Never Stop Sneakin'

One of those "soft-thumbs-up" situations, though it can be fun if you adjust your expectations going in. The best way for me to describe it is that it's more of a timing and positioning-based action puzzle game that pretends to be a stealth game, with a story that feels like what you'd get if Metal Gear Solid had its budget slashed into tenths and was rewritten by Major Monogram.

I played this on the Nintendo Switch for an ungodly amount of time. There was something about it that I just loved.

The opening cutscene alone is ridiculous and over the top. It makes Metal Gear Solid look plausible by comparison. Which is why I love it.

The developers made a really easy to pick up game that just feels tight and good. Really simple controls, you can play this with literally one hand but not for sexy reasons.

I know a lot of people on here have mixed feelings about this game but I absolutely adore it. The writers make some of the best jokes I've seen in a video game. It's funny in a way that I've rarely seen in a game. And it's just f***ing fun to play.

You can find far worse things to spend 12 bucks on.

This game is one of my favorites and I gladly bought it on here to play through again.

You may be a bad enough dude to rescue the president. But are you a sneaky enough dude to rescue every president we've ever had or ever will have? Even the bad ones?

Made with the most state-of-the-art polygoniest technology, Never Stop Sneakin' is both an homage to and parody of stealth action, secret agent stuff, and the original Metal Gear Solid, just with less giant robots. And, wouldn't you know it, it was made by the people who made Dust AET, which I had also finally just played.

Some of you may remember back in 2015, GameFAQs had its "Best. Game. Ever." voting. Someone made their own version that had all the games in the running presented to you two at a time and you picked which one you liked more, over and over until it had ranked every game for you based on your choices. While it's really hard for me to rank favorites by "#1/#2/etc." spots and the games are certainly subject to moving up or down the rankings, tied for #1 was Metal Gear Solid and Super Smash Bros. Melee.

So yeah, stealth action in general and Metal Gear Solid in particular, I'm a fan. As for the other aspect of what I'm talking about, parody, I'll say I was subscribed to MAD Magazine for over a decade and I still own something like six of their collections. So yeah, a good spoof has long been one of my favorite forms of comedy.

So...when a friend told me a couple of years ago about a new game called Never Stop Sneakin' and linked me to the first 20 minutes of gameplay...yeah. I knew I had a must-buy on my hands, and it wasn't until recently I owned a computer that I was confident could play it.

As before, I'll put the game's best foot forward and start with my favorite thing about it, and this time it's the sense of humor. NSS bills itself as a parody and it fits that bill perfectly. From wordplay to satire to both shrugging at and embracing its own ridiculousness, it got a lot of smiles, chuckles, and outright laughs out of me. This game is funny in ways I could always appreciate.

The graphics make the game's roots obvious, harkening to the days when polygons were the cool new thing. It got that aesthetic down pat without looking like crap, and that's commendable considering how badly most games from this era aged, graphically speaking. The music, which was by Hyperduck Soundworks (like Dust's was), is good and gets me in a sneakin' mood, and the theme song is another homage/parody of a couple specific tunes from the MGS series.

In addition to the obvious stealth action elements, one other thing I like about the gameplay is that the levels are semirandomly generated, which is something I've been a sucker for ever since Diablo I.

The plot is rather nonsensical, as it should be, but I still liked the characters, not to mention it actually got me to go and do a little independent research on a certain urban legend I'd never heard of before. Phrases like "even the bad ones" and "time travel shenanigans" are probably gonna stay in my vocabulary for a while, as will referring to stealthiness or secret agent/ninja-type stuff as "sneakin'."

The controls...well, there kind of aren't any. You could probably play this with an Atari 2600 controller. All you really do is move; everything else is automatic other than pressing buttons on menus or to advance dialogue. Nothing wrong with simplicity if it works, as far as I'm concerned. But what works in its favor is, how often do you play a PC game that you only need one hand to play while the other is free to do other things? Like...you know...eating...and nothing untoward. It's a small thing but I can't remember the last time I played a game that controlled this simply but was still fun, not to mention I usually play whatever video game I'm currently focusing on around the time I like eating dinner on work days, so not having to put off eating or even pause the game to do it was a plus for me.

While the game in general is good, time now for its main drawback. I mentioned that if Dust had one problem, it was that it was too easy. That holds true for NSS, except more so. Enemies are as clueless as your commanding officer. Bosses are more tests of patience than skill, and even then, not that much; the only bosses that I ever found even sort of challenging were Schad and Freud, and only because you fight two of them at once. There are even arrows on the floor pointing out where the exit is and even the most directionally-challenged person would not get lost in this game without them. It's not for nothing the game has the "Casual" tag on the Steam page: Not too far into the game, you'll be getting perks that make sneakin' increasingly simple, and there are a couple of them that pretty literally make sneakin' unnecessary period. You don't know which perk you'll get until you get it, unless you buy it, so if you're playing it for any amount of challenge, you might get something that makes you so overpowered that the only way you'll lose is by intentionally trying to lose.

Again, like Dust, it's easy to adjust your play style to challenge yourself. Try beating a mission without getting any of the more OP perks by only buying perks and restricting yourself to the less good ones. Or for a better challenge, beat a mission without any perks and without buying anything. I tried that towards the end of the game, and even though I only took damage once, that made the game more fun and actually feel like...a stealth game, you know, when you have to manage your resources and get in combat only when it's to your advantage.

It's not very long either, and again, there's nothing wrong with that if you're having fun...and feeling like you got your money's worth. Beating it the first time had about 21 hours logged in the clock, but you could probably shave that down to more like 16 or less as some of that time is me stepped away from paused games and some more could be taken off from doing a couple of missions just for fun or redoing a couple other missions because I forgot to find the mission objectives. The only reason I'm inclined to play it through a second time is as a matter of personal preference: I would rather leave my New Game+ file on a completion rating of either 100% or 0% instead of like 3%, especially when beating it the first time wasn't even that hard.

Kind of maybe spoiler, but the ending is a letdown too. No final stage or final boss despite feeling like the game had a decent amount of setup for both. Forgive me but even in fairly casual games I thought one or both of those things are more or less standard, especially in games that have levels and bosses.

Still...

For an overall rating, I guess I'd give it a 7.5 out of 10, maybe an 8 if I'm being a little less objective. It's a good game and it feels like it was made for someone like me, but it loses some points for being so easy, so short, and for the lack of what I would call a proper finale even if the ending still wasn't bad. As far as I'm concerned, the game feels like it did what it set out to do. It didn't reinvent the wheel like its source material did, but it wasn't trying to.

So if you're like me and the Metal Gear Solid series left a permanent impact on your life or you love a good spoof, I recommend it, especially if you identify with both of those points. It's only about $12 on Steam as of this journal and I think, despite its shortcomings, you're still getting a good deal from that. Get psyched, put on your bodysuit, turn down your resolution until everything is a pixely polygon...

And Never Stop Sneakin'.

Well, i'm very disappointed that i paid 10 dollars for this game that feels like a proof-of-concept with end-of-project story cutscenes.

The pros:
-Extremely fun gameplay loop. It's simple but it works really well
-Very funny cutscenes and writing, great voice acting.
-Aesthetics are on-point. Looks really nice all around and has great music.

The cons:
-Gameplay changes are drip fed at an absolutely ludicrously slow speed and are definitely not deep enough.
-Only 1 gameplay class. Tons of skins but ultimately, the first 10 minutes or gameplay and the last 10 minutes of gameplay are going to be identical.
-Base-building that does not unlock any new gameplay mechanics. It feels like the only thing i get out of building new upgrades is seeing the story move forward. Big let-down.
-low number of bosses. i counted 5 in 6 hours of play.
-Literally no increase in complexity or depth of gameplay.
-Runs are simply too easy. It's trivial to succeed in a run and, while it's not always bad to not be incredibly challenging, the challenge level simply isn't up to snuff.

Honestly, i'm considering learning C# and making my own spin on this game. That's how disappointed i am.

Never Stop Sneakin' is a stealth game with an arcade feel that will immediately remind you of Metal Gear Solid 1, what with its PS1-era visuals, music akin to Snake's outing on Shadow Moses Island, and a number of other cheeky references and jokes. It's half tribute and half parody, being unafraid to glorify Metal Gear Solid exactly as much as it tears it down and makes fun of it. This is great, and if you're a fan of Metal Gear at all, you'll probably appreciate this element of the game. Funny enough, this game also riffs on Peace Walker and Metal Gear Solid V, when it comes to the base-building gameplay that is presented like something you have control over, but is really just a completely linear progression you have to partake in, in order to advance. Just like how Mother Base pretends to give you free will in terms of how you develop Militaires Sans Frontiers or Diamond Dogs, but you're not really free at the end of the day. It's another cheeky element that tends to go unmentioned.

The story of Never Stop Sneakin' is simple, and completely ridiculous. You are a secret agent who works for the aptly named Department of Sneakin', and the dastardly enemy, Amadeus Guildenstern, has used a time machine to kidnap every single President that has existed or will ever exist. His demand is simple; instate him as President forever, or lose every other President, forever. The Department of Sneakin' doesn't seem to vibe with this idea, so Major Milestone, a kooky Colonel Campbell parody, voice acted by Arin Hanson of Game Grumps, sends you in to infiltrate Amadeus' bases and installations. Why are we infiltrating these bases? For one overarching purpose; to rescue or kidnap enough capable men from the battlefield, as well as to accumulate enough currency in order to develop a base advanced enough to eventually build our own time machine, and thereby save the world. The plot is silly, hilarious, charming, and is spread far too thin because this game is too long for its own good.

The Department of Sneakin' makes use of a Currency called Espionage in order to develop its structures. Espionage isn't just a concept or a method of intelligence-gathering in this world, it is a literal, physical object that exists lying around the enemy bases. It's these pixel-looking particles that you absorb into your Agent with satisfying sounds and animations. Collect enough Espionage in missions and you can buy Upgrades or HP inside of the current base. These Upgrades go away if you're killed or if you Extract from the area of operations from the pause menu. In this regard, the game shares some small DNA with roguelikes, but it isn't one. When you're outside of a mission, you'll be in the Department of Sneakin's base camp, which you are theoretically responsible for building and enhancing, but in a funny moment of self-awareness and further parody, the game doesn't actually give you any choices in what to build or when to build it. What you do get is humorous flavor text which had an irreverent tone that I thoroughly enjoyed all the way through. Espionage can be collected by walking near the little bits of it, but you can collect more massive clusters of Espionage by hacking computers or opening lockers, which requires you to stand still on top of an interact marker as a meter fills up.

I'll talk about the game's controls now. When you're building your base or accepting stuff in menus, you can use the Stick, D-Pad or Movement Keys, as well as the standard Accept button on controllers or keyboards, to finalize decisions. However, when it comes to actually playing inside of the stealth environments, there's only one control you need to concern yourself with, and that's Movement. Everything in Never Stop Sneakin' happens contextually and automatically, and is decided or impacted by where you move and how you move there. If you move into an unaware enemy, you'll assassinate them. If you move onto interaction markers, you'll use them. If you move into breakable wooden fences, you'll shatter them. Likewise, if you move into the wrong places, you'll incur some kind of penalty. Throughout the bases, you can find resources like Bullets, EMP Grenades or Smoke Grenades, and these Resources function in both offensive and defensive capacities. If you step into a guard's vision cone and you have Bullets in your clip, you will automatically headshot that guard and take him out. If you don't have Bullets, you'll use a Smoke Grenade instead, which blankets the area and lets you kill stunned guards in the vicinity using your blade. For machines, like Cameras and Turrets, you'll normally drop an EMP Grenade upon detection, which will automatically destroy them, but if you're out of EMP Grenades and have Bullets, you'll quickshot the device with your gun instead. You very quickly get the hang of how this works. When you have no resources, you want to play safely and carefully. When you're overflowing with them, you can charge forth with reckless abandon, because fast kills in succession will build your Combo, and the higher your Combo, the more Espionage everything is worth, including kills, computers and lockers.

Never Stop Sneakin' was originally released on the Nintendo Switch and iOS, and it was only ported to PC after the fact. This is a game designed to be a bite-sized, mobile experience, first and foremost. The one-handed controls make it relaxing, the lack of significant difficulty means you can just chill out and casually stroll through much of the game with no issues, and the levels lacking in variety is not a problem if you play it as intended; which is to run two or three missions per subway or bus ride, then play two or three more the next day. I did not play Never Stop Sneakin' like this. I burned through the entirety of this game in, essentially, two days. And I did it by collecting everything in a mission, like a singular locust devouring all available matter in my path, before descending upon the next one. This was my and a major reason for repetition. You're not really supposed to play Never Stop Sneakin' by killing every single guard, collecting every bit of Espionage, finding every computer, every locker, and finding everything available on each floor, and that's because doing so starts to take forever and starts to grate.

The basic feel of the game is high-quality, and is satisfying to experience. Killing enemies feels good. Movement feels good. The animations and sounds of everything in the game are well-done and happily so, because you'll be doing all of these actions a lot. This is one area Never Stop Sneakin' absolutely excels at, and I'm glad for it.

I recommend this game to Metal Gear fans, as well as to anyone who's way too into Stealth games as a fun, casual version of the experience you're already used to playing. I also recommend it to people who are bad at Stealth games, because while this game is very easy, it also contains some bare fundamentals that people new to the Stealth genre would do well to understand, like patrols, vision cones, movement in spaces controlled by guards and cameras, things of that nature. Playing this game won't make you good at other stealth games, but it will help your mind start to understand some basic patterns behind how every guard in every stealth game ever made, behaves on a very basic level. That, I think, is a good thing. Baby's First Sneak Game.

I enjoyed Never Stop Sneakin', and even though I got tired of it near the end, I can tell I'll go back to play more of it sometime, just to see how damn fast I can speedrun an entire playthrough, knowing what I know now.

http://youtube.com/LeoKRogue/

As a parody of stealth games, this one is fun. The power ups vary from useless to overpowered, and the game as a whole is funny. Just don't expect it to keep your attention past one play through. The repetitive nature of the game doesn't lend itself to repeated playing.

So long as you expect 10 hours of humorous rather then skilful play, it's good. Anyone wanting more depth or longer play, skip.

A fun little riff off of a metal gear story, but not the gameplay. The primarily loop of running through levels as fast as you can, grabbing whatever cash you fancy, gets real old real fast. It just never evolves, best case you get the speed upgrade for breaking lockers and hacking computers, so searching the whole level to get those makes more sense. Outside of that, the pickup unlocks are marginally useful or just boring, and the rest of the unlocks are skins which are useless and boring. There are a handfull of bosses that you fight over and over, after killing Vice President Helicopter the second time it stops being funny, after the umpteenth it's unbearable. And there's the rougelike aspect of the running the same levels over and over, which would be fine if they got more interesting but they don't. This feels like an early access game where there should be way more features and complexity. The best way to enjoy this game is to only do a run a day, but if you sit down and play it for an hour it'll really start to feel like the grind that is. I don't think it's bad, I just think it's incomplete.

it's like they took the part from MGS1 where you have to backtrack all the way to the start to get an item and made that the whole game



edit: it gets a little bit of credit for accidentally parodying how most of Death Stranding's cutscenes happen in the same room before that game even came out

This game is great for the first hour or two...
but then you realize those two hours are all the game has to offer
literraly, just that, the gameplay never changes, barelly gets any harder (if anything it gets easier) and the actual comedic (yet still good) scenes are few; and the entire thing just feels padded all to hell.
I can see this game being a lot better and lasting a lot longer on mobile... but it just does not fit a pc release at all.
only get it if you REALLY need to play it and dont have a switch, and even then, wait for a big discount.
unless you have a switch, then get it to play on mobile here and there.

"It's like one of my Japanese animes!"

I enjoy never stop sneakin' but this seems to be a mobile game and has automatic attacks makes the game kind of boring after awhile I would prefer press buttons and letting the auto-attack do everything for me that doesn't teach you anything at the end of the day. It has good soundtracks for music that is it laugh out loud.

Never Stop Sneakin's core gameplay isn't bad. A bit on the simple side, but simple can be incredibly fun, and as it's getting its legs, you think and hope at some point that things are going to get switched up a bit or that the game has a surprise or two in store. The simplified stealth gameplay feels like it'll eventually build to something even the slightest bit more nuanced. Unfortunately, that's just not the case. After around two hours, the gameplay has already shown its entire hand, and then it expects you to keep repeating the same gameplay loop for another thirteen hours with the only things changing about gameplay being unlocked Perks that make you nigh untouchable and enemy movement routes and patterns becoming faster.

The game's presentation is likely to be what draws a lot of folks in, and they're sure to not be the least bit disappointed by the PSX-era graphical style and silly time travel story that unfolds similarly to Metal Gear Solid. Hyperduck Audio's work on the soundtrack is also to be commended as would be the talents of the voice actors involved with the project, hamming it up in the best ways possible.

What could have been a great little 2-4 hour experience is drawn out into fifteen hours to the point of becoming mind-numbing tedium. As much as I enjoyed the story, premise, presentation, characters, and the possibilities offered by a simple set of pick up and put down controls, I can't recommend this game due to how flagrantly it wears out its welcome.

Well, it's honestly funny. No sarcasm, no way too spot on nerd references... The music is great, from the ever talented Hyperduck Soundworks, with an absolutely on point Bond theme...

But the game goes for a roguelike that makes the meta-currency cash grind the literal game. I'm 3 hours in and all I've done is run the same random dungeon a dozen times with no real challenge to it just to unlock a lame perk like "More likely to gain health" or "Grab cash from farther away."

This game can't achieve roguelike longevity through mechanics and challenge alone so it is trying to cheat to get that by making you grind the roguelike just to get cash and that cash is your progression.

Worse, it's the same dungeon every time. Yes, it's random, but the levels ramp up in the same manner. 2-2 is always the turret intro level, world 3 is when cameras speed up, world 4 is when guards speed up. Even when you have a special mission like "Rescue this dude" or "Blow up Amadeus Guildenstern's Doomsday Weapon" it's the same dungeon just with the objective slotted into a random locked room where perks usually spawn.

I don't know what they're going for here. It's practically impossible to die if you play it smart. There's no incentive for speed play because you need to grab every single cash item to buy progression. There are perks to highlight packages and keycards but you're gonna kill every guard and loot every source anyway because it is massive money... It feels like the plot had way more effort put into it than the gameplay...

... oh I guess that's what makes it a good Metal Gear tribute then.

The Good:

• The devs masterfully parody James Bond's soundtrack and the mindless missions he is sent to.
  
• Excellent to control, if you play with the keyboard - you just need the cursor keys.
  
[*]The levels are randomly generated. So, while each level feels the same, you at least do not know what is ahead.

Why thumbs down?

Stupid in all the right ways. This isn't what I expected to come next from Dean Dodrill, but I'm still glad it did because it's so far a lot of fun and great for some quick pick up and play stealth action. It's best played in short bursts, though, rather than long sessions. Still, the gameplay is (kind of weirdly) satsifying nd the absurdness of the plot yet dead pan series delievery of the voice acting make it a blast.

This game, is made by Dean Dodrill. A.K.A The dev of Dust: An Elysian Tail and the genius behind the best and most adorable side-kick of all time. Ive seen the silloette of dust as an unlockagle agent and ahra as an unlockable weapon. WHERE IS MY SUPER SECRET AGENT FIDGET?!

It is about sneakin. You sneak into bases, kill dudes and sneak out all with only directional inputs. No other buttons required as every action is contex sensitive to what is around you at the time. From killin, to hackin it's got you covered. You wana stop sneakin? Get that out of your head agent. You're *never* going to stop.

Ok srs time. It's a fantastic little game, to just sit back and relax through, with hilarious and dumb (in the good way) dialog. It looks like a pre-Nintendo 64 game with massive polygons but it is intended and looks great because of it.

9/10 needs more tiny adorable side-kicks.

MGS1 VR Missions turned in to a roguelike. Even the music is like MGS. I'm down with this game.

Never Stop Sneakin' is a PC port from the Nintendo Switch.
Unfortunately, the Steam version suffers a few problems.
The cut-scenes freeze the game and the sound stutters.
These are problems that the developer cannot fix.
When returning to the main menu your mouse cursor disappears.
The levels all play exactly the same without any player interaction.
All you really do in this game is move the character.
Fighting and searching are performed automatically.
The different player skins and weapons are purely cosmetic.
On a positive note, the song and soundtrack and great.

This is a fun game that has the atmosphere of metal gear solid. The theme song to this game is FANTASTIC! And you will know what i mean when you jump in ;) If you like top down stealth games then you will like this. It is surprisingly funny from the dialogue you read to the types of weapons you can unlock (like a sword that is a cross of an eel and a fish). For people who like really hard stealth games: It isn't really difficult. (especially at the begining) but as you keep playing you unlock greater access to go further which adds more bosses you have to fight and more floors you have to clear. And that definately starts adding to the difficulty. Where if you aren't paying close attention you will pay for it! But even with that this isn't a really difficult stealth game. It is more accessable but loads of fun. Another thing i like is the randomization. Every time you go into another floor (even if it is the same level you just died on) it is different and randomly generated. And so is the unlock you get (like characters and weapons) to also the dialogue. The main story dialogue is different but there is different added and random dialogue around it. I was next to my friend and we were both playing through the same parts and getting seperate funny dialogue. Which adds to the appeal to me! <3. I love this game and to me this is definately worth the price it is asking. The game play is roughly 18-20 hours because i just hit 9 hours and 50 minutes and it says i have 52% complete. So there is a lot to play! If you don't like stealth game then you probably won't like this. But you could because this game isn't as hair pullingly hard as noraml ones are and that is the reason why one of my Steam friends who normally hates stealth games LOVES this game and put at least 6 hours into it in one sitting! So there is definately hope! And if you don't like the difficulty level to be more gradual. (it takes about 2-3 hours in my opinion to start to get difficult) then that might bug you. But other then that if you are tempted at all and need another fun, creative, funny stealth game...Then this is the game for you! Go buy it now!

If you've played a Metal Gear game and enjoyed it. You'll not only get a laugh out of Never Stop Sneakin', but you're also likely to enjoy its core gameplay. Which feels to me like its based around a Metal Gear Solid speedrun, only massively simplified to the point where your focus is entirely on precise, fast movement through the level.

If you've never played a Metal Gear game, but enjoy infinite runners, or similar almost mobile-style randomly generated games with a focus on movement. This game can offer that and more, without all the usual microtransaction baggage that comes with mobile games.

Failing either of those points, watch the trailer and see what you think. If you're still uncertain, maybe watch some gameplay. The only controls are for movement, so you should get a good idea how it works from watching a video.

I love this game already. It's just a ton of fun. If any part of it appeals to you, it'll deliver. Except perhaps, don't expect immediate super-challenging difficulty. I can't say whether it delivers on that front later. But this isn't a game I would pick for a challenge, I would just pick it when I want to replay Metal Gear Solid but can't find my PS1 controller.