Death to Spies: Moment of Truth is a WWII-era stealth game in which you play as a Russian agent named Semion Strogov, a man tasked with eliminating espionage-related threats to the Soviet Union. The missions that you must accomplish range anywhere from gathering intel to assassination, with the locations in which you will be inserted range from German military camps to an English hospital. The areas are varied, and you never feel like the developers ran out of ideas.

The gameplay of Death to Spies is very similar to the Hitman games, with most of the stealth revolving around disguises. While crawling through bushes and vents are a viable way to play the game, using the game's disguise system is the most reliable way to play. The disguise system in this game is usually pretty realistic, and the AI is consistent when it comes to detecting you (I'm looking at you, Hitman 2 Japan levels), so you always know why your disguise did not work, and what you can do to improve it. Certain disguises don't work in certain areas, and if you take the clothes of a high-ranking officer, the guards will recognize that you aren't the person you claim to be. Adding to that, in the higher difficulty settings, blood-stained clothes and clothes with bullet holes are unusable, so stabbing and shooting is a no-no. Much more reliable weapons are the garrotte and chloroform if you prefer a non-lethal approach. The game doesn't seem to punish you for taking the lethal approach (as long as you are merciful to civilians), unlike many other stealth games out there.

I can't speak much for the graphics of the game, since it doesn't seem to like my graphics card, washing out all the colors. This made the game look like an old movie, which in my opinion added to the atmosphere. The animations are nothing special, but they do their job and you can always tell what's going on. The music was mostly forgettable, but it always fits what's going on.

One thing I did not mention earlier is that this game is very difficult, and the poor shooting mechanics don't do anything to help it. Unfortunately, there's no tutorial in this game, so some of the more nuanced parts of the game must be learned through experience. I personally enjoy when games give me a challenge and didn't mind the lack of a tutorial that much. As for the shooting mechanics, this is a stealth game, so you shouldn't be shooting much anways. This game really shines when you're walking down the corridor of a German military base, doing your best to remain inconspicuous.

The thing that really sets this game apart from other games in this genre, and indeed, from other games period, is the amount of realism in this game. As I said earlier, if you stab people or shoot people, it renders their disguise useless, and people may recognize you if you take a unique disguise anyways. One of the options in the game is to make everyone speak their native language, adding to the atmosphere. Being a German speaker really helped me here, as most of the enemies in this game are German, and certain small hints can be drawn from their chatter. Strogov himself is, obviously, a Russian speaker, making all of the briefings and cutscenes in Russian with English subtitles. Death to Spies itself was a Soviet anti-espionage program during WWII, which I did not know originally.

Overall, I really enjoyed Death to Spies: Moment of Truth. People calling it a rip-off of Hitman obviously didn't see the game for what it is: a realistic spy game set during WWII. A disguise system and assassination missions don't make a game a Hitman clone. Though the story is mostly nonexistent, and the game's soundtrack is mostly forgettable, Death to Spies: Moment of Truth is a fun stealth game that, as long as they iron out some of the wrinkles in (hopefully) future installments, could become one of my favorite games. This game is a definite recommendation, as long as you don't mind a difficult game.

If you like the Hitman series, have an interest in espionage or WW2 this game is for you. It is a bit dated now, and you can see this by the graphics and the UI however that doesn't harm the game in anyway as even now it is very playable.

WEAPONS

The first reason I liked this game was the detail in terms of authenticity and gameplay. There is a large amount of historically accurate 'spy' weapons availiable including a Nagant silenced revolver and the classic silenced sten gun however if you are looking for a shooter this is not for you. Most of the weapons feel fairly weak - mostly because they are silenced but even the machine guns feel a bit 'odd' for example the STG 44 doesn't sound right and doesn't give a real kickback it should do, by affecting you physically, it instead just seems to tilt up when you fire. The guns are hardly the main meat of the game but for an authentic game such as this they could have done better.

VEHICLES!

Moving onto a positive note there are vehicles in the game, and correct me if i am wrong, but i do not think hitman or any other simular stealth games include the ability to drive vehicles whilst useing them as a tool to hide bodies or escape. Sure they don't drive very well but it is not a racing game and they are slow, but it is nice to have the option to hide a german officers corpse in the back of your bad-ass opel blitz.

AI

The AI is competant at what it does, the detection system is good - the sense bullet noises, if you are near them or in their line of sight and yet still allows you to use morphine or take out a guard from behind. There is always problems though-AI can be a bit stupid sometimes by repeatably charging into a room you are camping in whilst you gun 20 of them down, you cannot just walse through missions like this though as in the end they will pull back and wait for you, or 'lob' a grenade into your hiding spot.

STEALTH/TOOLS

The main component of any game of this genre is stealth i.e the ability to have to avoid, usually enemies, without being noticed. In Death to Spies moment of truth there is a variet of ways to do this...

You can go in quiet using morphine, silenced weapons, diversions and patience to outwit the enemy or you can play it on easy and run-and-gun, but the latter doesn't work often and why would you want to anyway? The stealth is statisfying but you don't have the ability to do much in the way of interesting tactics. The interactions you are given throughout missions are good but they can be hard to find sometime, I spent ages trying to work out how to get passed a party of german officers only to find that the plumbing had to the solution.

Good points:

-A Completely solid game, I have had no problems with running it and the aesthetic and the gameplay complement each other perfectly (although the art direction is nothing to write home about- but the normal 'trying for realism' graphics suite it well).

- Authentic levels, objectives, weapons, uniform (there is disguises in the game).

-Up to you in how you complete the mission, big level design with choices of which way to go and what you do and (I think) sometimes even say.

Bad points:

-Lack of direction, doesn't really tell you the options you have to complete missions, and figuring it out as you go along on harder difficulties ends in death.

-Boring mission objectives (Blow A up, kill B officer, find C secret documents - very cliche)

-Bad gunplay

Overall I had some fun with it, I would recommend it if you are remotely interested in this period of history (late WW2, early cold war), stealth games or simply a challenge (saboteur mode is hard - no disguises).

If you would like to learn more about this game message me on steam or if you have any possible ideas or improvements I could make to my reviews also message me.

Death to Spies: Moment of Truth is probably my favorite stealth game, next to Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory and Hitman: Blood Money.

Every level is incredibly unique among the seven few that there are, but the game gives you just enough tools and varied enough difficulty levels (the difference between the hard difficulty and the hardest difficulty is alone practically two seperate games) that the lack of quantity barely effects the game.

Tossable, infinite distractions, with more limited more focused variants. Whistling to distract. Three stances with two movement speeds between them. Usable vehicles (with usable horns.)
Accident systems.
At least one level with a straight up logistics puzzle.
Oh, and really solid, clockwork inspired music.

Most impressively, easy difficulty has more spaced out patrols and scripted lures that don't exist on other difficulties, ensuring that even novices have more than a fair chance to understand the workings of the game.

This isn't for people who want a story with their game. Frankly, this isn't for people who want anything but a raw, enjoyable set of levels that end up being fun to play through.
The animations aren't the best, nor is the plot anything amazing, and the combat AI isn't fantastic. That said, if you're picking this up the odds are you're not looking for any of those things.

If you like stealth for stealth's sake, this is easily one of the best games you can pick up on Steam.
It's the expansion pack Hitman: Blood Money never got, and you owe it to yourself to pick it up.

hacsak nem szeretsz idegeskedni le ne szedd!!!! borzalom -.-

Russian, WWII-era Hitman. I didn't really even know anyone had ever attempted to do something like Hitman. And what a brilliant mix, a Hitman game about killing Nazis!

Okay, so first off, this game ran fine (Windows 7 x64 still), in widescreen at good resolution without any effort on my part whatsoever, all I had to do was disable depth of field to get rid of some nasty textures. You can't even get most Hitman games to run in widescreen without doing all sorta funky hacks, and again, its a Russian game, most Russian games I've played required serious effort to get running on any modern system.

That outta the way. HOW DID I MISS THIS!?! I love the Hitman games, and this is arguably better than some of the old Hitmans, maybe even on par with Blood Money (maybe, I reserve judgement until I've finished the game). I've never heard of Death to Spies until this sale, which really sucks because it does some things better than even Hitman does. For starters, if you shoot a dude anywhere but in the head, or if you slit his throat//stab him, the uniform he's wearing has bulletholes/blood stains, which are a dead-giveaway, so you can't use it. Small, simple, brilliant. The objectives are a lot different, the primary focus isn't necessarily assassination like it is in Hitman, you're more of a spy than an assassin in many cases, you just have a license to kill and you USE IT =D

Second, this game rates your performance waaaayyyy differently, killing someone other than your designated target doesn't automatically bone you out of the highest ratings, its more about how professional, silent and clean you are. Strangle a guard and hide the body - and containers to put bodies in are rare in this game, you just have to dump them somewhere out of the way - and you're golden; make a mess, have a body get found, or set off an alarm though and your score is obviously penalized like most stealth games. If they find a naked body you've taken the uniform for, they start looking for intruders wearing that uniform, making it useless and lowering your score. However, you have a backpack, and you can actually carry disguises with you, again something we've never seen from Hitman. You have to do more than wear the clothes though, if you're disguised as a Nazi soldier, you need to swap out Russian weaponry for German weaponry, found on bodies usually, or you can choose to start the mission with German guns in most/all cases. If they see you using Russian guns while posing as a German sentry, their suspicion of you raises very quickly. Additionally, your dude can go prone and crawl, which is really useful in open, outdoor sections without generous cover (not to mention making sniping a hell of a lot easier).

You do have a non-lethal option, namely a bottle of chloroform that works similar to how it did in Hitman 2 though it has 5-10 uses and 1 use knocks out an enemy for the rest of the mission, whereas knockouts in H2 only lasted minutes. You can also just punch someone in the face, but its not as effective and is noisy. Also of note, you can actually drive vehicles in this game, which was never a thing in Hitman; its useful too since the maps are pretty big; you can even use a truck that has a canopy to hide a body and move it around. On the hardest difficulty, the ability to take disguises is removed entirely, which basically equates to some missions being impossible to get through without garroting a few patrols and guards, however you also get an automatic score boost, to rectify any loose ends you had to tie up.

I'm excited for the third one, it originally failed a kickstarter I think, and its not the original developers or publishers, and its more of a spiritual successor than direct sequel since its a different main character and set in the Cold War, but they have something here, excited to see where they go with it ---

http://store.steampowered.com/app/406720/

Just about won this game so here is my review:

TLDR: 10/10 Best Stealth game series on Steam right now.

You have to be a lot more cunnnig than in most of the stealth games. This is very realistic. Unlike HITMAN there is no "Body box" near every kill. You have to actually find hiding spots.

The strategy is the best part of this game. It lets you choose your equiptment! (or hit the button for a recommended loadout). So basically you are pretty much open to do whatever you want withthis game.

Ways to kill in this game :

*Total stealth. - Sneak up on them and Garrotte, or Chloriform them.
*Brutal Stealth. - Cut their throat, Beat them up with your fists, Hit them with countless blunt objects.
*Non-Stealth. - Landmines, Booby trap bodies, Rig doors to explode, or set up countless "scripted events" to happen.
*Stealth at a distance. Throw Knives. Throw Coffeecups, and otehr map objects. Use silenced guns (including silenced sniper rifles.)

Lots of startout items!!
Poision
First aid
Throwing knifes
Garotte
Chloriform
landmines
Grenades
Huge selection of guns. Every mission has its own unique guns too it seems.

The maps are really BIG when needed, You truly get an "Open world" feel to the missions. Windows are realistic too, you can see inside every building!

Death to Spies: Moment of Truth is a spy infiltration stealth action game, similar to hitman, released in 2009 on steam. A sequel of Death to Spies.

It has better graphics and a more fluent gameplay compared to Death to Spies. Except for the weird tree graphics that look distorted.

It's situated in world war 2, intel gathering, capturing targets, assassinating targets, rescuing targets, destroying targets, etc. Comparing to hitman, it's more punishing leaving no room for error. Each mission takes roughly 30 minutes to 1 hour depending on your playstyle, once you mess up, you/re back to the start. It's very realistic in terms of reaction of AI etc, delay in shooting etc.

There're 2 main issues I find, exactly the same as Death to Spies, getting stuck in places but you can still try to squirm out and hard to gauge the grenade throwing. Other than those 2, it's a pretty decent game for a 2009 release.

Other than the stated, treat it as a world war 2 hitman game. You will need to run it in windows xp service pack 3 compatibility.

It's totally worth the price at the moment, it does not contain a tutorial, unlike Death to Spies, so I do recommend getting Death to Spies: Gold bundle during a sale due to the age of the games.

Death to Spies: Gold bundle contains both Death to Spies and Death to Spies: Moment of Truth.

I understand that the fans of this game come through the few negative reviews from time to time and downvote the crud outta them, so despite the fact "0 out of whatever" people found this useful, i do implore you to read it before purchasing the game.


Despite the negative review, let me make something clear, if you are a fan of the hitman series, specifically of the difficulty, then yes, you will like this game quite a bit.

I, did not, because the things I do not like in hitman are more apparent in this game.

Death to spies, moment of truth features you playing as a Russian spy as he goes on a series of missions during ww2. The gameplay is very reminiscent of hitman, but is much more difficult, going "loud" is next to impossible, and the puzzles offer even less freedom than Hitman.

In Hitman, if you have played it, you know the game is more of a puzzler than a shooter. You have a few choices on how to go about a job, with a select few giving the best score (Usually goofy things like dropping a chandelier on someone) And it makes the games more of a cartoon than a serious assassination game.

Death to spies builds on this. This Trial-and-error puzzle game gives you 3 ways to complete a mission that "work" and almost no choice in how you go about them. The game gives an aura of a demon trying to stop you from completing your objective, every hiding spot is patrolled at the very second you need to be in it. Im not talking realism, its literally like a demon is controlling the enemies and knows how to counter your every move. Every house has 30 windows and no back door, You can be seen through walls and doors if you are too close to them, etc. The game will give you hints on how to complete missions, but in a similar thread to hitman, some of these just do not work. "It gave me poisoned cigarettes, so i should give them to the target!" Nah, no opportunity ever presents itself for that, someone else gives him them. Wanna try killing that person, and hiding his body, in a room fulla windows, so you can try to give the baddie the cigs? Simply not gonna happen.

This results in a very frustrating game of quicksaves and reloads instead of a tried and true spy game. No recon, no planning, no picking what time you enter the zone. Your recon is you getting killed 40 times trying tactics until something sticks.

Disguises are more realistic, to be fair, than hitman. It makes sense that finding a diplomat in the sewer walking around would arouse more suspicion than a sewer worker in the sewer, but this too is tarnished by a total lack of guidance. You find clothes, you try them on, you are in a tanktop with pants, who are you? No idea, game wont tell you, so you walk outside the garage and get shredded by bullets, jokes on you, mechanics cant even leave the garage to take a piss, try again.

At the end of the day, if you loved hitman for its intricate and frustrating puzzles, and its goofy "Kill scene" style, where every target needs to die in a weird way, then you will love this. This is a game for puzzle masochists, and they will love the crud out of it.

But for people who want an honest spy game where you get to realistically go about a job and try to take on targets, this just is not the game you are looking for. This is a puzzle game of trial and error, a game similar to hitman in that you try the same thing 20 times hoping that by chance one of those times the game will bug out and you wont be seen by guard X who is in the perfect place, where he cant be shot, cant be moved, and never needs to leave.

Ohhhoooo boy THIS GAME. After a couple of years I could finaly play it again, and it has aged well. Like a fine wine, Death to Spies: Moment of Truth is best enjoyed in short sips. Take your time with it and feel how its taste brings you into another world.

Set in WW2 and the early days of the cold war, you play as a Russian spy and infiltrate German bases and camps. There are also 3 missions in the USA, the UK and a Soviet base (with a bunch of filthy traitors! hrrrng!). The levels (except for the USA level) are AMAZING. Even tough the "objective zone" isn't always that huge, you have the feeling that you could travel the whole world from your current location. Detailed bases and vehicles decorate a realistic, living world that really sucks you into the game. There are tons of weapons, uniforms, driveable vehicles and many different ways to solve a problem.

Tiny minus point is the German writting and speech in some of the levels, but this shouldn't bother anyone too much.

if you like the hitman games, metal gear solid, splinter cell or any other stealth game, then youll have fun with this game. it has similiar mechanics to hitman (especially blood money) disguises, stealth, assassinations, but i feel they do them better. disguises work well and are alot of fun to use. sneaking around works great too and the gunplay is pretty good.

this game however has a very high difficulty curve, and can be tough at times, but fair. once you learn more about the game, it becomes a blast to play!

PROS:
good stealth
good disguise system
tough but fair
big open levels
neat graphics (especially outdoors)

CONS:
buggy enemy pathfinding

THANK YOU HAGGARD GAMES!
9.5/10