Review: Agents! - Unfriendly Forensic Competition
by Felix Xiao
November 29, 2010
Overview
Ever wondered what it was like to be a secret agent? Clickgamer.com's Agents! puts you into the shoes of a spy as you attempt to retrieve classified information and important documents before the enemy secures the intel first.
Features
The game has campaign, quick play, and local multiplayer game modes in which you and your opponent both explore a map with several rooms. Each sector of the building houses objects that can be searched to reveal secret documents and spy tools. Your goal in a level is to find these papers before the other agent does and use 8 weapons and booby traps to prevent them from doing so. Quick play mode lets you set up your own scenario with 4 spies, 3 locations, and 3 map sizes. Agents! is a universal app and also features Crystal integration with challenges.The Good
Agents! is a fairly entertaining game to play against real people, and multiplayer is the best part of the game if you can find someone to play against. Although you can only play with 2 people locally, it's truly a lot of fun to explore the same map with another person while setting up traps for each other and tracking character locations in the minimap at the bottom. Campaign mode has you playing against AI, which while isn't as fun, can still be challenging to complete.
There aren't many spy vs. spy games available in the app store, making Agents! a unique espionage puzzler with a decent storyline. In each mission, you break into buildings and scramble for blueprints and chips while trying not to get caught. When you do kill an enemy, they respawn in a different room, as otherwise it would be too easy to finish the level. The 4 weapons and 4 traps help to make things more interesting and let you plan out a well-timed attack on the enemy spy.
The Bad
While the game is enjoyable in multiplayer mode, there are certain elements in the campaign that really tone down your overall experience. The behavior of the other agent seems to be unpredictable, as sometimes he'll stay in one room the entire time or move from sector to sector really quickly. Your agent acts strangely as well, especially when searching objects. Sometimes he'll walk halfway across the room to search a lamp whereas other times he'll stand there and uncover a blueprint from the table on the opposite side of the room. Your enemy begins to use booby traps pretty early on in the game, and there's nothing more frustrating than walking into a single one of these invisible death machines, making you restart the level.
Agents! has weird controls that don't permit you to perform close range actions. If you stand right in front of a piece of furniture and try to search it, nothing will happen. The only way you can interact with the items around you is if you target them from a distance. The game's text has strange grammar at times too, with apostrophes where they shouldn't be. When playing on a map with 36 rooms, it's extremely difficult to keep track of which ones you've already finished searching. This and the repetitive nature make way for some lengthy levels that can be ended with touching the wrong door or walking into a tripwire.
The camera movement isn't very smooth and sometimes interferes with the game's controls. Rotating the screen is probably the easiest way to get lost in the game, and it's hard to do so without moving your spy as well. The graphics look decent until you start moving. They then look almost pixelated with rough textures and horrible lighting that could be greatly improved.
