Quick Review: Master Spy

He’s the best spy in the business! As long as his player isn’t a numbnut like me.

Developed and published by TURBOGUN and released to Steam on September 8th, 2015, Master Spy is the story of, well, the titular spy doing what spies do best. He is hired by Ludwig Gale, head of an electronics manufacture, to retrieve the blueprints that have been stolen from him by a rival. Spy is equipped with an invisibility cloak and must make his way through locales patrolled by guards and security systems everywhere.

This is just me getting to my next employer.
Can't be that hard... right?

"Don't mind me, Im invisible."
"Who said that?"
"Nobody!"

This game’s design takes a lot of inspiration from the classics of the 8bit era: Pixel environments, chiptune music and sounds… It also takes inspiration from the perceived difficulty of games of the era, too, because it’s crazy hard. Only the arrows are necessary for the main gameplay: Left/Right to move around, Up or Space to jump, Down to activate the cloak. Spy’s speed and agility are greatly reduced while donning the cloak. In every level of a mission, Spy has to collect key cards to open the door to the next level. He cannot be seen by anyone or anything, he cannot come into contact with guards or any of the traps on the way. Several hazards work differently: As an example, dogs can spot him even if he’s got the cloak on. And so can movement detectors, unless he stays completely still as they scan an area. You learn how to deal with every hazard over time. Now, you probably won’t need it seeing how easy it is to lose in this game, but if you get stuck, just press R to restart.

"Hey, I'm going to die something like 4678 times in this
mission, I deserve that 100K$."

Guards, dogs and key cards, oh my!

There are three main difficulty settings: Tough, Crazy, and Masochist. Well, okay, the game phrases that as Novice, Operative and Master, which is a little more respectful. There’s a fourth “difficulty”, called Narrative, which exists to allow the player to watch the story. As a little bonus, there’s a way to unlock all of the levels and cutscenes and play/watch them at your leisure… which is probably the only way I could ever view the entire thing, seeing how badly I struggled with the first two missions. It’s also possible to switch between difficulties from the pause menu mid-game, so there’s that if the Operative difficulty gets too overwhelming.

At the end of a mission, you even get to see a letter score based on the time you took to get there, and another letter score based on the number of times you lost during that mission. Be prepared to see a lot of Fs. Gotta love games that tell you how much you suck.

Thanks, it's only the 835th time you tell me.

Skiup the laser, stay immobile under the lights, be
invisible around the guard... I can do this!
Two seconds later: YOU GOT CAUGHT!

The pixel art is gorgeous, the environments are beautiful – sure, you might swear for how hard the game is, but at least it’s great to watch. The music is pretty catchy as well. The cutscenes between levels are also quite pretty to watch, especially with the far more detailed 8bit artwork. The gameplay is simple to figure out at first, but gets incredibly difficult really fast. On several occasions, if you don’t do the right sequence of actions with the right timing, you’re done for. There’s always new traps in the way, such as pressure pads that electrocute Spy if he has his weight on them for too long… oh, and ninjas who can also turn invisible, so there’s that… You've got to wonder if even this place's owner feels save living in it, with all the traps lying about.

Good game? Yeah. But holy wow, you need to have the patience of a saint to get through it. Do try it out if a tough challenge is what you’re craving, but you’ve been warned. Master Spy is available for 9.99$.