Spy Tools: 5 Essential Gadgets in the Video Game Spy Toolbox
Spy tools include much more than the mental and physical prowess needed to engage in espionage—a good spy will also be armed with a variety of weapons, gadgets, and gizmos to achieve their sneaky ends. Whether they’re futuristic or rooted in age-old technology, spy tools are an extension of a secret agent’s skills in the same way that a hammer and saw serve a carpenter.
Every spy needs a good set of tools, but what are the essential ingredients? These are just some of the most essential video game spy tools, with every fictional spy preferring their own twist on the technology.
Lock Picks Unlock New Paths and Treasure
If you’re a spy, at some point you’ll have to enter a place where you’re not welcome. For that job, you’ll need lock picks, tools intended to fool a lock into mistaking moving pins for a proper key.
Lock picks play a vital role in many games, allowing players to access forbidden areas or treasure without fighting their way through guarded entrances. Bethesda’s Skyrim and other Elder Scrolls games use lock picking regularly, as does the upcoming Alekhine’s Gun—in both games, lock picking opens a minigame that requires players to solve a small puzzle to open the lock. The minigame serves the purpose of actively engaging players with the lock picking skill, adding tension and drama to a moment that might otherwise be executed with a simple press of a button.
Bugs and Wires Keep Spies Informed
Even in places where a spy’s presence would be noticed, there’s still a way to get needed information—bugging devices. Bugs take many forms, including wires that are worn by people and covert listening devices that are left behind to hear private conversations.
Bugs and all their associated devices are common in espionage games. Missions requiring these kinds of spy tools are usually more structured than lock picking, requiring a player to infiltrate a room, often using disguises, as in Alekhine’s Gun. Planting a bug requires different skills than lock picking or assassination—you have to be quick, you have to blend in, and you need to know where you’re going. You can’t solve a problem that requires a listening device by shooting your way out, so stealth is key.
Garrotes Get the Dirty Work Done Silently
Garrotes are definitely not spy tools anybody should be using in everyday life, but they’re invaluable for video game spies who lean toward the assassin role. A garrote is a pretty loose term, but at its core it means a handheld weapon—a chain, rope, or wire, for example—that can be used to strangle someone.
Garrotes are a popular weapon in many stealth games because they allow players to take out their enemies silently, rather than attracting attention by firing a weapon or entering a fistfight. The fiber wire—a specific type of garrote—is the trademark weapon of Hitman‘s Agent 47, allowing him to dispatch enemies quietly, eliminating them one by one, rather than gunning them all down. In a game based on social stealth, that silence is a huge asset.
Darkness Is Your Friend with Night-Vision Goggles
Having even the slightest edge over your opponent is a huge help when you’re a spy. While darkness might have once been a hindrance to spies, night-vision goggles turn the dark into a negligible challenge. Night-vision goggles allow spies and secret agents to complete missions under cover of darkness, which is a valuable tool when discovery means failure.
Night-vision goggles are one of the most iconic tools of the Splinter Cell series, particularly because Sam Fisher’s special Multi-Vision goggles have a few extra features beyond what their real-world counterparts typically offer. These goggles not only allow the wearer to see in the dark, but they also include thermal imagery to allow Fisher to pick out enemies using their body heat and EMF vision to help identify electronic traps and other devices that might otherwise go unseen. This twist on the classic device has become a symbol for the series, setting it apart from similar spy tools in other games.
Silencers Might Not Be Realistic, But They’re Useful
Not all conflicts can be navigated without killing, particularly not in the more morally gray stealth games. For those times, there are silencers—devices that attach to weapons to dampen the recoil, flash, and noise that comes with firing a shot. Silencers work by giving the gas that expands during a weapon firing more room to cool and grow. This lowers the sound, but, unlike portrayals in media, a silenced .22 rifle is still just slightly quieter than thunder.
Still, silencers are one of the most valuable spy tools you can have. Because games aren’t bound to reality, silencers can quiet a weapon down to a level that allows you to take out enemies quickly and quietly without alerting other guards. Silencers are a common feature in a variety of games ranging from popular first-person shooters like Call of Duty to action RPGs like Mass Effect.
Spy Arsenals Vary, But Build Upon Basic Elements
Spy tools can be tiny tech pieces to collect information or high-powered weaponry, but they all add something a little different to the genre. The spy games we love wouldn’t the same without their unique arsenal of tools and gadgets—whether it’s Corvo’s rats, the Dragonborn’s magical bows, or Agent Alekhine’s disguises. Similar genres should take advice from these spy games, and take advantage of these cool tools and the freedom that they offer to the game narrative.
Alekhine’s Gun arms you with everything you need to be a master spy. Now available for PC or console!
