Stopping outside one of the interaction zones - circles for conversations, squares in front of objects - is as good as screaming “I’m a person!”, while hovering around VIPs looks pretty suspicious. There are so many ways to draw attention to yourself. The other guests can’t see the eye's dread gaze, and if you want to survive, you’ve got to pretend that you can’t either. Maybe the sniper is trying to elicit a reaction. When that laser focuses on you, it’s like having the Eye of Sauron bearing down. The spy game is a stressful race against the clock where, whatever you do, you can’t rush. While top notch observational skills are attractive traits for both prospective snipers and spies, the roles are still wildly different experiences. But to actually figure out who the spy is, the sniper has to create a list of suspects, memorise the room and generally keep their eyes peeled for even the slightest discrepancy. For the spy it’s a list of typical sneaky shenanigans, from bugging ambassadors to contacting double agents, while the sniper has a single objective: kill the spy. Though you're operating on a knife edge, it demands that both players - the eponymous spy and their nemesis, the sniper - shrug off the tension and commit themselves to completing their tasks with a laser focus. SpyParty is a game of life-shortening paranoia and tension. I’m not a machine I’m a startled person who has to briefly recalculate, and that’s all it takes for the laser sight to swing over to me. For a split second my brain fires up again. I’m almost at my destination when a spanner is flung into the works in the form of a booze-swigging ambassador, sauntering over to the shiny eagle I intend to make away with. I’m following a script with the single-mindedness of a machine. I empty my brain and follow the path I’ve settled on in my head. This plush apartment houses more than a few pieces of art I can pinch, but this one is out of the way, somewhere I’m pretty sure nobody will be looking. Nerves already shot, I extract myself from the conversation I’m using as cover and head towards the golden statue, my prize. This week, Fraser's pretending to be an NPC, badly, in the asymmetric game of spies and snipers, SpyParty. Premature Evaluation is the weekly column in which we explore the wilds of early access.
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