VIDEO GAME With tired plot, 'Spy Fiction' lacks creative energy

The visuals are solid, but the sound is disappointing.
By JUSTIN HOEGER
SACRAMENTO BEE
"Spy Fiction" tries to meld elements of the "Metal Gear Solid" and "Splinter Cell" stealth series with a bigger dose of action, but things don't really jell. The game has some neat gadgets and abilities, but pretty much everything it does has been done better somewhere else.
The plot concerns (what else?) a terrorist organization called Enigma, and the elite spy corps whose job it is to stop it. That group is called Phantom. Players pick one of two members, Billy Bishop or Sheila Crawford -- and then plummet to Earth from 10,000 feet in a high-altitude, low-opening parachute jump.
The HALO is a neat start, but the game slows down a bit from there. There's a lot of sneaking around to be done, and while the game heavily emulates "Metal Gear" in the way enemy soldiers search for our chosen spy and in how that spy can avoid them, the game isn't entirely without originality.
For one thing, either spy can fade into the background by crouching still. Their suits can change color to match their surroundings. By using a picture of a given character, these suits can camouflage Billy or Sheila as pretty much anyone -- or Sheila can, at any rate. Billy is limited to male characters, but he's tougher than Sheila.
Heroes in disguise
Anyway, once a suitable picture is taken, all our heroes need do is hop into a nearby barrel or trash bin or garbage can and change clothes. Sometimes they'll even find a prize of some kind; the game cheekily uses garbology as a means to collect information.
The disguises aren't foolproof, of course. Act suspicious, attack or get searched too many times, and the discovered persona is then listed as "wanted," and won't be safely usable for a while. It's a novel take on the disguise aspect of stealthy operations.
Aside from their suits, this duo can move nearly silently, cling to ceilings with special spider grips, eavesdrop on enemy conversations and employ a number of high-tech gadgets. These doohickeys range from James Bondian exploding pencils to "Splinter Cell"-inspired micro cameras to "Mission Impossible"-style rappelling kits. They've also got some nasty weapons, such as razor-sharp boomerang throwing cards, a toe blade, grenades and various firearms.
When it comes to unarmed combat, our heroes have a few tricks. They can punch and kick, pull off a back flip that can damage foes and sneak up behind an enemy to choke him into unconsciousness.
The visuals are pretty good, with some decent detail and animation. The character designs range from the somewhat generic anime-inspired heroes to the goofy-looking Enigma soldiers, which resemble cut-rate storm troopers with their bulky white armor. They don't shoot much better, either.
Actually, the artificial intelligence is pretty dumb. If discovered, Billy or Sheila can simply run around a corner, turn on the ol' stealth camouflage and wait for the heat to pass; the Enigma goons never think to check out that blurry shape against the wall.
The sound is disappointing, though. Battle sounds are weak and muffled-sounding, the music is uninspiring and the voice acting is OK, but hobbled by some really bad lines.
"Spy Fiction" is more cheesy than bad, and though it's derivative, at least it has the good sense to steal its ideas from the best.
X"Spy Fiction," by Sammy Studios for Sony PlayStation 2, is rated M for mature gamers.