Sometimes you encounter games that make you feel like you’ve gone back in time a few decades. As a vintage gamer with a soft spot for many classic titles, many times this is a positive. They Know, unfortunately, falls more into the category where the reminders of yesteryear aren’t positive ones.

Now, I’ll concede that the basic idea and main character have some goofy appeal if you’re into tinfoil hats and all, but the actual play fails to inspire much interest. The first issue is just that the “stealth” play it offers is extremely basic overall, with your goal being to elude detection by guards, sensors, or any other means. By staying out of view by positioning yourself properly around corners or hidden behind or in objects you’ll try to be patient and make your move to get a look at whatever the facility you’re in is trying to hide. 

The issue for me is the mixture of the somewhat isometric view, the fact that any movement you make advances everything else on screen, and that cleanly navigating the levels can be a problem. You can absolutely know what you need to do, go to make your move, but when trying to turn down a hallway misjudge your position, end up “walking into the wall” which advances the guards, and doom your chances of success for the worst reasons. Sure, you can choose to overlook this issue, but with the game not offering up all that much to begin with in the grand scheme of things (also lacking Pro Controller support at the time of review), the end result simply isn’t satisfying enough for the added trouble.