It's April Fool Day! What better time for a new review? A few years ago when I was signed up to PlayStation Plus I download a game called CounterSpy, a cool espionage style game that looked really stylish. I started to play it, got distracted by something else and forgot to go back to it until recently when I wanted to play a handheld game.
Hmm, spring rolls. I like and don't like them at the same time, what I mean is that I like the look and idea of them but each time I eat them I feel underwhelmed. Either the vegetables taste soggy or the meat just lacks a certain something. Despite this I find myself gravitating towards them every now and then, perhaps I am on quest to find a really tasty one - I don't even know myself. Playing CounterSpy I found myself asking was I just trying to like it or had I finally found something a tasty springroll?
Story
The game is set during the Cold War, the worlds two warring superpowers: The Imperialist States and The Socialist Republic are trying to launch a successful nuclear strike, on the Moon. You are an Agent of Counter, your mission is to stop the nuclear strike on the moon at all costs.
The story feels like a cross between Man From U.N.C.L.E and the Mission Impossible TV series. It's all very tongue in cheek and never take itself too seriously. A great example of this are the handbooks that can be collected throughout the game, with funny titles like 'how to fall after being shot with a tranquilizer'. Overall the story is not very complex but it doesn't really need to be in this case as the focus is on the gameplay.
Visuals
The opening animation sequence reminded me of Pixar's The Incredibles, which was awesome as I really liked that movie. Sidenote, can't wait for the sequel this summer. The game has a Film Noir look and feel about it. The visuals manage to be both simplistic and stylish which is hard to do. The start of each mission sees you infiltrating a military facility, the background will sometimes show missile silos, helicopters, tanks and especially on the Socialist Republic missions you get to see snow which helps set the mood.
Overall one of the strongest parts of this game is its visuals and proves you can be both simplistic and stylish.
Music
The score suits the game perfectly, it features a jazzy sound combined with the style of music you would have heard from espionage shows from the sixties like Mission Impossible and Man From U.N.C.L.E and of course the James Bond movies. The composer for the score is:
Jesse Harlin an American composer, programmer, and performer who created Dunderpate Music. He has worked for Lucas Arts on titles like The Force Unleashed, Republic Commando, Star Wars III: Revenge of The Sith along with working on the music for Mafia III.
I love listening to video game soundtracks and was really looking forward to listening to this one, unfortunately, I could not find anywhere to listen to it or buy it from. It seems it was released as a limited LP a few years ago and there a few tracks online but that's it. My favorites pieces that I could listen to were: 'Espionage A Trois' and 'Title Menu'.
Overall a good soundtrack that I would have really liked to listen to in its entirety but it is what it is.
Gameplay
Onto the meat! The game is a 2D side-scroller for the most part, which on occasion will have you change to a 2.5D perspective which I did find sometimes to be fairly jarring. The gunplay in earlier missions is straightforward enough with few issues, as the enemies increase later on the targeting can be a little slow and popping in and out of cover isn't always as smooth as it should be, again some of this is due to the perspective.
The gameplay, for the most part, is pretty good, you have the option of going stealthy or loud but the rewards are definitely better if you choose the former. The best way to achieve stealth in CounterSpy is to perform silent takedowns, take out any cameras and use your silenced pistol (called the diplomatic pistol) on other enemies. If you decide to go in guns blazing be prepared that the Defcon level will drop from five to one pretty rapidly, you will need to kill enemies quickly and ensure you don't get killed, if you do the Defcon level will drop by one. Whatever Defcon level you finish a mission on is where it will start next time you begin a mission, making future missions harder. The level can be dropped by finding officers and pointing a gun at them until they surrender.
When the game first loads up you are informed that the levels are randomly generated and that each experience is new. It is a cool concept but after trying all the missions multiples times I found they repeated pretty quick. In some cases, the room you enter had nothing in them, for relatively short missions this seemed strange especially in the later levels. The randomly generated levels massively affected the loading times which could be really frustrating at times.
At the start of each mission, you buy more ammo and purchase weapons and formulas. The weapons and formulas can only be purchased once you have collected all the blueprints. The items you unlock will carry over to other playthroughs. My personal weapon of choice was the Diplomatic Pistol, a great name for a silenced pistol. The formulas were good but had to be purchased every mission which was a bit of a cash drain, my favourite was the armour piercing bullets which was better for some of the later cameras and enemies.
Overall some good gameplay that could have been great with just a few small changes.
Final Thoughts
How did I feel after just over fours? Not bad. The story was a little silly which was fine, the visuals were impressive, the music was perfect for the type of game it is. For me, the biggest issue was the gameplay, loads time and level designs could have been improved if the randomly generated levels element was removed, along with the cover system and targeting improved. Overall not bad but not great, this one gets 3 out of 5
