skyth's Full Review: Industrial Spy: Operation Espionage for Dreamcast
Ah there are so many games...which ones to play, which ones to play Frisbee with. I love my Dreamcast (DC), but there are so many titles for it that are half-done. Take Gundam for example. A great mech try out on the Sega system, fails utterly not because of graphics, not because of game play, but because of half-coded AI with the brains of an ox. Industrial spy is such a game, and I would end it at that but I can't afford to get an SR on a 100 word review right now, but if you really want to avoid a decent length review about a horrible game, stop reading now. You will have the benefit of ignorance, which can mean bliss or at least a peaceful existence for most.
Graphics 6/10
Quite similar to the Resident Evil style, this game is seen from the third person view in which the character you control is in a 3D room or lobby. The characters look ok at best, there really isn't anything wrong or spectacular about them. But while RE had awesome lighting effects and a super curvy debutante, the people in this game look rather cheesy. But that is not to say they look bad. However, the rooms look pretty dull. Is it because there are too many rooms to be explored? I don't know. You are not going to ooh or aah every time you walk into a new level.
Game Play 2/10
You are in command of a group of agents, each one of which has a special skill of his/her own. The tall chick can do a round house kick and not much else, but she can beat up guards using it. There is a hacker, and an alarm specialist. You get other agents with different skills as you go along. The main body of the screen is reserved for watching your currently selected agent, and the other ones appear in small windows on the right side. At the bottom you get their statistics. The control scheme is pretty easy to figure out, and the switch between the agents is quite slick.
The game play here can be considered similar to that of Commandos. You dispatch your agents to do different tasks, however you don't get to watch them all at once. If 3 agents get into a fight at the same time, you might seriously be in trouble. Using a full 3D map you can figure out where the baddies are, and you can also send agents to each other. Moving through rooms is possibly the worst part of the game play. Upon clicking on an agent, you get a bunch of destinations which can range anywhere between 10 to 50. You are supposed to scroll down in this crazy list and figure out where you want to send them. Its a tedious task, and I hate playing games that require me to take notes. Oh yeah, if one of your agents die, its game over. Game play is too tedious here. If you don't get bored within the first 10 minutes, you are actually going to start getting into the game. But than, you will still find yourself bored to death trying to make too many mental notes after the first 60 minutes.
Innovation 5/10
This is the first game of this type on the Dreamcast. Although there have been a few games like this on the PC, none of them was quite the same as this one. Rainbow 6 and Commandos required you to use a lot more strategy, and while this game depends on that as well, there is a lot of action involved due to the speed of events occurring in 4 different rooms. In that aspect the game is quite innovative, but it seems to suffer from unfinished game play.
Conclusion 2/10
All I have got to say is nice try. This game could have been more, but they had to spend more time on the strategy aspect. Most of the time you will find yourself sending your agent to different rooms just to see if anything happens, or if you can do anything there. The overall game is quite confusing, and getting deep into the game play takes a lot of guessing as well as trial and error. If you really must, rent this game and make sure you like it.
Game is brand new with book, back cover, jewel case and is factory sealed. Shipping to Canada is $ 3.99 for each item and $ 1.00 for each additional i...More at eBay
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