The Gamemaster determines the difficulty of the saving throw, and the player then rolls two six-sided dice and adds the value of the relevant attribute of his/her character.

and concluded, "Mercenaries, Spies & Private Eyes is one of the best-presented role-playing games I've ever seen, and if it isn't seriously in contention for a Charlie at Origins I'll be surprised.

It seems more open-ended than the other games: Utilizing MSPE rules, you could play out such varied adventurers as Murder on the Orient Express, The Dogs of War, or the exploits of James Bond.

"[5] In the January 1984 edition of White Dwarf (Issue #49), John Sutherland found the rules to be badly organized, and attempted to cover too much, with the result that little of substance was revealed.

"[4] Nick Davison reviewed Mercenaries, Spies & Private Eyes for the British games magazine Imagine, and stated that "MS&PE is an unsuccessful attempt to graft too many ideas together.

Economics is glossed over (a practical decision, given the time period addressed), and in general there is insufficient support for campaign-level role-playing."

However, Rolston liked the "pleasant, light and practical" writing style, and found two of the chapters in the rulebook, "The Art of Detection" and "Using Live Clues", especially useful, calling them "necessary reading for mystery FRP gamemasters."

"This might be considered a handicap if what you’re trying to do is role-play the A-Team, but it serves as a definite advantage if you’re trying to get your players to do something besides shoot anything that moves (and many things that don’t)."

Walker concluded with an unequivocal recommendation: "If you’re planning on role-playing in the modern era, whether you’re interested in James Bond or George Smiley — or even Nero Wolfe —this would be an excellent system to choose.

Nonetheless, Swan gave this game an excellent rating of 3.5 out of 4, saying, it's a lot of fun, and easily one of the most ingenious private eye/secret agent RPGs ever published.