It’s Audrey Smoothspy verses the entire Soviet Union. Thankfully she has a shrink ray and some other helpful gadgets. The Spy Who Shrunk Me by Catland is a comedic first-person stealth game based in 1980’s Moscow. The goal is to save the world by shrinking the bad guys to more easily get rid of them or shrinking yourself to sneak past them.
The first thing you will notice after downloading this game is that it plays on all of the classic spy troupes and stereotypes. Some of these troupes include extremely self-aware stereotypical Russian bad guys and a extremely smooth agent who seems stuck in a 1930’s film noir. Catland games know exactly how over-the-top their game is and it really makes it that much more comical. While the game doesn’t take itself too seriously, it is still challenging and entertaining. For some reason, The Spy Who Shrunk Me reminds me of Octodad by Young Horses and Hello Neighbor by Dynamic Pixels. I can’t really put a finger on why exactly. It may be the bright colors and stealth principal of Hello Neighbor and the self-aware comedy of Octodad. Either way, I think this game is really funny and entertaining.
The stealth mechanics are super interesting. It kind of reminds me of Grand Theft Auto and how if you outrun the cops long enough they give up looking. The Spy Who Shrunk Me uses that same premise. If you hide and stay out of the bad guys’ sight for long enough they will forget you were even there. It is comical and gives you a chance to get away, instead of making it impossible to advance in the game.
While I do think this is a fun game, I did have a few issues (the game is in Early Access so fixes will surely occur). First, it is mouse and keyboard controls only. If you have a game controller that you use with your PC make sure it is unplugged! Every time I tried to start a new game an error would pop up and the game would crash. After talking to the developer, we figured out it was that I left my USB wireless receiver plugged in (I do this so I don’t lose it.) After removing the receiver, the game started up fine. I did find that the controls were kind of difficult and I hope that the developers release an update compatible with controllers. After I was able to start the game up, the first cut scene wouldn’t play correctly. The audio was messed up and the animations itself was super choppy. It did suck that I missed the set up for the game and some of the story, though it wasn’t hard to fill in what I missed. I tried playing it a couple of times to see if it would fix itself but it didn’t. It may have had something to do with my wifi or computer but the rest of the audio and gameplay was lag free.
If you like comedic, easy going games or if you really like spies then I recommend checking out The Spy Who Shrunk Me. It is super funny and pretty laid back while still keeping you intrigued. Just don’t forget to make sure you unplug your controller before launching the game.
Check Out The Spy Who Shrunk Me Video:
The Spy Who Shrunk Me is available for PC via Steam Early Access.
I'm a postgraduate Information and Library Studies student at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland. I'm originally from Texas and have a BFA in Creative Writing from SFASU. I grew up playing video games and now enjoy watching other people play as well. I love anything with a good story!
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