A secret research facility. Terrorists bent on global destruction. A stealth operative with the skills to take them down. Sure, it might look like Metal Gear Solid at first, but this is Covert Critter, an indie love letter to the first of Hideo Kojima’s stealth game series, with a highly trained gecko taking the place of Solid Snake.
Covert Critter features eight levels, and Koss must make his way through each of them without being detected. On-site, he’ll find a wide variety of gadgets and gear that will help him bypass security and put a stop to the Red Hawks, a terrorist group that plans on launching a nuclear missile.
You’ll find boomboxes, banana peels, recon drones, and more throughout the levels, which also have various secrets to uncover for the completionists out there. For his part, Koss dons the headband and smouldering cigarette that Solid Snake kept handy, but instead of a cardboard box, Koss can use his innate gecko cloaking ability to sneak around.
Covert Critter is available on itch.io for however much you’re willing to spend. The developers are sodaraptor, who did the art and design, and NormalHumanSixx, who handled features and coding. Covert Critter was built in just 12 days, but the developers say it’ll take around half an hour to complete. You can always go back to hunt down the secret items, if you’re itching for more stealth gecko action.
If you’re an old-school Metal Gear Solid fan, or just have a lot of nostalgia for the wobbly polygons of the early 3D era in gaming, Covert Critter is worth a download.
Of course, the original Metal Gear Solid games are now available for PC, thanks to a recent update to the PlayStation originals.