This is the best spy game I’ve played since GoldenEye 007, and everyone is sleeping on it
As I headed down the elevator with my wire cutters, screwdriver, blow gun, and other tools at the ready, I excitedly anticipated what my next task would look like. Would I encounter powerful AI robots that were sure to blow my cover? Maybe take down a few fields of laser traps? Hack into security cameras and gather my intel that way? The options seemed limitless, and the best part was that I rarely knew what to expect next.
AC thVRsday
In his weekly column, Senior Android Content Producer Nick Sutrich delves into all things VR, from new hardware to new games, upcoming technologies, and more.
The sequel is, quite frankly, one of the best VR games I’ve ever played. The visuals are not only stylish and well-suited to the setting – think back to the 2003 spy game XIII with its graphic novel style – but the concept is well-rounded and utilizes all of Meta Quest 3’s best and most unique hardware features. Complete wireless freedom, the ability to paint your entire home and turn it into a virtual play area, and the great opportunity that comes with moving your body like a real spy, all without the potentially fatal consequences at the end of the day.
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Time to compromise, agent
Watch it open
Like the original, Unseen Diplomacy 2 was designed around the idea that your home can be a place to play that looks and feels completely different. This isn’t a mixed reality game, although it does have some mixed reality missions if you’re into that sort of thing. This is still a very VR game that takes you to new places, but the difference is that this release not only allows a full range of human physical movements, but also recognizes that not everyone has the space or physical ability to move around like a spy.
As you begin, I recommend two things right off the bat. First, if you’re playing in full roomscale mode – meaning you’ll be moving around your room and relying on full body movement – make sure the floor plan you’re showing before playing is correct. My space worked best when I cleared everything and drew a long rectangle in my living room to play in.
Second, play the tutorial first. This is not the first game, which means there is a lot more going on. You’ll need to familiarize yourself with all the gadgets in your inventory (and there are a lot of them). If not, you will get to the puzzle and be completely lost in the actual game.
After you start, prepare to sink some serious time into this. You can play as long or as little as you like, but I found the playback loop to be ridiculously addictive. Each day begins on a board game that loosely resembles a mix of Risk and Catan. Each day, pawns will move around the board, showing that spies are all over the world. Choosing a spy will give you a range of actions, including continuous movement, investigation, and mission execution.
You’ll have 17 days to stop “doomsday” from happening, so gathering intel and completing missions is essential to this mission. Each mission takes place in a different location based on the intel, and as you might expect, the journey has individual goals. Sometimes you’ll need to collect extra intel and upload it back to HQ, and other times you’ll be taking out missiles, sneaking around grain farms or basements, and fighting off dozens of police bots along the way.
The best way to play the game is with room scale moves, as rooms and hallways are all fully scaled to fit within the confines of your home. But don’t worry, these rooms don’t work like “normal” rooms. The doors take you to new places with a clever combination of automation and intelligent systems, which require you to walk through them and go to a new place, even if you have walked in a circle in your living room.
It’s enough to really grab your attention in the first few hours of playing the game, and it will continue to bake your noodle throughout the entire gaming experience. That’s not to say all the practical puzzles like cutting wires and rewiring panels, ducking under or around lasers, climbing through vents, etc., you’ll encounter, as well as lots of hacking mini-games, climbing ropes, ladders, unmarked walls with McGuyver-style climbing gear, etc.
The campaign includes several different countries and continents, sports 3 different saves, and half a dozen different difficulty modes, and includes a dedicated fitness mode that measures your level of movement and fitness with multiple tracking stats to keep everything together. And, of course, the original mixed room mode I mentioned earlier, which adds yet another layer of depth to this package.
It really is the full package and one of the most memorable VR games I’ve played in a long time. Developer Triangular Pixels maintains a pipeline of new features, bug fixes, and general improvements, and you can suggest new ideas on the Discord server. At $15.99 on both the Steam and Meta Quest platforms, this is a no-brainer to pick up when version 1.0 arrives on March 16.
Put on your Meta Quest 3, zip up your spy suit, and cross continents to stop doomsday from happening. The high-res screen will make sure you get through every laser grid the bad guys throw at you, and the controller’s precision tracking makes solving puzzles and hacking feel like the real thing (without all the real effects).
