Not enough games are made about spies. Considering the prevailing popularity of James Bond, Mission Impossible, Inception, and many other fun espionage films, you'd think it we would be inundated videogame derivatives. However since Goldeneye, AAA devs have only presented spy craft through occasional action orientated FPS titles, leaving it to quirky indie games and visual novels to explore the genre.
And then we get I Expect You to Die, which takes The Room format of puzzle games, and adds comedy instant death mechanics. IEYTD puts you in the shoes of a classic 70s spy, placed into increasingly deadly scenarios by his handlers. Each level is a completely different locale from the next. Perhaps you are masquerading as a window cleaner, trying to retrieve information from an office highrise. Or perhaps you are piloting a sinking submarine. Or perhaps you are in the chair of the evil supervillain's boardroom. Each time, the game gives you some appropriately sneaky objectives and leaves it to you to figure out how to complete them without ever leaving your seat. It's essentially puzzle solving, but with the threat of being killed at any moment in a million ludicrous ways.
The game takes full advantage of VR, giving you a tactile environment to endlessly toy with. You will die a lot of times, simply out of sheer clumsiness. I think the most memorable occurrence for me was when I accidentally burnt a deadly assassin's essential travel documents with a carelessly placed cigar, which they didn't take kindly to. Scenes can devolve into a Naked Gun like farce, where things fail to go to plan, and you're scrabbling around for a dropped doo-hickey, whilst trying to dodge someone taking pot shots at you. I had a good laugh with it.
The game is not particularly long, with only a half a dozen levels which each took me half an hour or so to solve. Fortunately this is reflected in a lower price, and double fortunately this means you can easily afford the sequel, which is even more impressive with its emersion; that title even has a proper James Bond style opening. I Expect You to Die is a treat, and a must have for anyone with a VR headset.
Em(Maj 9)!
Not enough games are made about spies. Considering the prevailing popularity of James Bond, Mission Impossible, Inception, and many other fun espionage films, you'd think it we would be inundated videogame derivatives. However since Goldeneye, AAA devs have only presented spy craft through occasional action orientated FPS titles, leaving it to quirky indie games and visual novels to explore the genre.
And then we get I Expect You to Die, which takes The Room format of puzzle games, and adds comedy instant death mechanics. IEYTD puts you in the shoes of a classic 70s spy, placed into increasingly deadly scenarios by his handlers. Each level is a completely different locale from the next. Perhaps you are masquerading as a window cleaner, trying to retrieve information from an office highrise. Or perhaps you are piloting a sinking submarine. Or perhaps you are in the chair of the evil supervillain's boardroom. Each time, the game gives you some appropriately sneaky objectives and leaves it to you to figure out how to complete them without ever leaving your seat. It's essentially puzzle solving, but with the threat of being killed at any moment in a million ludicrous ways.
The game takes full advantage of VR, giving you a tactile environment to endlessly toy with. You will die a lot of times, simply out of sheer clumsiness. I think the most memorable occurrence for me was when I accidentally burnt a deadly assassin's essential travel documents with a carelessly placed cigar, which they didn't take kindly to. Scenes can devolve into a Naked Gun like farce, where things fail to go to plan, and you're scrabbling around for a dropped doo-hickey, whilst trying to dodge someone taking pot shots at you. I had a good laugh with it.
The game is not particularly long, with only a half a dozen levels which each took me half an hour or so to solve. Fortunately this is reflected in a lower price, and double fortunately this means you can easily afford the sequel, which is even more impressive with its emersion; that title even has a proper James Bond style opening. I Expect You to Die is a treat, and a must have for anyone with a VR headset.