Cloak & Dagger: Shadow Operations Reviews

EDIT: I decided to reinstall it after the last couple updates and I was able to finish the final level. Don't get me wrong. There are still some bugs. The AI bugs out and often stay alert no matter how much time has passed. That said, I did enjoy my time with it. Splinter Cell Chaos Theory is my favorite stealth game ever and this game brought back those memories. This is one of only a handful of games I've played to have sound masking. The ability to use environmental ambiance to mask the noise your making is a brilliant concept that few games have explored. It reminds me most of the awesome spies vs. mercs multiplayer since you can't kill the soldiers, but you can use the many tools at your disposal to stun, distract, and blind your enemies. There's no saving mid-level. You got one shot, but you can recover health from the med station in each level. Level design isn't huge. There are only a few missions and they won't take long to complete, unless you suck at Splinter Cell. It did feel good to ghost missions with no alerts or knockouts. The graphics are nothing special, but the dynamic lighting adds to the atmosphere. Death comes swiftly if you're caught, so missions are pretty tense. The oil rig mission was my personal favorite. I've always loved this type of level in tactical shooters and this one is the most expansive non-linear stage in the game. The dev has been good about rolling out updates and fixing issues. If you're into classic Splinter Cell or just love stealth games like me, you take what you can get. This genre is niche and will likely never be a trendsetter, so if it takes indie devs to get a decent stealth experience, then I'll take it. It's decent and worth the small price. 6/10

Clearly a love letter to Splinter Cell, but not a great one unfortunately. Encountered a tonne of issues with really wonky AI, inputs not working, falling through the level when a door touched me, and some other general bugginess that sours the experience.

Not my usual kind of game but I sure am having a lot of fun seeing how long I can crawl around without getting killed! It isn't long but the life of a worm rarely is. Would like to see character customization. I just think it would be cool if you could find stuff on missions then make your character wear them later just for cosmetic purposes. Like a fanny pack and googly eye glasses that replace the normal stuff your character is using. Just for fun.

Cool game. We need more stelath games, I was looking at this project since it was promoted as multiplayer title - I hope developer will add MP some day. As one person project - its solid product. It has some problems, but I hope it will get some polishing after release. GJ!

I've played through only a few missions of C&D and I keep catching myself laughing like a manic. This game is so much fun! If you're into old school, tough-as-nails stealth action, then this game is for you. The audio design is fantastic. The graphics are very impressive. The game is, simpy, a ton of fun. I whole hardheartedly recommend this game. What a very talented developer!

My review is a recommend, but there are some very important things I want to bring up. There's no mistaking this game is heavily inspired by Splinter Cell, and many of SC's fundamentals are there. For a small indie project, this is a fantastic game. It's fully complete (woah!), and the art style is just astounding (I may have came close to edging a few times at certain parts because the lighting and shadows were just too good). I want to really emphasize, I love the graphics and art style. I took a lot of photos at the cost of a few lives here and there lol I love hard shadows. First, the game is very janky and needs a lot of polish. The guard AI is all over the place. The states of awareness (such as "heard something" or "hunting you down" modes) are so inconsistent. In one of the levels, as soon as I started moving, a guard from another room heard me and immediately goes into hunt mode and kicks down a door and starts looking for me. I manage to hide, but now the guard is constantly looking for me despite having never seen me. Another issue with the guards is that they sometimes teeter between not being alerted and hunt mode, and they will become schizophrenic beings that will jump at their own shadows and alert THEMSELVES, causing them to resume hunt mode and will somehow home in on you to shoot your loser ass who thinks hiding behind a single crate and some pipes will maybe protect you. I found this to be really funny, though it did make me lose a few runs lol. I liked to bully the guards by shooting them with my gun endlessly. There is a lack of a (quick) save system, and as an avid save scummer, I found this to be a bit frustrating. After playing the game, I found that there's not really a reason to have mid-level saves. The levels are quite small, and you can easily learn them after one or two retries. I learned alternative routes and memorized the hacking locations and could stun and run past the guards and finish the levels. A small note, having all the graphics set to Epic for the last level results in huge frame rate drops. I have to lower everything down to Low to get it to an acceptable frame rate. I moved Shadows to High and it was laggy, then moved it to Medium and the frames got better. It could be just the Shadows option affecting everything, not sure. The one thing I absolutely did not like at all is the controls for using the gun. I don't like how it's a toggle (though I haven't checked the settings, so that might be on me), and I really do not like how aiming with the pistol is not with a stationary cursor in the middle. You have to use the laser pointer attached to the gun, which means it's insanely hard to shoot and stun enemies while running away like a bitch because your laser pointer feels like it wants to be on the other side of the screen for a tropical vacation. This is probably my biggest gripe with the game. I've died a lot because I was unable to shoot and stun nearby enemies and escape just because I couldn't aim properly. Grenades have the complete opposite problem, you have to hold down the grenade button and then click to throw. The action of throwing also takes a long time for whatever reason. It's hard to run at the same time as throwing a grenade because I have to weirdly hold down W and G at the same time, then aim my mouse to throw. By the time I throw it, I'm already at half health and my grenade was thrown too far ahead of my enemies and does nothing lmao oopsies. The sound mechanic is kind of weird. Enemies can easily hear your normal crouch walking. I have to say that this might have been a personal problem, because I like to crouch and roll everywhere. I'm not entirely sure about the sound mechanic. I think guards can hear you just a little too well, though. The camera is a little finicky, as being too close to objects or having too many things surrounding you can mess up your camera. Doors are also a bit finicky, as if you're too close when opening one and it opens towards you, the door will smack you and physically move you as it opens. In certain areas, it can actually trap you because the door closes you in against some nearby objects, and you have to close the door to move again. Cloak & Dagger has everything in place to be a fantastic game, but the only thing it's lacking is just polish and maybe a few control and UI tweaks. Typos are also scattered around in the first level tutorial. I think it is a very good sign if I enjoyed a game despite its rough edges. I know I wrote an entire essay that seems to have more bad than good, but please know it's because I care! I liked the game, but the cons are things I thought were very important to discuss. As I finished up my review, the 1.1 patch came out and fixed some of the things I brought up, so my review is a tiny bit outdated. Thanks for a fun game!

So I just finished playing the first mission. So these are first impressions: 1. Splinter Cell Chaos Theory vibes all over. 2. I actually loved the movement. It felt great. I was missing some of the moves like sticking to walls. 3. I was not fond of not having any saves but than again it was a short mission, so it didn't bug me much in the end. 4. Guards is where I had the worst experience, mainly because I didn't get any sure way of taking them out. It felt like i should be able to do that but I wasn't. 5. I loved the radio music... and little texts over the guards. Overall I can see myself playing this to the end to see how it develops. I think AI is where the game shows that it's a one man operation. I wish the developer all the best with this game. I will come back with the full review.

There's a lot of promise here with some of the ideas. The main thing is that it feels more like a fangame of Splinter Cell and Metal Gear, but not in a good way. It feels uninspired, but I feel like there was some real effort put into it. For me personally, the design of just running away from enemies being able to stun them for a second at best was not very fun. There's of course some glitches and oversights as with many indie games but with time hopefully these can be resolved. I have to give my honest opinion and not recommend the game because I don't feel there's much to be found here that can't be found in Splinter Cell Chaos Theory. With inspiration, originality, and smoothing out the edges I feel like this developer could make something quite good. As a first attempt I think it's good, as a game though it falls rather short.

Edit: I'm honestly blown away by the post launch patching and dev engagement. - Re-did a level based on feedback. - Major tweaks to movement and climbing. *********** It's clear that this is the passion product of a single developer. The game has charm. It took a few tries for me to understand that it isn't a SC clone. Killing is not an option, and melee is not an option (well, minus a few things I figured out by accident). You are expected to complete your tasks with the tools you are given. After the first level the game becomes far less linear. Trading hallways for large spaces you can traverse however you see fit. To me it feels like a stealth action puzzle game. I found the light based stealth mechanics and sound based detection systems to be spectacular. I'm happy to review this game positively. Once I found my footing I had a very good time sneaking around a deadly AI.

I feel bad leaving a negative review, but this game does not feel finished. I completed the first mission, and I encountered: - Spelling errors in a few of the tutorial prompts - Tutorial prompts that don't dismiss properly - No melee attack that I could figure out from the controls - Getting stuck behind/inside a door when I open it - When I completed a mission objective by hacking a terminal, my camera was stuck facing that terminal, and I had to complete the rest of the mission facing that direction. I won't be refunding it - part of me enjoying the janky nature of some of it, and it does seem like a project of passion by a small team (or maybe even a single developer), but it'll need a significant amount of basic polish before I'd turn this to a recommend.