Death to spies: the Soviet Hitman game no-one knows about.
SMERSH
This is possibly the second game that has actually ran nicely when I loaded it up; straight into the proper resolution and up to max settings. Although, with that came bad news: Steam’s screenshot system broke, which is a huge shame, and this will be the first blog without screens to accompany it.
When I say this game is Soviet Hitman, it is a pretty spot on description of this game, all though certainly not a bad thing. You are a Spy for the Soviet organisation SMERSH, - coming from the Russian for Death to Spies - which was the USSR’s counter-intelligence agency during WWII created to combat Nazi spies attempting to infiltrate the Red Army; essentially an anti-spy agency, hence the name.
The game has a nice tutorial, set on a bootcamp style setting; you go through an assault course to learn about movement, shooting range for guns and grenades, - which are super tricky to throw precisely - and a little guard house part to teach to you the sneaking and taking out of enemies. It’s a pretty helpful tutorial that shows you everything you’d need to know to be able to get stuck in to the game.
Mission 1
So the first mission: I was tasked with gaining access to a Nazi army base, stealing some documents, and 'kidnapping' an SS officer.
Firstly I had to gain a Nazi uniform, lose my PPSh, and drive to the base in a truck; the game starts you off in a kind of large forest area, with a path up to a small Nazi camp. The road to the camp had a couple of patrols I had to avoid. The first couple were easy, but one kept catching me out - thanks to quicksaves it wasn't too much of an inconvenience - but I persevered and hid behind a tree at the right angle as to not be seen. Once I got to the small camp, I had to negotiate my way past a few guards, down into a bunker, and get myself a uniform; which I did by knocking out a guard and sticking super close to a wall. I pinched his uniform, and swapped my PPSh-41 for his Kar98k, got in the truck up top and drove away, with none of his Nazi friends any the wiser.
After driving my way past the earlier patrols, and up the road I arrived at the base and I ditched my truck next to some hangars and scouted the area out, checking my map where I needed to go. On the minimap I noticed a flashing blip on one of the Officers in the area, and realised he must be my target; so I stalk him around the base 'til he gets to an alleyway with a little side alley off of it, knock him out, and stow him back here. Unable to steal his uniform, I set off in search of more uniform, stealing one from an SS trooper, and a supposed officer, neither of which high enough in command to get me into the building with the documents. I finally find myself a high enough ranking officer to take out, steal the uniform, and steal me some documents. Unfortunately at this point, I alerted an unsuspecting female in the next room, she comes bursting in, and I had to shoot her with my silenced Tokarev; poor girl.
Next I realised I had just dumped my truck and the target and mostly forgot about them, so I rushed back to my truck and came up with a plan to move my unconscious, slightly overweight SS officer to the back of the truck. I returned to my alleyway, parked my truck in a manner so other Nazi soldiers would not be able to come along the alleyway, then crawled under, collected the Officer, stowed him in the back, and drove out the base, and all the way down to the exit, finishing the level; with minimal fuss I must admit, pretty good considering rarely could I finish anything in Hitman without some bloodshed. I am sorry for that helpless girl's family, but she drew her Luger, so there wasn't much for me to do.
Mission not 1
Next I load up the second mission, and boy, was this one different. I was present with a large area full of guards and buildings, some ruined, some fine. My first objective was to find and set free a target; this target was holed up in a building surrounded by Nazis and I had to get past them all. The only way to get past some of the guards was to find myself an officer’s uniform, something that I found to be impossible without a huge shootout. There were two officers on the map, both inside well guarded buildings I needed officer clearance to enter aswell. So really, I was at a loss from the beginning. After numerous attempts at luring guards away from said buildings, I had died for the last time, and said to myself “enough is a enough sir” and decided to write myself a blogpost.
So that was Death to Spies; a pretty good game, but let down by its insane difficulty - the internet tells me they all found it difficult too, by the way.
Log in to comment