Cloak & Dagger: Shadow Operations

I feel bad leaving a negative review, but this game does not feel finished. I completed the first mission, and I encountered: - Spelling errors in a few of the tutorial prompts - Tutorial prompts that don't dismiss properly - No melee attack that I could figure out from the controls - Getting stuck behind/inside a door when I open it - When I completed a mission objective by hacking a terminal, my camera was stuck facing that terminal, and I had to complete the rest of the mission facing that direction. I won't be refunding it - part of me enjoying the janky nature of some of it, and it does seem like a project of passion by a small team (or maybe even a single developer), but it'll need a significant amount of basic polish before I'd turn this to a recommend.

Edit: I'm honestly blown away by the post launch patching and dev engagement. - Re-did a level based on feedback. - Major tweaks to movement and climbing. *********** It's clear that this is the passion product of a single developer. The game has charm. It took a few tries for me to understand that it isn't a SC clone. Killing is not an option, and melee is not an option (well, minus a few things I figured out by accident). You are expected to complete your tasks with the tools you are given. After the first level the game becomes far less linear. Trading hallways for large spaces you can traverse however you see fit. To me it feels like a stealth action puzzle game. I found the light based stealth mechanics and sound based detection systems to be spectacular. I'm happy to review this game positively. Once I found my footing I had a very good time sneaking around a deadly AI.

I've played through only a few missions of C&D and I keep catching myself laughing like a manic. This game is so much fun! If you're into old school, tough-as-nails stealth action, then this game is for you. The audio design is fantastic. The graphics are very impressive. The game is, simpy, a ton of fun. I whole hardheartedly recommend this game. What a very talented developer!

２時間くらいでクリア。ミッションが全部５つ、しかも１個がチュートリアル。 初代スプリンターセルに似てる感じで結構期待したけど、なんかハズレでした。。 日本語対応してないから日本語のレビューがなかったので書いてみた [h1] 感想 [/h1] システムの精度、AI、バランスなど改善点が多い問題作。値段が安いには理由がある。。 ポテンシャルだけはあるので次回作が出るならそっちに期待 [h1] ゲーム構成 [/h1] 敵から見つからないようにマップの中の特定の場所を探すゲーム 基本はハッキングする端末の場所を探す 最後のミッションだけ爆発物の設置場所を探すことになる [h1] 指摘したい問題 [/h1] [olist] [*]操作性 動きそのものにはもっさり感はないのに 明らかに後ろにいるのにスタンのアイコンが出なかったり アイコンが出ても押しても反応しなかったりする [*]武器とスタン このゲームは殺傷用の武器は使えない。 支給されないだけではなく敵から奪ったり武器庫から持ち出すのもできない 使えるのは一時的に動きを封じる銃弾を撃つピストルのみ しかもこの麻痺状況が非常に短い。 若干離れた距離から撃ったら歩きで行くとついた頃にもう解けてる。 後ろから近接でやるスタンはこれよりは長いけどやはり時間が短い [*]警戒システム このゲームは現在の警戒レベルをわかるシステムがない 敵さんに声がないので変わりに頭に表示される文字の色（緑・黄・赤）で その人その人の警戒度がわかるシステムですが、非常に分かりづらい [*]AI 一番の問題。理不尽な動きしかしない。 ゲーム上の表現が豊かではないので見てるか見てないのかがちょっとわからなく ちょっと音がしたりするとすぐバレては追撃してくる。 そのくせ警戒の解除も非常に早くてちょっと隠れているとすぐ平常になって移動する [*]バランス調整と難易度 ここまで理不尽が多いから結構難しくてややこしいと思うけど、 このゲーム、マップさえ把握すれば非常に簡単にクリアできてしまう。 そもそもやることがマップ上の特定位置に行って特定の動作をするだけ。。 山場もボスもなく最後までやることが同じ。バリエーションがない。。 [/olist] [h1] まとめ [/h1] 似てる感じで短いミッションでマップに挑戦する感じのやつで No Sun To Worship というゲームがありますが、そっちの方がゲームとしての完成度は高いです。 ただno sun はローポリゴンなので私は目が痛くなって長時間は無理でした。（クリアはしましたけど、、）

My review is a recommend, but there are some very important things I want to bring up. There's no mistaking this game is heavily inspired by Splinter Cell, and many of SC's fundamentals are there. For a small indie project, this is a fantastic game. It's fully complete (woah!), and the art style is just astounding (I may have came close to edging a few times at certain parts because the lighting and shadows were just too good). I want to really emphasize, I love the graphics and art style. I took a lot of photos at the cost of a few lives here and there lol I love hard shadows. First, the game is very janky and needs a lot of polish. The guard AI is all over the place. The states of awareness (such as "heard something" or "hunting you down" modes) are so inconsistent. In one of the levels, as soon as I started moving, a guard from another room heard me and immediately goes into hunt mode and kicks down a door and starts looking for me. I manage to hide, but now the guard is constantly looking for me despite having never seen me. Another issue with the guards is that they sometimes teeter between not being alerted and hunt mode, and they will become schizophrenic beings that will jump at their own shadows and alert THEMSELVES, causing them to resume hunt mode and will somehow home in on you to shoot your loser ass who thinks hiding behind a single crate and some pipes will maybe protect you. I found this to be really funny, though it did make me lose a few runs lol. I liked to bully the guards by shooting them with my gun endlessly. There is a lack of a (quick) save system, and as an avid save scummer, I found this to be a bit frustrating. After playing the game, I found that there's not really a reason to have mid-level saves. The levels are quite small, and you can easily learn them after one or two retries. I learned alternative routes and memorized the hacking locations and could stun and run past the guards and finish the levels. A small note, having all the graphics set to Epic for the last level results in huge frame rate drops. I have to lower everything down to Low to get it to an acceptable frame rate. I moved Shadows to High and it was laggy, then moved it to Medium and the frames got better. It could be just the Shadows option affecting everything, not sure. The one thing I absolutely did not like at all is the controls for using the gun. I don't like how it's a toggle (though I haven't checked the settings, so that might be on me), and I really do not like how aiming with the pistol is not with a stationary cursor in the middle. You have to use the laser pointer attached to the gun, which means it's insanely hard to shoot and stun enemies while running away like a ♥♥♥♥♥ because your laser pointer feels like it wants to be on the other side of the screen for a tropical vacation. This is probably my biggest gripe with the game. I've died a lot because I was unable to shoot and stun nearby enemies and escape just because I couldn't aim properly. Grenades have the complete opposite problem, you have to hold down the grenade button and then click to throw. The action of throwing also takes a long time for whatever reason. It's hard to run at the same time as throwing a grenade because I have to weirdly hold down W and G at the same time, then aim my mouse to throw. By the time I throw it, I'm already at half health and my grenade was thrown too far ahead of my enemies and does nothing lmao oopsies. The sound mechanic is kind of weird. Enemies can easily hear your normal crouch walking. I have to say that this might have been a personal problem, because I like to crouch and roll everywhere. I'm not entirely sure about the sound mechanic. I think guards can hear you just a little too well, though. The camera is a little finicky, as being too close to objects or having too many things surrounding you can mess up your camera. Doors are also a bit finicky, as if you're too close when opening one and it opens towards you, the door will smack you and physically move you as it opens. In certain areas, it can actually trap you because the door closes you in against some nearby objects, and you have to close the door to move again. Cloak & Dagger has everything in place to be a fantastic game, but the only thing it's lacking is just polish and maybe a few control and UI tweaks. Typos are also scattered around in the first level tutorial. I think it is a very good sign if I enjoyed a game despite its rough edges. I know I wrote an entire essay that seems to have more bad than good, but please know it's because I care! I liked the game, but the cons are things I thought were very important to discuss. As I finished up my review, the 1.1 patch came out and fixed some of the things I brought up, so my review is a tiny bit outdated. Thanks for a fun game!

Ok Look! I feel hurt to give it a negative review but i have to unfortunately as this game needs more work to feel or get the positive review. But let me be a good guy and tell the good things about this. First of all: - I can clearly see the motivation, passion and love the solo developer have for this game. I respect and love his passion to make a game which is inspired by the Original Splinter Cell ( which have a special place in my heart ). Huge respect and salute for the passion you have on this game - Also i am really impressed by the amount of stuff this game have ESPECIALLY made by 1 single developer. The style is beautiful, the game runs pretty well, the mechanics that are there works well, the 1990s setting is interesting. the good old sound and seen icon gave me original nostalgia. From a single developer, it is really impressive here and well done on what you have done - The levels are well designed ( not counting tutorial one ). From the first mission you have this open level to get to objective however you can, avoiding or moving however you want ( through ground or above ) and leave. Well done on that BUT unfortunately this game have a lot of issues and missing features which i would love to have in it: - First thing i noticed is no melee or take downs which immediately turned me off from this game, i know this game is to sneak around, avoid enemies, get objective done and leave BUT i always respect and love when games give you multiple ways to do them. so for me for example i would love to take down enemies from behind and move around freely than wait until he moves, do what i need to do and hide again before he comes back - And it gets worse from not so well made AI sadly, in the first level i triggered the alarm and every enemy ran into the building i was in and than just stayed there till mission complete. I thankfully got the objective done or there would be no way i got it in that building after seeing 5+ enemies standing there. - This game is super janky and needs polish - The Sound design is also not great, i played it with headphones but did not heard any footsteps from the enemies which for a game like this, footsteps is critical mechanic to have ( original Splinter Cell have it ). Enemies sometimes heard me even when i did not made any sound and something did not heard me when i jumped from a glass window. It needs a redo - No Map ( or one that i saw ) so i blindly had to search every building while avoiding the enemies which i can't take down to find a green light to get to to do the objective - No quick save system which again i can understand if it was not made to make game harder and make you to finish mission on 1 try or restart but i died from small jump from a crate and that really pissed me off when that happened and made me wish the game had save system. Again, i would love if this game gives you option to play and choose what to use however you want so make it a difficulty thingy for example. have quick save system available for easy or medium difficulty and on hard no quick save or takedown like i mentioned. - I didn't like the control of gun too. simple and small thing that would have made it better would be to have a aim icon when aiming down sight to make you know where you aiming that a light - Stun animation are short IMO. i felt like i shot a camera or guard 5+ times before i could move to where i want. - Same objective of hacking computer and exiting. I wish there was at least some variety to it LOOK! Cloak & Dagger can be a super fun, short game to bring back Original Splinter Cell Nostalgia to people but it will only be after a lot of work is done into it and OH BOY! it needs a lot of work. I won't refund this game to support the dev and i have respect for a solo dev to make a game this level all by himself but it needs added features, polish and few tweaks. And word of motivation to the dev, Don't give up on this game. Make the changes we are asking for and we will always have huge respect to you and the game will become super fun and nostalgia filled advanture. Please keep up the great work you are doing and i hope some gaming company hires you cause you have a skill and a really good one. Until than i will keep my eye out on this game and will surely return when the things needed gets added/fixed. Thanks for a fun game!

Hate to leave a negative review, it's obviously made by people that truly loves the original SC, but when the very first guard AI player encounters had fairly amount of chances to just froze there when spotted the player, melee and interact zones being imprecise or unresponsive, I have doubts the game can run smoothly for the next few hour. maybe wait a couple of months for more patching and polishing.

So I just finished playing the first mission. So these are first impressions: 1. Splinter Cell Chaos Theory vibes all over. 2. I actually loved the movement. It felt great. I was missing some of the moves like sticking to walls. 3. I was not fond of not having any saves but than again it was a short mission, so it didn't bug me much in the end. 4. Guards is where I had the worst experience, mainly because I didn't get any sure way of taking them out. It felt like i should be able to do that but I wasn't. 5. I loved the radio music... and little texts over the guards. Overall I can see myself playing this to the end to see how it develops. I think AI is where the game shows that it's a one man operation. I wish the developer all the best with this game. I will come back with the full review.

There's a lot of promise here with some of the ideas. The main thing is that it feels more like a fangame of Splinter Cell and Metal Gear, but not in a good way. It feels uninspired, but I feel like there was some real effort put into it. For me personally, the design of just running away from enemies being able to stun them for a second at best was not very fun. There's of course some glitches and oversights as with many indie games but with time hopefully these can be resolved. I have to give my honest opinion and not recommend the game because I don't feel there's much to be found here that can't be found in Splinter Cell Chaos Theory. With inspiration, originality, and smoothing out the edges I feel like this developer could make something quite good. As a first attempt I think it's good, as a game though it falls rather short.

I'm on the fence on this one, there's a lot of basics that are just awkward and the bare gameplay isn't distinctly unique or refined enough, but on the other hand the effort and work put into it clearly generated a lot of experience for the creator, it might of been to much for a single person to undertake in the end though, There's a couple distinct issues I'd like to point out for polish sake. The Camera zoom when it's registering there's a wall behind the character is oriented to the way the character is facing, not the positioning of the camera, forcing it to zoom into the players body no matter what angle the character is at when against walls, at least half the time I noticed it, distinctly on the second and third level. The stun animations are way to short almost negligable, basically slapping you on the wrist for even trying to use stun features along with the fact the guards instantly come out of it and on alert. The crawling section under the trailer/house at the second level where the terminal is, has invisible walls under it locking you in there. There isn't any sort of melee or grapple system to disarm guards as a alternative or follow up for the stun, only making the idea even more hampering. The crouch walking is painfully slower then simply crawling, which shouldn't be the case, especially with the noise level you generate simply crouching, I think it should be faster, and the noise level should be reduced for noiser surfaces, sometimes climbing objects, especially the tilted barrels, near walls will clip you right into and through the wall, I got locked in the third level climbing something by the wall and just had to quit out. Along with climbing the barrels by the window on the second level, clipped me through into the building. The cone vision is a bit to blaring obstructive, It's funny to compare it to old games where they have vision cones, but they should be reduced to simply using the flash light on the ground as a indicator to their cone of vision. last thing to suggest, the grenades fall into the same issue as the weapon, the emp grenades don't give close to enough time, the stun grenades don't let you do anything, and the noise maker probably isn't loud enough. It didn't work for me all that well at least. I strongly thing that there should be a way to get physical to reward players for getting close enough to a guard unseen, but also, I think there should be a point system for never disturbing the guards, that being said, They seem extremely sensitive and just break out of any stuns to easy.