Never Stop Sneakin’

Genre: Stealth

Players: 1

.

Review:

Never Stop Sneakin’, released on Nintendo Switch in 2017 and ported to PC and mobile devices in 2018, is a Stealth game with some Arcade and Roguelike elements that has players in a silly parody of Metal Gear Solid-style games where they must venture into an enemy facility to stop a fiendish villain who has used a time machine to kidnap all the U.S. presidents. “Even the bad ones”.

The story is absolutely ridiculous right from the start. I won’t spoil it, but suffice it to say that right from the opening introduction, this game delightfully skewers the super-serious self-important demeanor of the Metal Gear series, with some wonderfully silly banter between characters delivered in a serious manner by the game’s solid voice actors.

The Metal Gear Solid parody is more than just in the game’s plot. The visuals in Never Stop Sneakin’ are clearly evocative of Metal Gear Solid on PlayStation, with blocky 3D characters textured with low-resolution pixelated textures. It’s a clever way to make use of a minimal graphical presentation that works very well for this game.

However, if one element of the presentation really stands out here and demands to be mentioned, it is the absolutely killer main theme, the titular Never Stop Sneakin’, that’s likely second only to Metal Gear Solid 3’s Snake Eater when it comes to James Bond-style musical themes that aren’t actually from James Bond films. Beyond this excellent theme, the rest of the game’s music features some great Metal Gear-style espionage-themed instrumental themes that complete this game’s superb theming.

When it comes to the gameplay, Never Stop Sneakin’ takes a minimalist approach to the genre, with everything handled by movement and no need for button presses. Players take out enemies by moving into them from behind, and getting caught will cause you to use one of your extremely limited supply of bullets to automatically take out the offending enemy. This simple, elegant system reduced the genre down to its basics, and ensures that everything remains super fast-paced, like an Arcade-style game.

There are also Roguelike elements here, with players collecting “perks” to enhance their performance in each run, though I hesitate to call this game a Roguelike simply because the levels here don’t seem all that randomized at all – you’ll be repeating the same levels over and over again. This is one of the game’s biggest flaws – it gets very repetitive very quickly, and this repetition is only made worse by just how simple the game is. By the time you’ve effortlessly downed your hundredth guard, everything really starts to seem samey.

Even more frustrating is that progress through the game is measured by how much of your increasingly-elaborate base you’ve built, but this base-building doesn’t give players any extra influence over their character’s development, the story, or anything like that. This isn’t a Management Simulation element by any means, it’s only a measure of progress masquerading as one.

I really wish the gameplay here had more depth and less repetition, because with more work this could have been an absolutely must-have Stealth game in its own right. It’s fun to play, its approach to the genre is relatively unique, and the parody elements here hit their mark perfectly. With some added depth, variety, and customization, this would be a much better game. However, as it is, it’s still a delightful romp in the Stealth genre well worth playing by genre fans looking for something lighthearted.

tl;dr – Never Stop Sneakin’ is a Stealth game that takes a simpler, faster-paced, and more lighthearted take on the genre, with an absolutely fantastic presentation that does a superb job of parodying the original Metal Gear Solid in particular, and an outstanding title theme. The only real issue here is that the simple gameplay gets repetitive very quickly, and the game feels like it could do with more depth, variety, and customization. Still, despite these flaws, this is still a wonderful and unique take on the genre that’s well worth playing.

Grade: B-

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