Spy Leaks

I admit I didn't know I owned Spyleaks. I got it as a bonus to the game Doom & Destiny, I bought during one of the promotions on Indie Game Stand. And I proceed to forget all about it until I noticed it in a promotion on Amazon's new Indie Games section. Despite it's rough appearance Spy Leaks is a nice little top down puzzle action game. Reminds me of MacGuffins' Curse only with lower graphics and not as good a story.


 Mainly you'll play the character Spy as he goes on missions infiltrating top secret bases to uncover a terrorist plot. You'll get vague glimpses of the plot in between missions as it slowly unfolds but it's largely forgettable. This mostly involves stealthy evasion of robots and guards, all of which will kill you on sight and force you to start over again and again. The funny thing about gameplay is that guards don't have peripheral vision. So you can effectively be smack in the middle of a bunch of guards but as long as you aren't in their direct line of sight they won't even notice you, but of course you can push crates and the like to help keep you hidden.  The puzzles start out fairly simple and gradually increases in difficulty. This is one of those games where you learn by dying, a lot.

 Jacques is the other piece of this dynamic duo. He's the brains of the operation and generally you'll see his face on every level in the UI as you go through Spy's mission. Sometimes he'll direct Spy to a new obstacle in a level or something you can use to get past guards. He also briefs you on the primary mission objective. When you've reached the end of a set of missions usually you'll get to hack a computer. This involves Spy's partner and boss Jacques and you get to play a level in which you do a Space Invader type scrolling shooter. These are fun and generally help to break up the monotony between missions.

The real challenge comes after the hack, when Spy has to break out of whatever stronghold he's in and he only has 3 mins to do it. You're now faced with an extra long puzzle and not a lot of time to figure out how to get through it. Way to up the pressure. Usually most of the puzzles will take nearly the entire 3 mins and you'll curse and want to toss your controller if you get near the exit only to not have seen the Tesla coil that you forgot to block and it kills you on sight.

Overall I enjoyed playing Spy Leaks. The story might be lacking but the gameplay is solid and addictive. Music is a upbeat chiptune album that doesn't get stale as you play. There's enough variation for it to not get stale and challenging enough without being disgustingly punishing. Well worth the time and bang for my buck. A good game by Heart Bit Interactive and Benjamin Ficus.

Spy Leaks con be found on: Desura, Amazon, Steam Greenlight