Welcome to EXPlay, (Explain & Play) the review series where we care not for scores but tell it how it is when it comes to every game we get our hands on, whilst also taking the time to include some lengthy gameplay, to give you the reader, the chance to shape your own impressions and views whilst watching and reading.
In this explanatory review, we’re covering The Spy Who Shot Me by developer Retro Army Limited:
The Spy Who Shot Me (The Explanation)
The Spy Who Shot Me is a first-person shooter that is inspired by the likes of 90’s shooters and 60’s spy films and has no intention of taking itself seriously. Think 60’s era James Bond films with Sean Connery, with the humor of Austin Powers mixed with the gameplay of GoldenEye 007 but it was developed some time between the likes of DOOM and Rare’s masterpiece. That is pretty much how I would describe The Spy Who Shot Me and to be honest, I am all for it.
The game was developed by Retro Army Limited and published by PixelHeart. It first released on Steam back in 2019 and has now made its way to Nintendo Switch. It follows Agent 7, a not so sophisticated secret agent who works for British Intelligence Service MI69. He is tasked by his boss Mother to stop terrorist organization S.C.U.M from destroying the world with their arsenal of nuclear devices.
As Agent 7, you must navigate your way through an assortment of locales like the halls of the White House, exotic beaches in Jamaica, inside container ships, and more, shooting your way through agents of S.C.U.M whilst accomplishing your primary objective. You also have secondary objectives like rescuing a set number of hostages by shooting them (yes, you did read that right, by shooting them), destroy 3 computers, find the X-Files, etc. The secondary objectives are not essential to beating the stage but they will count towards the star ranking you will recieve for beating the stage. There are three stars in total for each stage with one star being earned for simply beating the stage and completing the two optional objectives will earn you the other two stars.
Hidden within each stage are three silver cat medals, which are a collectible for players who like to take their time to explore as opposed to just gunning it to the end as whilst taking down as many bad guys as they can in the process. They can be hidden away quite well so you have to be extra vigilant to find them in each stage. It is also worth pointing out that the medals can be found in the hub worlds between missions as well.
In regards to actual gameplay and combat, The Spy Who Shot Me is a typical first-person shooter akin to GoldenEye 007 on the Nintendo 64 but feels more like the beta test rather than the finished product but that is the intention of the game to be more of its own thing and taking heavy inspirations from 90’s shooters rather than copying the formula outright to be just another DOOM clone. There are two difficulty modes to choose from but for first time players, I would recommend playing on the Normal difficulty mode. The only real difference between difficulty modes is that Hard as more enemies to fight.
To get maximum enjoyment out of this game, you are better off playing on Normal difficulty first because you can’t play this game like a typical 90’s shooter and go in all guns blazing. Enemies, whilst sluggish can literally appear behind you and reduce your health in seconds. Health pickups are few and far between so you have to pick your battles carefully as opposed to charging into a room spraying bullets whilst hoping for the best. There are checkpoints on each stage as well so when you die, you won’t have to replay the whole stage again but they are also very minimal with like one or two maximum per stage.
When it comes to weapons, you begin armed with a pistol but can also use your fists for melee combat. You can find better weapons throughout the game, however. On the first stage, you can find throwing knives and a shotgun to bulk out your arsenal but as you get deeper into The Spy Who Shot Me, you will get your hands on a machine gun and a grenade launcher, as well as gadgets like the laser watch.
As for enemies, they start of quite weak in the beginning of The Spy Who Shot Me and are armed with melee weapons like knives or wrenches, and will try to attack you up close more times than not. This doesn’t mean that they are any less dangerous at a distance though as they can throw their weapons at you too and have an unlimited supply. The more you progress through the game, you will find tougher enemies who will take many more bullets in order to drop them and will be armed with better weapons too. Try not to let yourself get overwhelmed by these guys later on in the game and try to keep a grenade or two at hand to help with crowd control.
Before I played The Spy Who Shot Me, I will admit that I was not overly impressed by its appeal. It seemed like a cheap imitation at best and the humor was just cheesy and delivered by such hammy voice acting. Despite my initial thoughts on the game, my friend over at The Elite Institute recommended it to me and I decided to give it a go. To tell the truth, I’m rather glad that he convinced me to enquire for a review code because after playing the game for a few hours, I actually quite enjoy it. Yeah, it isn’t as polished as GoldenEye 007 and the gunfighting can be a little clunky but when you look past that, there is quite a lot of game here for its asking price with plenty of stages offering very varied locales to keep things looking fresh and not just one load of corridors followed by another load of corridors.
To wrap up, The Spy Who Shot Me is a love letter to 60’s spy movies and 90’s shooters and while I think a bit more polish would make this a worthy spiritual successor to GoldenEye, It is actually a surprisingly good game and once you let yourself enjoy silliness for silliness’ sake, you may find it rather enjoyable too!
The Spy Who Shot Me (The Gameplay)
Game Specifications:
Developer: Retro Army Limited
Publisher: PixelHeart
Platform: Nintendo Switch (eShop)
Category: First-Person, Action, Adventure
No. of Players: 1 (Single System)
Release Date: NA| EU: January 4, 2024
Price: $7.99
File Size: 406 MB
Nintendo.com Listing
