With all the spy movies of 2015 (Man from UNCLE, MIssion Impossible, Spectre and Kingsman right at the end of 2014, etc.) it made me realize how amazingly rare spy games are.
Why is this? Why are spy movies so popular but not spy games?
What is it about this idea that puts off publishers?
It's difficult, whereas BE THE ULTIMATE BADASS and headshots for XP is simpler to understand
and so we only get good but flawed games like Alpha Protocol to spy with
MgsV sold 5m in the First week
saboteur was pretty good
that era ended with the ps2 it seems
splintercell
mgs
etc
now they are run an gun games
i miss sneaking into a building in mgs by a trap door or vent
i miss climbing up a drain pipe then shimmying along a wall and finding a power cape to zip down over guards in splinter cell
Because stealth games are now "Press X to breach and clear the room to unlock the next gun"
Well judging by your list of movies the kind of "spy" theme you're looking for is not covert intelligence gathering, but working for a secret organization and murdering a lot of people. We have a lot of those games.
>>321983015
The idea of a "spy" game isn't promising since it doesn't focus on the things that sells like setpieces, lots of action, big guns and so on.
I mean devs can't even make games anymore that want you to avoid combat, now every game needs to allow players to "play however they want", meaning that running in guns blazing should be equally viable as being silent and sneaking past enemies.
Look at the latest entries of the Thief, Hitman and Splinter Cell or games like Dishonored for examples of this.
>>321983380
>MgsV sold 5m in the First week
It's barely a spy game, if at all.
It has drifted away from that quite heavily. Just compare MGS3 to 5.
>>321983550
this
Kingsman isn't even remotely spy-like
>>321983550
>Well judging by your list of movies the kind of "spy" theme you're looking for is not covert intelligence gathering, but working for a secret organization and murdering a lot of people. We have a lot of those games.
I didn't mean games like those movies, but they made me realize that spy movies are very popular while spy games aren't.
Is The Man from UNCLE any good?
>>321983759
reading your post made me instantly think of the hitman mission where swat storms the building and the cops+snipers are everywhere
the most tense moment i ever experienced in any gam
>>321983998
its a lot of style without any real substance but its 'fun'
>>321983998
>Is The Man from UNCLE any good?
Yes.
I advice you NOT to watch this video below and go see it instead since it is one of the better scenes in the movie and gets better with context, but if you need convicing then take a look.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxZ5VQVHMoc
>>321983015
because Spies changed too much since the Berlin Wall fell.
>>321983959
Splinter Cell Conviction and Blacklist, Deus Ex Human Revolution, MGS Ground Zeroes and V, Invisible Inc., Alpha Protocol, Gunpoint
Just from the last 5 years. List is off the top of my head so there are probably several more. They're not that rare.
>>321985461
Most of the recent ones focus on pure action.
Even games like Deus Ex and Dishonored have the stealth and silent options take a backseat so the players can have access to more guns, grenades and so on.
>>321985879
Kind of like those movies then.
>>321983015
Rockstar is coming out with a game called 1977 soon
>>321983015
"spy" tropes celebrate toxic masculinity, which thankfully isn't allowed in games anymore. that might be too much fun, which would induce rape culture.
There's James Bond games
>>321985879
That's retarded. Making guns is easy since they all do the same thing. No reason not to add them for variety for those who want them. This doesn't make stealth take a backseat. Both Human Revolution and Blacklist fully support ghost playthroughs. Blacklist gives you a ton of stealth gadgets too, more than lethal ones in fact. Deus Ex is more about self-limitation since you play as a superhuman who can go invisible and see through walls.
Pure action my fucking ass.
>>321983015
Mechanically a spy focused game would involve sneaking, investigation & data interpretation and social interactions.
Sneaking is a niche genre.
Investigation & data interpretation is somthing that people haven't really figured out how to represent mechanically, most games which try it tend to involve clicking on everything until your objectives are updated. On top of that real investigation is largely defined by the possibility of acquiring incomplete information or wrong information or possibly misinterpreting what you have. In a game this would probably translate into missions potentially playing out dozens of different ways with many, many different success and failure states, which is simply not economical to create.
Social interactions are tricky because the tense mind games that you see in spy fiction require a feeling of uncertainty and dynamism that games could only replicate by making dialouge systemic in nature; people haven't really figured out a way to do this that doesn't also necessitate the writing being bland and modular. The closest I've seen a game come to achieving this is Deus Ex: HR
>>321983998
Yes. It's very much style over substance but the style it has is pretty damn good.
True spy games would be hard to market so most publishers would pass or suggest adding the CoD route of handheld stealth or action. At best we get a "play how you want" middling game that does neither stealth nor action that well.
There's a few good indie games though. Invisible Inc was great, Death To Spies is also very good (but old and a little buggy). I'd love to see the genre get the game it deserves though. Imagine an open city, but you have to be as subtle as possible. There's counter spies that you have to outwit and the more you fuck up and draw attention to yourself the more likely they'll toss your hideout or issue arrest warrants.
Alpha protocol was a pretty good spy game
If you don't mind retro games, go back and play Mission Impossible on ps1. If you want something more actioney, old Bond games are the shit (both ps1 games, Everything or Nothing and From Russia With Love on ps2).
Syphon Filter trilogy on ps1 is the shit, avoid psp/ps2 sequels like the plague.
If you want something more stealthy - I really recommend Death To Spies 1 and 2. It's like hitman on crack in terms of difficulty, in ww2.
Splinter Cell games are mandatory. Friendly reminder that GOG release of SC1 has originally ps2-exclusive bonus levels, you can edit the game to run in 1080p with custom FOV.
Also, PS2/xboxhueg versions of Double Agent are completely different and infinitely better.
