Spy Drops

More of a neutral review than negative. This game has the right inspirations to be a spiritual successor of MGS, but it's quite rough as it is now. Right off the bat it starts with a dialogue full of quasi-military tech lingo, and mediocre voice acting does not really help to be honest. Still miles better than the AI voicing it previously had. When it comes to the gamepaly itself, I'm not a fan of the procedurally generated(?) maps in this game, you'll frequently find big spaces with not much going on in it, and some paths lead to nothing. I think a good level design philosophy is a lot more important for a stealth game such as this than say, some action shooter. Controls are a bit jank, though I can't say if it's intentional or not given what the game takes as an inspiration. Encountered a few small bugs but nothing game breaking yet. One nitpick is that when you get an enemy and grab his weapon it's always empty. Who are these guys, the Queen's guard? The graphical style, music and general atmosphere in the game is spot on though, I'd encourage the devs to work on and fix the small issues and they'll have a pretty enjoyable little game. Still not too bad for the price.

Spy Drops is one of those games that wears its inspiration on its sleeve, aiming to replicate the amazing Metal Gear Solid. From visual style to some of the gameplay elements, the core ideas are there. Execution of those ideas, well...let's talk about it. I am a huge fan of Metal Gear Solid games since the first game on PS One. (Yes I know about Metal Gear 1 & 2 on MSX, but that why I specified "Solid") So I guess I have some understanding of what are they trying to do here. There are good things: The first deviation from a uppermentioned MGS is that it features randomly generated missions, which means that your objectives and level layouts change each time you play. This is designed to offer high replayability, preventing the game from becoming predictable. Supporting this are a wide variety of tools and gear, allowing players to approach problems in different ways, whether through pure stealth, hacking, or direct combat. And I guess I can commend the dev for trying to do their own thing, but if you're looking for "indie-mgs", look elsewhere. Visually, the game goes full-on into a low-polygon, PlayStation 1-era aesthetic. So if you are fond of that particular look, Spy Drops successfully captures the feel of a game from that time (minus the wobbly textures ofc). But then again, I wouldn't say that it looks better than the original MGS, which is baffling. The dev has also been active in supporting the game post-launch. One of the most significant early criticisms I had, was the use of poor-quality AI voice acting (at which point, no voices at all would be far better), but this has since been addressed in an update with recordings from real human actors. Quality of the voice acting is still questionable, but it's an improvement. Now onto the bad: Unfortunately, the positive elements are overshadowed by fundamental problems with the gameplay. From what I've seen in other reviews and what's true for me aswell is how bad controls are. They are clunky and unintuitive at best. Moving your character and interacting with the environment feels less smooth and responsive than in the 27-year-old games Spy Drops tries to emulate. This is made worse by a problematic camera and jarring shifts in perspective that can make it difficult to see what you are doing and disorient you during crucial moments. Another major issue is the behavior of the enemy guards. The AI is terrible. Guards have a very limited field of vision and will give up chasing the player far too easily. This removes much of the tension and challenge that is essential for a good stealth game, making the world feel unconvincing and the threats insignificant. Furthermore, while the missions are randomly generated, they often end up feeling similar and repetitive. The core loop fails to remain engaging over time because the fundamental act of playing the game-moving, hiding, and navigating-is hampered by the awkward controls and poor level design. In conclusion, Spy Drops ultimately feels like a budget off-brand imitation of a classic. It has the visual style and some of the ideas, but it lacks the polished execution and thoughtful design that made its inspirations so beloved. The clunky controls, poor enemy AI, and repetitive nature make it a difficult game to recommend. The continued support from the developer is a positive sign tho, and major patches could potentially improve the experience in the future. However, in its current state, it is hard for me to justify spending money on. If you are a dedicated fan of the stealth genre and are intensely curious, it might be worth considering only during a very deep sale. For most players, you would be better off revisiting the original Metal Gear Solid or trying more competent modern homages that understand that good gameplay is just as important as a nostalgic look. You might be thinking that it's hardly fair to expect anyone to be as good as Hideo Kojima, that's an extremely high bar, but on the other hand, you at least would excpect some improvements over the game that 27 years old at this point. The template is there.

UPD: Issues with bodies not hiding is fixed. Thank you. It is a solid original MGS clone with procedurally generated missions between a few story missions. Not a fan of Rogue Games, but Spy Drops pulled me in, so a big plus, although I preferred linear story missions. The story is heavily inspired by the first and third installments and is brief but right to the point without any unnecessary strayaways. Great cinematic-ish cutscenes and music. After experiencing the gameplay, I would say I got quite eager to experience the original MGS if I had the possibility to play comfortably and not have a god awful Master Collection as the only legit way to play it. Controls are great, so no issues anymore, although I wouldn't know what to compare to. As for the situation around this game. Sadly, it is a great example of how marketing campaigns own the popularity. I clearly remember how everybody was praising the MG clone - Unmetal, and seeing how Spy Drops was immediately dropped (sorry for the pun), begs the question, do true indies really stand a chance in modern industry? To developers, if they read it, as your previous projects have shown, the PS1 stylistic is the best way to go on, and I hope you will stick to it, because it looks and feels really great and more unique than Mario-esque style. And the last point about the so-called "scandal". I would say only that it is very easy to pick on small indie devs and not the multi-billion dollar corps like NVIDIA, Microsoft, Apple, or Google, who are the true promoters of AI and potential culprits behind the firing of hundreds of thousands of people and further mass unemployment. But the puny, feeble, and intellectually weak people feel like the single-person (or a small team) game developer is the one who should be blamed and persecuted. It is easier that way. To finish the topic, I would be the devil's advocate in this sentence, and remind some people that Salvador Dali, or Bob Ross (for a more modern audience) haven't lost their jobs because of the creation of photography, opera singers and troubadours didn't lose their actuality because of the creation of sound recording, and so the game industry or art industry, as Kojima himself said, won't disappear due to usage of AI. Talented people will always be needed, but that cannot be said for mediocre artists or copy-pasters. This is absolutely valid. My point, dear dev or devs, please don't take it personally and keep making your projects the best way you can. You did a great spy game and should be proud of it, you deserved it.

Beautiful PS1 'inspired' graphic style that still holds up today and doesn't look like crap! (Ultrakill TransNalis, Gapewashing) Great voice acting that doesn't sound like they got AI to do it. Responsive controls and spine tingling intense music.... Yep I'm thinking this is a TRUE LGBTQ+ transcore indie game that I'm going to NOT refund! This is truly a standard razor for the indie game market. If you LOVED Signalis you'll love this game!

i was really looking forward to playing this game for a few months, and it's pretty disappointing unfortunately. i will still be following updates tho because i do think it has a lot of potential even though it feels like an early access title that's marked as fully released. the good: art direction, animation, premise, setting, controls/camera so everything about this stylistically always stood out to me, and kept me engaged while playing. the cutscenes and character animations also feel good. i also like that the setting for this seemingly follows in mgs' anti-capital footsteps (i don't actually know if this game has a story tbh, only was able to see the intro cutscene). i also think the game controls well and feels responsive. the camera is maybe a bit too generous with how much you can see around the bad: voice acting/dialogue, tutorials/guide, minimap, level generation, combat, alert system i don't think the VA is bad, just kinda fine. it doesn't detract but it doesn't add a lot either and probably could've been text based and left it to the imagination. the character writing is kinda bad, it's a little too meta/just bland. doesn't feel great when it wears its visual inspiration so boldy on its sleeve. you only ever get 1 popup for tutorials per save file, so you have to remember everything perfectly. with how niche of a game this is you also can't find any info online. there should be a dedicated menu with these tips. the minimap is very barebones, and special mission markers don't seem to actually appear on it. i mainly played a mission where you had to target specific soldiers and none were marked like the tutorial said they would be. i didn't get to play a wide variety of levels but the few i did didn't feel consistent. occasional dead ends and sometimes sparse soldier placement/quantity made them a non-issue. lethal combat feels too fleshed out in comparison to non-lethal. upgrading your combat stat makes fists super lethal, and leaves you with only sneak attacks as a reliable combat option if you don't want to lose all of your mission reward money. i get that in mgs it's way easier to go lethal, and that's the point. but it feels weird to open the game with your boss telling you to avoid killing, but the one reliable non-lethal staple of mgs can be accidentally permanently changed to lethal. guards also don't care about bodies, and if they wake up from being knocked out they don't care either. they should probably just stay asleep longer like in mgs if they're gonna forget about you anyway. the alert system also is completely undermined by a few different factors. you can just hide in a dumpster and they'll eventually forget, or under cover and they can't do anything about it. they won't shoot or kick you unless you're standing or sticking out respectively. there also doesn't seem to be any penalty for alerts despite the heavy lethal penalty, so if there are cameras/tripwires but no guards around there's not much of a reason to hide from them because new guards don't spawn. tl;dr/final thoughts i really, really, really want to love this game. i don't normally click a ton with roguelikes but the existence of an mgs style one sounds amazing on paper. it couldn't replace those games but it's not trying to either, it's going for its own take on the formula. i'll keep following this game and hopefully return to it in the future if it keeps receiving updates

I see that you're trying to go for the MGS1 vibe. I feel like the dialogue and the general story need to be worked on. Seems like a high schooler wrote a rough draft and decided that was enough. Some of the animations in cutscene, like the backpack drone movement, are down right hilarious. They're skit tier. I've only played a bit but this feels like a proof of concept. Needs more time in the oven.

Spy Drops is a deliberate throwback to classic stealth design, filtered through a modern indie lens that favors replayability and experimentation over polish-heavy spectacle. Developed by Rainy Night Creations and published by Rainy Frog Co. Ltd., the game sets out to capture the tension, caution, and methodical pacing of late-90s espionage games while layering in procedural generation and light progression systems. The result is an experience that feels unapologetically old-school in spirit, sometimes rough in execution, but often compelling in the way it asks players to slow down, observe, and adapt rather than rush headlong into action. The premise places players in the role of an elite covert operative working against a shadowy organization with extremist ambitions, providing a functional narrative framework for repeated infiltration missions. Story beats are delivered sparingly, serving more as context than emotional driver, and the plot largely exists to justify constant redeployments into hostile territory. This restraint works in the game’s favor, as Spy Drops is less concerned with cinematic storytelling and more focused on recreating the feeling of being alone behind enemy lines, relying on your tools and instincts to survive. The atmosphere leans heavily into paranoia and isolation, reinforcing the idea that every mistake carries consequences. At its core, Spy Drops is built around stealth-first gameplay. Enemy awareness is governed by line of sight, sound, and environmental lighting, encouraging careful movement and deliberate positioning. Charging in guns blazing is rarely effective, as enemies can quickly overwhelm an unprepared player. Instead, the game rewards patience: sneaking behind guards, disabling them non-lethally, and extracting information before moving on. Gadgets play a crucial role here, with tools such as drones, hacking devices, stun weapons, and vision-enhancing equipment giving players multiple ways to approach objectives. The freedom to choose how to infiltrate a space is one of the game’s strongest qualities, especially when everything goes according to plan. A defining feature of Spy Drops is its reliance on procedurally generated missions. Levels, enemy placements, objectives, and item locations are randomized each run, ensuring that no two infiltrations play out exactly the same. This unpredictability creates genuine tension, as memorization is impossible and players must constantly reassess their surroundings. When the system works well, it produces memorable scenarios where improvisation becomes key. However, this same randomness can occasionally result in uneven pacing or awkward layouts, where objectives feel poorly placed or encounters lack meaningful buildup. The game’s ambition is evident, but so too are the challenges inherent in procedural stealth design. Progression is handled through light RPG elements that persist across runs. Completing missions and gathering intel grants resources that can be spent on upgrades to health, stamina, accuracy, and gadget effectiveness. These improvements subtly increase survivability without trivializing the challenge, striking a balance between rewarding persistence and maintaining tension. Death is expected rather than punished harshly, reinforcing the roguelike influence and encouraging players to treat each failure as a learning experience rather than a setback. Visually, Spy Drops embraces a low-poly, retro 3D aesthetic reminiscent of early stealth classics, enhanced with modern lighting and shadow effects. This combination gives the environments a moody, nostalgic atmosphere, though it can also lead to clarity issues, particularly in complex spaces where visual cues are less distinct. Camera behavior and control responsiveness can feel awkward at times, especially during sudden perspective shifts or tight navigation, and these technical rough edges are among the game’s most noticeable weaknesses. Players willing to push past this initial friction will find the mechanics become more readable with time, but the learning curve can be steeper than expected. The game also includes a local competitive mode that pits players against each other in small-scale stealth encounters, adding a playful diversion from the solo campaign. While not the main attraction, it reinforces the game’s experimental spirit and offers an alternative way to engage with its systems. Sound design further supports the stealth focus, with subtle audio cues helping players gauge enemy proximity and alert levels, even if the overall presentation remains understated. Ultimately, Spy Drops is a game driven by intention rather than mass appeal. It is not a sleek, cinematic stealth blockbuster, nor does it attempt to smooth away every rough edge in pursuit of accessibility. Instead, it commits to a specific vision rooted in retro espionage, procedural unpredictability, and methodical play. For fans of classic stealth games who value tension, planning, and emergent problem-solving, Spy Drops offers moments of genuine satisfaction and suspense. Its flaws are real and sometimes intrusive, but for players willing to meet it on its own terms, it stands as an intriguing and earnest homage to a style of stealth game that is increasingly rare in the modern landscape. Rating: 5/10

This game wears its inspiration on its sleeve, and is jank and dated in exactly the ways it should be. It's essentially Metal Gear Solid on the Playstation but roguelike, and is precisely as good (or bad) as it sounds based on that alone. Older reviews attack it for using AI voices but those have all been replaced with real voice acting, a huge improvement not only on moral grounds; the old AI voices were [i]terrible[/i].

I was lured by the charm of MGS1, but this game is not even close to its quality. Watching enemies get confused by doorways is funny though. First impressions were terrible, game doesn't play right at all.

Spy Drops is a nice spin-off of MGS1, and I do really like the concept and the design of it all, it is very funny and uses many of the tropes that are used basically throughout the entirety of MGS, not that it reaches the potential storytelling that MGS does, but I didn't ever expect it to in the first place, that's a non-issue. I very much enjoy this game mostly because I am an MGS fanboy, but also because this game gives itself a unique enough identity to not be called a carbon copy, though it isn't without it's own problems. The good of the game is that: The controls are fine, likely refined through updates as I've seen people complaining about it earlier in the year. There are lots of options from the get-go to be able to properly play the game, somehow this game has more audio options than MGSV ever did (lol). The protagonist, although a little bait-y in her design, is pretty caggy and looks cool in her animations as well. The graphics are not anything ground-breaking but you do not have to stick with the PS1 style completely, you can have cleaner graphics or more choppy and blocky graphics in the game as you wish which is a big plus for me. The game, as opposed to many newer games these days, runs completely fine, and has no performance issues whatsoever, and can probably run on an Intel Celeron or worse. The story is very cheesy and not in-depth, while this may seem like a negative, it doesn't have to take itself very seriously to be a competent game, and is good enough to encourage you for gameplay and setup the whole market system about buying and researching new stuff. The item variety in the game is decent and experimental (in a good way), there are stuff like drones, gas masks, bugging devices (to track vehicles) etc. The negatives of this game are, honestly, not that plentiful, but do not expect a highly-polished, bug-free experience akin to something like a main-line MGS entry, this game certainly has it's fair share of bugs and the experience is not entirely the same tier as MGS, however as far as I know, one dude is making this game, and that honestly deserves a lot of credit. The ambience, to put it lightly, is literally non-existent. If you turn off the music in this game you will hear absolutely nothing except your footsteps, gunshots, dragging bodies around, and the voice lines of enemy guards and overwatch. That's it. There's no ambience, no droning sound in the facility, no windy noises or nature sounds outside, no reverb inside of the facility and the list goes on. This is extremely, extremely negative to the point where it is kind of just weird. If the dev ever reads this, please add ambience to your game. It would tremendously help with the general setting and feeling of the game whilst keeping music-free gamers happy as well. Procedurally generated missions can sometimes feel same-y and make you think "I've seen this area before...", because you probably already have and it generates very similar if not identical structures sometimes. The music can be turned off in the settings however some cutscenes will still be playing music even with it turned off, the cutscenes are also extremely quiet and a little awkward without any noise from anything happening in them, it would probably not be very hard to add some appropriate noises, like jet engines for the magnet propelled plane or some kind of droning noise for it, a propeller sound in the background coming from the transport plane C-130 looking thing. The game has several bugs, I do not really know if the bad ai of the guards sometimes can be classified as one, however sometimes when putting a soldier down in a corner your camera will glitch out and you will be stuck until you pick him up and drag him again. There are likely other bugs too, the camera clips inside of the character a lot and generally feels awkward whilst hiding inside of dumpsters or lockers. None of these are particularly horrendous or affect gameplay that much, but it's certainly something that should be ironed out over time. Overall, the game does require a lot of polish, however it definitely has a ton of potential, it even has multiplayer. If the game over time can become more responsive and the quality steadily improves it can certainly be a competent MGS spin-off for any stealth-hungry gamers that are a little upset with recent releases and generally dwindling market for stealth games and the genre in general. The dev is very active and is continually supporting the game and isn't like some modern devs that release their game, make a hotfix or a patch or two after their game blows up and leave it for dead. Overall, I enjoyed it, and I will definitely come back to play some more.