Counterspy Ps4 Review
While the Cold War has appeared as the setting for a large swath of games, the conflict is generally portrayed as seriously as it happened. The world was, after all, on the brink of annihilation. It's pretty tough to make light of that.But, rather than playing it straight, CounterSpy goes another way, delivering a goofy, Pixar-esque take on the events that almost brought two superpowers to blows. Unfortunately, despite exemplary presentation values, CounterSpy's frequently-flawed gameplay brings the overall experience into the red. CounterSpy places you in the role of an agent of COUNTER, an apolitical spy organization whose simple goal is to prevent the planet from going poof. The biggest present threat: two major nations ('subtly' referred to as The Imperialist States and The Socialist Republic) are racing one another to be the first to launch a nuclear strike.on the moon! As a briefing message gravely states in prologue, 'Our boffins calculate the combined detonation will knock the Moon into the gravitational pull of Earth.
The ensuing Earth impact will extinguish all life on the planet.' The game's silly premise is tonally backed by 1960s aesthetics and jazz music. Films like Doctor No were definite inspirations and the game even opens with an animated, James Bond-style credit sequence. It's clear a lot of love was put into making sure that the art and audio matched the time period and the end result is spot-on and extremely impressive.
Warning: Servers for Counterspy will no longer be available as of June 1, 2018. This will affect the ability to obtain the International Nemesis trophy, and will make it impossible to obtain 100% completion in the game. CounterSpy is a Cross-Buy PS4/PS3/Vita 2.5D side scrolling espionage game from developer Dynamighty. CounterSpy Playstation 4 Review CounterSpy represents the cloak-and-dagger spy era of the 60s with a beautiful design aesthetic and an equally appropriate soundtrack read more from this review by The Old School Game Vault. Written by: Brandon Perton.
The in-game graphics are equally slick, with a cel-shaded look that has a propaganda-poster vibe, albeit in 3D. Cover fire game download. The heroic spy and his foes (guards stationed in secret military bases within both nations) are animated incredibly well, calling to mind the precise movements of games like the original Prince of Persia or Out of this World.Once you're done drooling over the incredible presentation values, though, CounterSpy starts to show its cracks. CounterSpy is a 2D-sidecrolling mix of stealth and action, neither of which works well. The game clearly encourages stealth, as you're rewarded with a boon of points if you string together stealth kills (like sneaking up behind guards for a neck snap or shooting them with a silenced pistol). But CounterSpy frequently makes stealth unfairly impossible. I often opened a door to find myself instantly spotted by a half-dozen soldiers who standing there, waiting for my arrival.
Other times, I was spotted, even when I was behind cover. There's no clear indication or logic defining when guards can see you and when they can't - a major problem for a stealth game.There's also a peculiar use of depth in CounterSpy's level design. Guards on your 2D plane can be shot.
But if they walk into the background, the only way to take them down is by going into cover at very specific points. This turns the game into a strange, over-the-shoulder shooting gallery, and the transition from 2D to 3D rarely works well. I frequently ran into bugs where guards would be unkillable, clipping through scenery or appearing at odd angles, ruining an otherwise perfect mission.
This element reeks of presentation trumping good gameplay design.If the developers wanted some chaos to break up otherwise perfectly silent playthroughs, CounterSpy's combat is sadly not up to the task. Once again, it relies on clunky cover-based mechanics that are extremely limiting. You'll often find yourself on one side of a room, getting shot at by guards you can't see, simply because you can't find a cover point that'll let you see clear across the room. It's awkward, forced and feels broken. This is particularly frustrating because the game is designed around scores and performance.
The idea of a procedurally-generated spy game (the levels are crafted from randomly-selected rooms) that you could play 'forever' is, at its core, awesome. But every time a guard bugged out or the game didn't act as it should, I felt cheated.
The best, most polished games make you feel like you're always the one at fault. Instead, I got a buggy, frustrating two-hour quest that, as a reward, unlocks a new, harder series of buggy, frustrating levels. Wrap Up: Counterspy's presentation can't make up for its executionCounterSpy has two faces. Its presentation, its look and sound, is a victory hard to ignore.
But its interactivity is ugly enough to make for an unfortunate pairing when the balance is measured. In the end, the world may be saved - but no one really wins.CounterSpy was reviewed using non-final 'debug' code provided by Dynamight/SCE. You can find additional information about Polygon's ethics policy.
Parents need to know that CounterSpy is a two-dimensional, side-scrolling downloadable action-adventure game that involves strategy and counterintelligence themes. The levels are randomly generated, which gives the game replayability value, and online leaderboards let players see how well they stack up against others. There are four difficulty levels, but harder levels need to be unlocked. Violence includes use of a variety of weapons (primarily guns) to shoot enemies, who spurt blood before dying. The game looks like a stylized cartoon with themes of the Cold War era. COUNTERSPY explores a time when there was a race for 'the biggest and pointiest missiles,' and the threat of nuclear annihilation was real. Instead of setting the game in the real world, CounterSpy inserts the C.O.U.N.T.E.R.
Agency into an alternate world, sabotaging both the Imperialist and Socialist schemes. The game uses mission-based scenarios and randomly generated levels to challenge players, with harder difficulty levels that need to be unlocked.
One nameless and faceless agent is the protagonist sent on missions, and he can dispatch enemies using stealth tactics or go in with guns blazing. The game also incorporates minor platforming elements into the overall mix, which requires some strategy to get at all the hidden elements and the main mission elements.
CounterSpy is a stylized side-scroller that looks great; has a nice, bouncy musical theme; and is just plain fun. It's intuitive to play before the challenge ramps up as players progress. Lots of games promise to put you in the shoes of James Bond-like spies, but very few attempt to capture the spirit and flair of the Cold War the way this game does.
The angular lines of the nameless spy provide an innate sense of stealth that oozes from the screen during each base infiltration. You can choose to be stealthy or go in guns blazing, but you still feel like a super-spy in possession of secret weapons and gadgets to help you achieve your mission.The clever hook of searching through bases for documents and secret plans will scratch the covert itch for many players as they try to prevent both the Imperialists and Socialists from achieving their goals. What's even better is the surprising competitive play; based on how well players do on a mission, they receive an overall score for their campaign, which factors into a global leaderboard. At any time, you can attempt to best the score of a particular mission, giving you the opportunity to earn bonus cash and gear. It's this element that adds a sense of multiplayer competition in a game that's really a single-player experience. Overall, CounterSpy is big on personality with a nice mix of fun thrown in; it doesn't take itself or its time frame seriously but focuses on an entertaining spy experience.