Industrial Spy: Operation Espionage (Dreamcast) review "Imagine a game where you can take a group of spies into a building, and be able to sneak around while taking on its numerous challenges it throws in your direction. Using your spies to work together as a team, you'll be able to disarm traps, solve complex puzzles, and avoid guards while getting closer to your main goal. "

Imagine a game where you can take a group of spies into a building, and be able to sneak around while taking on its numerous challenges it throws in your direction. Using your spies to work together as a team, you'll be able to disarm traps, solve complex puzzles, and avoid guards while getting closer to your main goal.

Industrial Spy: Operation Espionage is such a game. Too bad it's also such a terrible one.

How did such a neat concept translate so poorly here? Well, the first place the developers went wrong was with the ability to control your spies. The thing is, you actually don't have complete control over them, because you play the role of Boss, the person overseeing the operations. Basically, the only thing you can do is order your people around to rooms and watch them jog to their destination. And usually, on the way, they'll run into obstacles that'll make them stop and take notice. This gets annoying after awhile, especially if you already know what it is they're looking at as they backtrack, yet they stop anyway to notice it again.

However, the biggest frustration about playing ISpy has to be that you just don't know what the hell you're doing 90% of the time. Yes, you get briefed about the goal and have the ability to get additional info before each mission. Unfortunately, they mean almost nothing once the mission actually starts. All you can do once it begins is to order your spies from room to room in these multi-floor buildings, hoping that you actually bump into a clue that'll help you complete the mission. Though, you're more likely to run into an obstacle that'll force you into a subquest. Need to get to an item? Well, too bad, a shutter is blocking your path. But that's okay, just go to the control room that's all the way on the other side of the building and open it from there. Oh, you need to hack into a terminal but brought the wrong person? Well now, just bring him right ov... he's in another part of the building that requires you to go through other obstacles as well? ****.

That right there is your typical experience when playing ISpy. You'll spend up to almost the first 10 minutes (if you have enough patience to last that long) of each mission trying to figure out the layout of the building and know what goes where because the developers seem to get off on torturing players. And even if you manage to get what's going on, go through all the obstacles, and reach your goal, the developers keep throwing you curve balls so that you'll have to play the mission for an additional 10 or 20 minutes... You know it's sad when the only good thing you can say about Industrial Spy: Operation Espionage is that it has nice-looking character designs. It's probably the only actual effort someone put into the game.

Community review by dementedhut (September 20, 2007) The good type of grinding.