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Rent-A-Spy is a fun puzzle-oriented game, in the same style as The Plant, but not nearly as well implemented. The game boasts many fun espionage puzzles that require the use of James Bond-style high-tech gadgetry and stealthy techniques. One idea I really like in the game is that you must cover your tracks perfectly, at every step of the way, in order to see the best ending of the game. Instead of stealing documents, for example, you have to find a way to copy them and put the originals back in place. Many puzzles are fun, although there are insufficient clues for many of them. On the downside, the quality of writing is not consistent, and there is unfortunately a lot of bugs and frustrating "guess-the-verb" puzzles. The game would have no doubt benefited from more play-testing and a few more clues. As it stands, Rent-A-Spy is a good game that was released prematurely. It shares many similarities with 2001 comp entry Fine Tuned: both games are well-written, boast a high "labor of love" production value (i.e. many optional actions, customized responses, etc.), but are bogged down by many bugs due to inadequate play-testing. Post-competition releases of Fine Tuned are much better than the original after the bugs were ironed out, so here is hoping that Rent-A-Spy would get a similar treatment, because it has a lot of potential to be a great game. Recommended as it stands, but be sure to save early and save often! :) Reviewed by: Underdogs | 
