Death to Spies

by Atari

Product Features

• Death to Spies is a third person stealth action game set in World War II.
• Some of your missions Include stealing important documents, eliminating enemy officers or officials, kidnapping, and sabotage.
• Death to Spies is based on real historical events

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B000RPKCTC
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5.5 x 1.2 inches ; 6.4 ounces
• Media: Video Game
• Release Date: October 16, 2007
• Average Customer Review: 2.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (48 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #22,912 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Amazon.com

Product Description
Smersh is Russian for "Death to Spies" and was the name of a set of counterintelligence departments in the Soviet Army formed during World War II. Their mission was to secure the rear of the active Red Army by arresting traitors, deserters, spies and criminal elements. During the war these agents became the main force combating the German intelligence service. Their mission was to secure the rear of the active Red Army by arresting traitors, deserters, spies and criminal elements. During the war these agents became the main force combating the German intelligence service.

In Death to Spies you operate as Captain Semion Strogov, who is part of the Soviet counterintelligence service. As a professional spy you carry out operations by completing various task behind enemy lines. These tasks include stealing important documents, eliminating or kidnapping different enemy officers, and sabotaging enemy plans. These assignments are based on real historical events and operations that were carried out by Soviet military intelligence and counterintelligence during World War II.

Types of Missions:

• Steal locked documents
• Take photos of top secret blueprints
• Plant explosives in order to sabotage enemy structures
• Locate and rescue, or eliminate, key soviet agents

Take advantage of challenging interior and exterior locations over a total of almost 4.5 miles. Your missions take you into a various locations including: winter in a ruined city, a hotel "somewhere" in Europe, spy school in Prague, a rural Russian village, Los Alamos research facility, and an enemy labor camp

Product Description

Smersh is Russian for "Death to Spies" and was the name of a set of counterintelligence departments in the Soviet Army formed during World War II. Their mission was to secure the rear of the active Red Army by arresting traitors, deserters, spies and criminal elements. During the war these agents became the main force combating the German intelligence service.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars While it isn't great it isn't bad either, October 20, 2007

By 

T. Kunikov (United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

= Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Death to Spies (Video Game)

(What's this?)

I'm not a huge fan of these spy games to begin with but I am a history major and the Eastern Front of WWII is my forte, so that's the real reason I decided to try out this game. Well, in the historical sense this game isn't exactly accurate. SMERSH was a counter-intelligence service, not an intelligence service. They operated in their army's own rear, not in the rear of the enemy. Those who operated behind enemy lines were recon forces, partisans, and others, but not SMERSH.

So, with that out of the way, I can honestly say that I like the game. I like the choice of weapons, the missions are interesting, and the AI isn't stupid. The graphics aren't great and it's at times hard to be accurate when using the weapons, but, we're talking about WWII, so that's forgivable.

Obviously few people will share the same opinions so if you liked third person 'action' games in the sense of 'splinter cell' then you will probably enjoy this game as well. Sneaking around, assassinating people, dumping bodies, stealing documents, using chloroform and knives, and so on and so forth. The game has it all in abundance.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Fun if You Enjoy Basic Training Drills, May 4, 2009

By 

R. A Forczyk (MD, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

= Fun:2.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Death to Spies (Video Game)

(What's this?)

Death to Spies is a FPS/RPG where the player assumes the role of a Soviet scout in 1943-5. Some of the early missions are more military-oriented, e.g. in support of Operation Bagration, while later missions tend to be more spy-oriented. The designers certainly got the Red Army uniforms correct. Overall, the quality of the graphics are decent and the game has some unusual items that are not standard in WW2 games, but it is just not very much fun or instructive. The emphasis here is on stealth and sneaking around to accomplish objectives which are often quite nebulous (several times I had to ask, what am I supposed to be doing here?).

The main character is usually equipped with a sub-machinegun, a pistol and sometimes a sniper rifle, along with a "bottomless" back pack that can carry everything but the proverbial kitchen sink. The A/I Germans you are up against are fairly dense, but if they spot you, their aim is quite good. In most firefights, the main character is usually killed off quickly - the emphasis here is not getting spotted. As it turns out, being sneaky may be realistic, but it makes for a long, dull game of crawling and hiding. The game has some unique features, like using chloroform to knock out guards, lock-picking and hiding bodies in wells, but otherwise the basic training section seems to consist of endless ladder climbing drills. Levels are very difficult to compete and you won't get much help. Frankly, this is the kind of game that you play a couple times and never look at again.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Nicholas Cage from NEXT becomes Dr. Zhivago ..., November 24, 2007

By 

Steffan Piper (Palm Desert, CA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

= Fun:2.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Death to Spies (Video Game)

(What's this?)

This title follows in the strong tradition of: "Move silent and carry a big container of Chloroform."

The game's main character is Semion, a Captain in the 4th Department of the Soviet Counterintelligence Service called SMERSH. And little did we know that SMERSH is an abbreviation from Russian which means `Death to Spies'. Good lord.

So, is this another game based on reality or something obscure from history? Apparently, all the missions in the game are based on documentary essays of people connected with the counterintelligence service of that time period. But this is a video game on a PC platform, so the realism only goes so far, regardless of the intricate storyline that the game tries pretty hard to sell you on.

Semion, as we are told, is a professional spy trained to execute dangerous operations on his own. During missions he will have to eliminate different enemy officers or high-ranking officials, kidnap and sabotage, blah blah blah - and all the other usual non-sense that comes along with your purchase into the world of deep-cover KGB.

If you enjoy covert op games in a third-person view, this game will feel much like Splinter Cell, but without all the latest gadgets. This First-Person Shooter is set during WWII where night vision was not a reality yet.

Though the tools at hand are primitive, they are effective, lock picking becomes your best-friend and dressing up in another man's clothes almost becomes an obsession, but don't worry too much about body lice or bad odors.

But as I read: "Your choke cord and chloroform will be your best friends." I slowly began to realize different. In my experience, my best and only friend was 'Quick Save.' I started to feel like Nicholas Cage in the movie `Next', where he would see his death seconds before and then moments later avoid it.

In Death to Spies, which is NOT a hearkened call by Gerard Butler from `300', you actually die, but beautifully respawn to make the appropriate adjustment. The difficulty level of Death to Spies is quite high because it's realistic; the game plays fair, although you will always be against a heavily armed and superior force in terms of numbers. And not willing to run through the entire mission again, and equally unwilling to review an entire game based only on the experiences gained in the first level, I did what every desperate gamer does at least once: I Googled up the cheat codes and opened the remaining levels. So sue me; I'm a spy, so your lawyer probably isn't going to be able to find me!

So, here are the core codes you'll need. And this game is so incredibly hard that they should've printed these on the packaging:

Cheat "silence" - Enables silent movement

Cheat "camouflage" - Appear disguised from the enemy

Cheat "invisible" - Guards can't see you

Cheat "disable ai" - Disables AI

setv cl_superman 1 - God Mode

setv c_noammo 1 - Infinite ammo

OpenLevels - Access all levels

PL_SavePos - Save your game

PL_RestorePos - Load your game

As I worked through the levels (and yes, at some point 'worked' became the appropriate verb), I found that the most useful skills to learn were:

1) how to get a guard separated from a group,

2) how to get behind him to stun, chloroform, or choke him in order to swap clothes with him, and

3) how to avoid officers. In Death to Spies it is critically important.

4) Cheat Code: Cheat "silence" and OpenLevels.

Overall I would recommend this title for those that enjoy playing this style of game. It was nicely done and seemed very realistic. Russians rarely do anything small. Russian novels are rarely under 600 pages, Russian Poetry goes on for days at a time and Russian architecture is usually painfully grandiose and redundant, much like this game.

Death to Spies will probably become a cult classic amongst games if it gets played by enough people for the simple fact that it is so incredibly difficult to get through that bragging rights should be established for those that can get through the game:

1) With Cheat Codes

2) Without Cheat Codes

3) Length of time stuck to your computer playing this.

People will talk about this game in years to come when they're adults and use this as a standard for separating true gamers from the uber-obsessive halo-kiddies. So far, no other plans have been made to put it on any other console, so it's dream of becoming really big may be thwarted yet.

But remember, this game is far from fun ... it's frustrating, difficult and incredibly complex ... Well done!