Death to Spies Review
The official statement:
"April 19, 1943 the Chief Directorate of Military Intelligence (known as "SMERSH" an abbreviation of the Russian for "Death to Spies") was set up by the Soviet Commissariat of Defense. The organization was designed to counter the intelligence and sabotage activities of foreign secret services, primarily those of Hitler´s Germany.
Intelligence and counter-intelligence activities behind enemy lines were carried out by the officers of the 4th Department of SMERSH. These agents received the most complicated and dangerous tasks: espionage, counter-intelligence, sabotage, and operations that involved identifying, kidnapping, or killing enemy VIPs.
This is a third-person stealth-action game based on the activities of the most mysterious secret service of World War II."
The game starts off with a cut scene dated after World War 2, an officer is going through your file and request for you to be brought in. The officer asks about mission details and for each mission you play the situation and events. It is a very interesting way of presenting the game, much like that of Mafia.
The gameplay reflects Hidden & Dangerous 2, Commandos as well as other games like Hitman and Splinter Cell. Like Hidden & Dangerous you have a maximum amount of inventory you can carry. You select weapons and tools before each mission. You can knock out and strangle enemy guards then carry them to a hiding spot just like in Commandos but be careful, as in Commandos the enemy has a field of vision. Depending on your characters stance and distance from the enemy determines how suspicious you are to them. You can take the uniforms from enemy soldiers you incapacitate with out getting blood on the uniform. One of your primary stealth weapons is the knife, which you can throw... yes you can throw knifes in Death to Spies. Different soldiers have different ranks, so higher ranking uniforms allow you to walk around with out having to worry too much about being found out.
Like all good games this one has a training mission. It goes through all you need to know covering all the little details. (For those of you that have played H&D2 will notice the extreme similarities between the beginnings of the training missions.) After the training you will be well equipped to tackle the missions.
Graphics of the game are very well done, not the latest and greatest of this new year of 2009 but definitely great for 2007 when it was originally released. The game has ragdoll, physics, nice shadows and great weather effects. The game has a level where you are in a bit of a snow storm, it is very well done. A vast array of AI animations makes the game come alive. The level designs are some of the best I have ever seen in terms of AI placement and interaction with each other. That said they do have collision issues with each other as they pass by on patrols and with other objects.
Sounds. Ambient noise, sound effects, AI sounds and all the rest fail in the job to create truly great atmospheres for this game. The visuals alone aren´t enough to really captivate you and this is sad. I like being draw into a games atmosphere and this is what we all loved about H&D1. Despite the other sounds the voice acting is good, like the movie Enemy at the Gates you will notice the Russians have more "western" accents, hahaha, they should have just subtitled the Russian versions. The guards don´t talk to each other and barely say a thing throughout the game, merely a few standard German words and sayings. However there is a MOD that helps to improve this, I have yet to try it but I will add my review of it at a later stage.
The game missions do get a little repetitive. Stab, straggle, take clothes, get the guy or the documents and mission completed the rinse & repeat. If you like the second mission of Hidden & Dangerous 2 you will love this game, if you didn´t like it at all then don´t play Death to Spies, well you can as the game boasts a versatile gameplay, it is clearly designed to be played as a stealth game. The missions are fun to play but as the entire game is about sneaking and infiltration you will need to be patient. There will many times you will have to wait for the right time to strike and some guard patrols move very slowly. I played the game in normal mode, it was generally not too difficult but a couple of missions at the end will have to thinking over time and possibly cursing at the computer screen.
There are a few vehicles you can ride around in like a Truck, KubelWagen and a BMW motorcycle but don´t get your hopes up about seeing the half track and tanks in action they don´t move. Another slight interaction over sight is that you can not swim, like H&D deluxe the water is simply blocked off. Although the water only appears in one mission it is a bit of a disappointment.
Overall the game is brilliant and I am sure every Hidden & Dangerous fan will enjoy the game, at least try the demo. The game offers a lot of new gadgets and features to the World War 2 genre and any WW2 genre lover must add this to the collection.
You can buy & download the game from the publishers´ website at 1C Publishing.