Assault Spy is one of those games that is open for business, but not quite ready to welcome the masses. The early access build is out, giving people an opportunity to see what it is like to fight through a shady company as a corporate spy with some smooth moves. It definitely feels like a project in progress, but there are some strong elements here. The game is clearly introducing people to a world and helping them learn how its combos work before getting more challenging versions out there.
What is interesting is that Assault Spy starts with a focus on the story. The game already has the beginning of its narrative, complete with exposition, voice acting and some CGs. Asaru is a corporate spy who is infiltrating Negabot with Kanoko. Along the way, the alarms are set off (by Kanoko, of course) and Asaru has to fight his way through the company. This means tackling the robots, fighting other spies and dealing with some of the company’s bosses.
There are currently two modes available in Assault Spy, both of which give an idea of how things will work in the full game. People can go through the beginning of Asaru’s campaign or test out his moves in the Dojo. The Dojo is rather nice so far, as it lets you spawn as many enemies as you’d like, determine whether they will be out to kill and generally get a feel for things. Though, at the moment, the Assault Spy campaign feels rather similar. Each one seems like an opportunity to introduce the characters, gameplay and procedure. All of the story segments for this first part are there, showing off Asaru, Kanoko, Kazuma and other characters.
While it does not do much to show what kind of challenge we might one day expect, it does work as an introduction. Assault Spy’s early access build eases people into it. There are not too many different sorts of robots to fight, allowing you time to get used to the thin robots with laser sights and projectiles and smaller robots with sawblades. The AI is not quite there yet, making it easy to repeatedly beat down and test different combos to defeat them. It does an adequate job of setting the atmosphere, since we fight through cubicle farms and professional areas.
I was playing Assault Spy using a controller, and the game felt rather responsive in the current build. Asaru has two sorts of attacks, which can be chained together for different moves. His positioning and your timing can influence what kinds of combos are created. So going into an attack from a dash or when jumping can make a difference. I also ended up getting the impression that using these different kinds of attacks could eventually offer different strategies that are or aren’t as effective against certain foes. The first fight against a human enemy is a good example. Even though the AI is not there yet, I still felt like some ground and aerial combos were better for handling him.
The one thing someone does have to be aware of is that Assault Spy is a work-in-progress. If you get the game now, you are getting about an hour and a half of gameplay and the opportunity to fight one of the four bosses in Asaru’s route. It might stretch out to two hours or more though, as in my case the game did crash multiple times. (I encountered so many fatal errors, though it seemed like playing in full screen and with lower settings helped.) But then, you have to expect that sort of thing from an Early Access title. This is a preliminary foundation and look at things to come, and so far things do seem promising.
It seems like Assault Spy could eventually turn into a story-heavy beat’em up. Already in this preliminary build, we have a good balance between segments where Asaru and Kanoko are sneaking around the company and finding out secrets and ones where Asaru is using his briefcase and business cards to beat up both human and robotic opponents. I think it would benefit from some stronger AI eventually (and fewer fatal errors), but it seems like the general concept is relying on the sort of combo-based attacks and timing that might make for a game that is fun to play and replay.
Assault Spy is available on PCs via Steam Early Access. The full game has a tentative Fall 2018 launch window.
