscule budget.