Title: The spy who shot me

Developer: Retro Army Limited
Publisher: Retro Army Limited
Platform: PC
Release: Jan 29, 2019
Price: $10.99

The folks over at Retro Army Limited have dropped on us the retro-inspired FPS “The spy who shot me” and it is a real treat in an FPS genre based on massive set-pieces that often take themselves too seriously.

This is a comedy first-person shooter that spoofs the world of James Bond; a series that has seen its fair share of FPS games, including the legendary Goldeneye on the Nintendo 64.

In fact, The spy who shot me pulls a lot from that game in graphics, gameplay and styling. It’s also loaded to the brim with references to various Goldeneye quirks, not too mention all the other 90s FPS games it pokes fun at in subtle ways.

I can’t remember the last time that I played an FPS that wasn’t some gritty simulation of real-world or historical events (I miss you Battlefield Bad Company series). Nothing against those games, but I find it hard to feel anything for these cookie-cutter war heroes that are now essentially superheros.

The spy who shot me strips away nearly everything modern, relying only on its humor and retro gameplay, for better or for worse. We’ve come a long way since 90s FPS games ruled the roost, but if you have solid gameplay you are 90 percent of the way there to a solid title.

The game sees you take the fight against S.C.U.M. (probably no relation to James Bond Jr., as I’m sure I’m the only kid that watched that show) as you explore stages and take out hordes on enemies.

There is no advanced artificial intelligence at play here. Enemies will rush you down once you attack them or you fall into their line of sight. It sounds barebones, and it is, but it still is a lot of fun.

You are going to have to rely on your skills with a gun more so than they game adjusting to you. When a dozen enemies rush a room and you are strafing around switching weapons like a mad man, you know you are playing something almost out of time.

The spy who shot me doesn’t have you running from set-piece to set-piece. It has no time with the generic opening level betrayal that sets you back to square one. It’s only concerned with giving you fun weapons to shoot baddies with a few small obstacles along the way.

The humor here is on point and keeps the whole adventure really light. You gain new weapons and abilities along the way in such a manner so that the game doesn’t feel too repetitive, something common with these sorts of titles from the era.

The humor is the real selling point here as so many 90s first-person shooters always started off cool with some evil taking over the world (today we have military shooters, but back then it was always demons taking over) and then just can’t maintain interest with anything new after that.

And while I was worried a stock shooter would wear on me pretty quickly, The spy who shot me didn’t. The team understood when best it was to try and mix things up and throw in some vehicle levels to keep the action fresh and interesting.

Along the way you can also pull the Goldeneye trick and track down secrets and secondary, or even tertiary objectives. You’ll also have access to some weapon mods for each weapon so you can approach enemies however best you like.

And then there are the graphics that are so chunky and pointy you’ll probably cut yourself on all that edge. They work really well with the style and everything runs really smoothly, as you’d expect with a game that looks like this.

FPS games from the 90s on console or PC never really ran this smoothly, so it’s nice to be able to experience a shooter of the age like it was meant to be played. Seriously, go pop in Goldeneye and tell me that’s a smooth and crisp affair in 2019.

Audio is also really nice with voice-overs that are all really well done and fit with the characters in the world. The script is silly and the people behind the voices are clearly having a fun time pulling off these wacky lines and jokes.

From skydiving into the White House to infiltrating a tanker off the Caribbean, there are a lot of varied environments to explore with enemies sporting unique looks in each.

Along the way you’ll be doing more than just shooting as The spy who shot me loves to add in some platforming sections that will test your precision. Nothing here will tax most people, but they help mix up stages. The controls are a little loose, but I quickly adapted. Most 90s FPS games felt this way too.

As this is an indie game you aren’t going to get some 40-hour epic, but that’s probably for the best. This title understands its limitations and what it can do. Because of this you’ll get a game that is only a few hours long, but never outstays its welcome pounding you with repetition to meet a quota.

Any FPS player is going to have a fun time here as you are going to actually test your skills under pressure, something that modern day FPS games don’t really push on you. It’s not a long game but be prepared to die as there is no auto-health regeneration or recharging shields here.

The spy who shot me is a pleasant surprise to kick off 2019. It’s the sort of game that you can feel the developers had a really fun time making. Don’t come into this one looking for Game of the Year material; come into this one looking for a few laughs and to support developers doing fun things in a stagnant genre.

Final Score:

It’s not everyday you get a comedy based FPS title inspired by classic 90s era shooters like Goldeneye.

3/5

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