Rainy Frog and solo developer Rainy Night Creations have announced Spy Drops, a 3D stealth-action roguelite very heavily inspired by late-90s stealth classics like Metal Gear Solid and Syphon Filter.
Spy Drops casts you as a member of the titular Spy Drops team, a counter-terrorist organization dispatched to prevent an “eco-terrorist organization” from “wiping out all digital records and sending the world back to the Stone Age”.
In true Deus Ex fashion, however, what begins as a simple mission quickly becomes more complex, and it’s not long before you’re questioning your mission objectives and “uncover[ing] a deeper conspiracy”.
Gameplay-wise, if you’ve played Metal Gear Solid, you’ll know roughly what to expect from Spy Drops; it’s a pseudo-top-down 3D stealth-action game with an emphasis on remaining undetected and using non-lethal methods to deal with guards.
Unlike Metal Gear, however, Spy Drops‘ levels are randomly-generated, which strikes me as a bit of a shame; one of Metal Gear‘s strengths was its iconic level design, so it seems a bit sad to throw that aspect of the game away.
Still, Rainy Frog says randomized missions guarantee a “tense gameplay experience”, as you don’t know what awaits you around each corner, ensuring that each player’s “game will be different”. Hmm. I’m not sure how true that is in practise.
To complete your mission, you’ll have access to a host of gadgets, including drones, night vision goggles, mine detectors, and more, and you’ll be able to take a variety of approaches to each mission as well.
As a huge Metal Gear fan, I’ve got my eye on this one, although I’m slightly troubled by the disclaimer on the Steam page that the developer has used generative AI “for dialogues (audio) and icons”. Yuck.
Spy Drops doesn’t have a release date yet, but when it does arrive, it’ll be available on PC and Nintendo Switch. Watch this space for more info.
