Agent 64: Spies don’t have time to die until they die. review

Before Dawn, GoldenEye 007, released in 1997, was considered the best James Bond game. Of course, it’s hard enough to play the game now, but its release certainly made a splash – the project was innovative in many ways, offered a ton of content, and introduced console players to the mature 3D shooter genre. Since then, the genre hasn’t stopped evolving, and at some point, so-called “boomer shooters” began to appear – indie developers trying to make games “as they were then”, using outdated graphics and focusing more on gameplay. These include Agent 64: Spies Never Die – a project that is very similar to GoldenEye in terms of setting, gameplay and content.

⇡#time machine

Even if you’re unfamiliar with the lone developer’s sources of inspiration (he did everything but the music), Agent 64 looks like a shooter made in the old mold from the get-go. A blurry introductory video shows us a massive penthouse atop a skyscraper. The gray-haired protagonist bears some resemblance to actor Sean Connery, with his head resembling a horned sphere with textured stretches on it. The simplest ones work with cameras that refuse to stand still and fly around different objects. We are then asked to reach the exit with a weapon in hand, completing several missions along the way which, oddly enough, is also a reference to GoldenEye 007.

At times, Agent 64 feels like a lost Nintendo 64 game, which is probably the best compliment a developer can give.

In fact, one of the game’s innovative features is the presence of multiple missions within a level. The idea was taken from Super Mario 64 and applied to first-person shooters – not only do you need to defeat everyone and reach the last room, but you also need to do other things: rescue hostages, find files, break into doors, etc. The number of these mini-missions depends on the chosen difficulty level – on the easiest difficulty level there are the fewest missions, but on the highest difficulty level you have more missions to complete and more aggressive opponents to deal with. Everything here is implemented in exactly the same way: if you choose the “Agent 64” difficulty at the beginning of the mission, the target list will be one and a half (or even twice) longer than if you limit yourself to the usual “Agent”.

The similarities to ancient archers don’t stop there – on the contrary, you notice them more and more. There are no checkpoints in the game, so if you die, you have to complete the level from the beginning. Wounds cannot be healed, as there is no first aid kit, but the problem is made somewhat simpler by rare body armor, which is not always easy to find. The missions themselves don’t take too long – at worst, you spend ten minutes on each mission, so you won’t be too frustrated by the loss of progress after you die. The most important difference is the campaign’s co-op playthrough – all 14 missions can be completed in split-screen mode and online. In the first case they allow you to call only one comrade, while in the second they allow you to call up to three comrades.

All enemies leave behind weapons that can be picked up and used

Most importantly, the game’s gunplay is similar to GoldenEye 007. You can fire in two ways: either relying on auto-aim or aiming yourself. Both options are hardly ideal. In the first case, the character chooses who he wants to shoot, but you don’t always agree with his choice – he can focus on the sniper standing in the distance instead of attacking the enemy in front of him with his shotgun. In the second case we have to put up with inconvenient controls – when aiming, the character cannot move, a crosshair appears on the screen, and we can move the crosshair on the screen like a cursor.

As so-so as it sounds, the enemy artificial intelligence isn’t all that great either – they rarely hide behind cover and roll around comically trying to dodge our bullets. But that’s what it’s about, and that’s how GoldenEye 007 plays – despite the small number of mechanics, in order to achieve an ideal playthrough on high difficulty, you have to learn to shoot using both auto-aim and cross-cursor, quickly deciding which is better in a given situation. Especially when you pass a level the first time and then the game asks you to replay the level to try to reach the finish line within the allotted time. And the task seems impossible every time—sometimes you have two minutes to complete it, other times a minute and a half. You memorize the enemy’s location, decide you can run past it, and so on. The rewards are worth it – game modifiers like permanent on-screen crosshairs, endless ammo and other bonuses.

Some places have great atmosphere, but sometimes you can get lost – the exits aren’t always obvious

⇡#back there again

With the possibility of repeating a playthrough, Agent 64 is generally well organized – the developers have done everything so that you can return to completed chapters over and over again and always do something new there. The aforementioned difficulty levels affect the accuracy of the target list and enemies – at their easiest, they’re as “good” at shooting as a Stormtrooper from Star Wars. The masks (here, collectibles) hidden in each mission aren’t always easy to find on your own, but after completing a level for the first time, a screenshot of its location will be shown in the menu. Finding them unlocks contracts – game-changing challenges. For example, a rapidly ticking timer starts counting down, and only eliminating your opponent adds precious seconds.

Annoyingly, players are effectively forced to replay levels even if they just want to complete all campaign missions. The game has a so-called password system, and if you don’t have enough passwords, at some point access to the next chapter will be closed. You can get them by completing maps of other difficulty levels or completing contracts, which isn’t always possible the first time around. The same thing happens in multiplayer – although there are three modes (Deathmatch, Capture the Flag Equivalent, and Fixed Point), only one of them will be available initially, and you’ll need to complete individual challenges to unlock the rest. The author’s logic is very clear – perhaps, if there were no such restrictions, players would ignore entertainment other than “plot”. But that doesn’t mean the idea is a good one.

Sometimes you have to face hordes of enemies: on higher difficulties it is better to leave cover less often

Still, even if the campaign runs smoothly from start to finish, Agent 64 still won’t score high. The fact is that it successfully copied “GoldenEye 007”, but in fact nothing more. It’s a strange exhibit in the Steam “museum” – an unusual game that was inspired by a shooter from years ago, very similar to it, but nothing more. The filming is simple, and the level design isn’t great – the locations are varied, but sometimes you’ll get tired of running down the corridors. There may seem to be a stealth element, but how enemies react to your shots is a lottery every time. Well, the plot is as simple as two pennies: we play as agent John Voight, who thought he had defeated his greatest enemy, but in fact he survived and is now terrorizing his family and the entire city. The characters are not voiced and the cinematography is intentionally poor – the story was added for “show” sake and will definitely not make it into the golden fund of Bond films.

***

“Spies Never Die” is a brilliant copy of “GoldenEye”, and it’s a copy, not an imitation. This isn’t a “clone” or a rip-off – this is a game inspired by classic shooters, with much of it in the spirit of the legendary project from the Nintendo 64 era. There are even escort missions where companions crawl under the gun and risk dying from their own bullets – like Natalia Simonova, who was saved by Bond in that game and is considered one of the most annoying sidekicks in the history of the industry. But in the end there are so many similarities and nothing unique that Agent 64 only serves as a nostalgic reminder of that era – yes, those were games, but now they’re different. If you want to “travel through time” you can enjoy this game, but it will fade from your memory very quickly.

advantage:

• It’s an excellent attempt at making a game in the spirit of a Nintendo 64 shooter, with similar graphics and identical gameplay;
• Nearly a dozen unique missions with tasks that vary by difficulty level;
• Plenty of challenges and rewards so it makes sense to replay levels;
• Co-op and multiplayer modes in the campaign, with the ability to play against humans or bots.

defect:

• Missions do require replaying to progress to later story chapters;
• A lot of plagiarized elements from “GoldenEye 007” with few new ideas;
• If you’re unfamiliar with shooters from the Nintendo 64 era, this game is unlikely to interest you.

Rating: 7.0/10

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