As Time Surrenders is a dirt-filtered stealth ’em up lurking in the shadows of Metal Gear Solid V

There was a moment in gaming history when it looked like all games would succumb to the dullest colours imaginable: brown and grey. Resident Evil 4, Fallout 3, Gears Of War – all bleary examples of a grubby visual style. This peaked in Clive Barker’s Jericho, a shooter so desaturated it felt like the colour settings on your monitor were banjaxed. I have heard this called “the piss filter” and generally lamented in industry circles. But it was always a puposeful choice, intended to add some grittiness to the world. And there’s at least one developer who is reviving “smeared dirt” as an art direction. As Time Surrenders is a very brown stealth game that takes a lot of inspiration from Metal Gear Solid V.

“A man journeys through a desolate landscape, carrying a mysterious canister,” says the game’s website. “He is driven by a purpose only he understands. Crawl, crouch, sneak and shoot your way through the end of the world in this stealth-action game.”

What that translates to is something that looks a lot like MGSV: Ground Zeroes. You’ll be able to crouch-dive into the mud in a moment of panic, and tag enemies with thermal goggles. It’s still early days, judging by the developer’s various social media posts. But there is some footage that puts together the prototypical movement and scouting you’ll be doing.

As for all that brown, you can see some of the inspiration for the colour palette in a selection of retro games posted by Freyre, including Max Payne 2 and Star Wars: Shadows Of The Empire.

Merlino Games, aka Antonio Freyre, has made a hanful of other games, mostly cheap and cheerful “minimalist stealth games” including the retro ragdoll punchin’ of The Chameleon, as well as No Sun To Worship, another moody stealtho that looks like Splinter Cell but is really, we’re told, all “about the importance of art”. It’s certainly got some very crunchy pixel textures. Mmmmm.

No clue when this latest sneaky endeavour is due to be released. As Time Surrenders doesn’t even have its own Steam page yet – it’s that early in development. For stealth fans, it will probably be beaten to the punch by Konami remake Metal Gear Solid Delta, but hey, it’s not a race. It’s a procure-on-site infiltration mission.