Spy Fiction (video game)

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Spy Fiction

Developer(s)	Access Games
Publisher(s)	Sammy Studios
Release date(s)	August 31, 2004 (NA)
Genre(s)	Action adventure, Stealth action
Mode(s)	Single player
Rating(s)	ESRB: Mature (M)
Platform(s)	PlayStation 2
Media	DVD

Spy Fiction is a stealth-based video game by Sammy Studios and Sega for the PlayStation 2. The game is promoted as "stealth action inspired by genre-defined espionage classics" and gives players the ability to disguise themselves as any character in the game. The lack of advertising before release and realism in the game are commonly cited as reasons why this game was outshone by its competitors in the stealth genre and sold poorly.

[edit] The Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The game starts out as the player controlling either Agent Billy Bishop, or Agent Sheila Crawford. It depends on which character they chose to play as. Gameplay begins with a HALO jump into a large castle, where a group of terrorists called 'Enigma' are situated. being captured by the enemy, the game reverts into a flashback of the events leading up to this mission.

NanotechDyne Inc.
Apparently, the events unfolded at this corporation. Billy/Sheila is sent in to investigate Doctor Forrest Kaysen, and the disappearance of Dr. Coleman. Escaping with some info about a computer stashed in the labs, The Agent is sent directly back in to hack into said computer. The Enigma logo is on the desktop, and so it is assumed that Kaysen is in league with them.

The Metropolis
Discovering that Kaysen is going aboard the Metropolis Airship/Casino, The PHANTOM Team is sent in to disguise themselves and take part in the meetings. Billy pretends to be Kaysen, and has the meeting with one Kelly Wong; a seductive businesswoman in league with Enigma. The Team learns of a demonstration of a new weapon, called Lahder. Infiltrating the demo, it is discovered that Lahder is a virus, controlled by Enigma, and discovered by Dr. Coleman. Testing the effect of the virus on a chimp, Wong decides to test the human effect, and pushes Kaysen into the container, then drops a case of Lahder in with him, gruesomely murdering him. Now, the Team must get off of the ship, but Billy/Sheila is found by Wong, and put in a three-way hold up. The agent is pointing two guns: One at a defenseless Kelly Wong, and one at an armed Dietrich Troy. The stand-off remains until Wong is shot and killed by a third terrorist, Douglas Lysander, and Billy/Sheila is knocked out by Troy.

Dante's Inferno
Waking up in a prison, Billy/Sheila is forced to escape and shut down the Lahder virus. Nicklaus Nightwood, a PHANTOM agent who was captured aboard the Metropolis, is freed by Billy/Sheila after they themselves escape. Next, Lysander intercepts the Team, driving either Billy or Sheila into a gunfight. Lysnader is ultimately killed when Nicklaus snipes him in the back, causing him to fall into a pool of piranha, where he was eaten.

Castle Wolfgang
With only two members of Enigma left: troy, and the mysterious leader, The Team invades their HQ, leading back through the flashback and up to the point of the Team's capture and Nicklaus' death. Billy/Sheila partakes in a gunfight with Troy, only to have him finished off by the CIA before he could be questioned. Finally, the leader, Dimitri Verdernakov (aka Scarface), is confronted, and killed when his blimp is blown up, taking him with it.

[edit] References to the spy genre

Most notable of this game is a multitude of references and concepts parodied in the game, predominantly originating from Metal Gear, James Bond, and Mission:Impossible. A large list of these are archived in a blog titled Third Echelon.

Some of them (Edited for encyclopedic style) include:

The whole alert [status] is [taken from] Metal Gear Solid 2 and 3. Instead of Alert, Evasion, Caution, and Normal, it's Danger, Search, Caution, and Safety.
The vault scene from Mission:Impossible is [parodied]. You spray your body with coolant to avoid setting off [a] temperature alarm, there's lasers, and [the agent] can't touch the floor. The only [difference] is that you have to pass a retinal scan to get the [terminal] to work.
Both agents carry a silenced Walther P99, the late-era James Bond handgun.
The ENIGMA organization which is dedicated to the conquering of the world through terrorist-style tactics is similar to that of the early-era James Bond organization SPECTRE.
There is a sequence on top of a speeding train that mimicks that of the Bullet-train sequence from Mission:Impossible