Spy Drops Review

With thanks to the folks at Rainy Frog, I’ve been taking a look over their new espionage roguelike Spy Drops on PC and Nintendo Switch. Spy Drops is clearly inspired by all-time great Metal Gear Solid, but does it live up to its spiritual predecessor?

If you’re looking to find out if Spy Drops is worth picking up, if it’s safe for kids or just to see how accessible it is, read below with our extended review and common-sense parent’s guide. Feel free to ask questions in the comments, or over on your favourite social media platform.

You can keep us ad-free here by subscribing over on Twitch, where you’ll get ad-free viewing, emotes and access to our subscriber-only area on Discord

Spy Drops launched on Steam and Nintendo Switch on July 31st

The Basics – What is Spy Drops About?

Spy Drops steps into the shoes of a roguelike take on the tactical espionage action genre. There are clear hints of the PlayStation classic Metal Gear Solid, but it also goes some way to trying to put it’s own stamp on the genre. Playing as Ripley, you’ll run through a relatively varied set of missions, as you take on counter-terror operations, before going on to unravel a deeper conspiracy.

Missions within Spy Drops are randomised in true roguelike style, meaning you won’t ever get the same exact thing twice (or near enough). However with that said, while not being an exact match, the different missions and layouts will feel pressingly familiar from run to run.

This one is a low-poly, top-down stealth-em-up which will feel pretty familiar, and while it’s a great start for a solo developer, it does feel quite a bit like a work in progress. This isn’t helped by the obvious inclusion of AI voice acting, an area where it would definitely have been better to just leave it out altogether.

Spy Drops includes a fairly standard leveling system to provide meta progression, and players will find themselves unlocking things relatively regularly, allowing you to “approach the mission in your own way”. Again, however (and thus the quotation marks) whatever way you choose will feel pretty similar, without enough separation between runs to really hit that randomised feeling.

Is Spy Drops Safe for Kids?

Spy Drops is rated by PEGI at 16 and above, and by the ESRB at T for Teen. This is primarily based on Blood and Violence.

Being a low-poly espionage title, there is some combat here, and players will be offered the choice to knock out or kill opponents (though it should be noted that there are benefits from knocking them out, potentially leading the player away from lethal options).

While the low-poly nature does minimise this a little, it doesn’t take it out of the game completely, and it is definitely worth considering. As well as hand-to-hand combat, players will use guns, tasers, drones and more items to help you complete each mission.

It’s far from the worst title in terms of blood or gore, and I wouldn’t hate our older Micro-Bandits getting their hands on it too much, but I wouldn’t want to drop much younger than maybe 12 ish.

Is Spy Drops Accessible?

Spy Drops provides full text for all spoken communication, whether within cut scenes or gameplay. It’s also possible to modify font size, up to some pretty large format text to make it easier to read. For audio, music, effects and voice can be controlled separately as well as having a master control) to allow players to adjust this to fit their needs.

While there’s a little during the intro scene (looking to echo Metal Gear) screen shake isn’t too much of an issue either, and doesn’t come up much within gameplay. It is also possible to turn screen shake off completely within the options menu. Flashing is also a minimal issue, though there are bright lights in the title they move steadily or remain static.

Thankfully, while controls may be a little awkward, players can remap this to their heart’s content within the menu.

In terms of gameplay, the roguelike mission setup allows players to drop in and out for a quick play if you don’t have much time, and difficulty never truly seems to ramp up to what I’d call a challenge.

Overall, it makes Spy Drops a fairly easy to pick up or put down title, and while it doesn’t offer all modern accessibility options, it’s likely not one most people will find has a barrier to entry.

The Run Down

Our Five-Point Quality Check for Spy Drops

Gameplay – 2: Sadly, Spy Drops falls down where it really needs to shine as a roguelike – variety. While no missions are “the same” they are all pressingly familiar, and you’ll find yourself entering each location in the (mostly) the same way. I really enjoy the top-down low-poly vibes and it does feel like a sort of Temu Metal Gear, but it’s not one which provides good randomisation, and the tools and approaches (and enemy AI) seem to be just lacking the final step up.

Visuals – 4: I actually really love the low-poly, old-school visuals and it’s an approach which has worked really well for titles such as Crow Country. Spy Drops has the same visual camera angle niggles that have been around for decades, but overall I think the visuals are decent (with some camera height issues to be forgiven), and I really like the optional CRT effects which work well enough here.

Audio – 0: Sadly the use of AI audio narration is clear from the outset here, and it’s not redeemed by effects, story or scripting. It all feels quite repetitive from a very early stage and it honestly would have been better to leave out voice “acting” altogether, as it sadly makes it feel more like a Tik Tok advert

Narrative – 2: There’s a little promise here at the start, but the overall narrative for Spy Drops has had a few plot holes and some quite poor writing, with obvious translation fumbles pulling this down further.

Replay – 3: Spy Drops randomised missions (and even a multiplayer mode) should elongate the play time here, but with the lack of fresh-feeling missions and a multiplayer which is basic at best (and hampered by the overall mechanics) it’s just not pulling me back in.

The Verdict

Is Spy Drops Worth Grabbing?

Overall, our Pixel Bandits Gassy Reptile Level for Spy Drops is a lacking 4 / 10. I love the premise of Spy Drops, but the execution is just not quite up to scratch. The fact that it’s from a solo developer is one which means I’m happy to cut some slack here and there(making a video game is hard work) but there’s too much here which needs some elevation.

Non-sneaky sneaking, awkward camera, AI audio and bizarre story elements (and mission tools) mean that this isn’t one we’re jumping back into soon. I’ll definitely be keeping an eye on it to see if these elements get fixed, however, as the overall premise works and I can see the seeds of something which could be good with Spy Drops

As ever, to provide our Pixel Bandits review and common-sense parent’s guide for Spy Drops we received a game codes from the folks at Rainy Frog