Agent 64: Spies Never Die

**A Masterclass in Retro Espionage Shooters** *Agent 64: Spies Never Die* hits the exact sweet spot for anyone who grew up on late-90s shooters. While the sprawling level design borrows heavily from *Perfect Dark*, the game ultimately plants its boots firmly in the grounded, Cold War/classic James Bond espionage tone of *GoldenEye 007* rather than full-blown sci-fi cyberpunk. --- **Level Design, Scale & Homage** The missions wear their influences proudly on their sleeves, blending the modular creativity of classic bsp based *Half-Life* and early *Counter-Strike* beta community maps with authentic N64-era layouts: * **Verticality, Sprawl & Destructibility:** Many indoor missions are noticeably bigger and longer than expected, packed with intense verticality—staircases, multi-level mezzanines, high balconies, and maze-like side offices. A penthouse level immediately channels the corporate infiltration of *dataDyne Central*, while a massive tower stage features textures and layouts that directly evoke the *Grid* multiplayer arena and the *G5 Building* from *Perfect Dark*. You will also run into distinct sections that instantly call back to the classic layout of the *Facility* in *GoldenEye*. While the environments aren't fully destructible—the lobby pillars won't crumble to dust like in *The Matrix*—there are tons of wooden boxes, shatterable windows, desktop computers, and tabletop decorations that blow apart during intense strafing firefights, adding a deeply satisfying punch to every shootout. * **Classic Pacing & Variety:** The game balances these massive, multi-tiered mazes with tighter, classic-scale stages. There are snowy outdoor levels that feel straight out of the Siberian surface and bunker runs in *GoldenEye*, as well as focused, bite-sized encounters. * **Set Pieces:** One distinct encounter is a rooftop helicopter boss fight. While it isn't a massive cinematic spectacle, its mechanics serve as a fun, watered-down callback to the Hind D battle in *Metal Gear Solid*—delivering that recognizable encounter without the punishing difficulty. **Characters & Aesthetic** The character design and presentation strike a fascinating hybrid aesthetic: * **The Leads:** The protagonist channels a blend of Sean Connery-era James Bond and *Perfect Dark*’s Daniel Carrington rather than Pierce Brosnan, while Dana bears an unmistakable resemblance to Joanna Dark. * **Arcade-Tactical Influences:** Other characters lean into a slightly different flavor of late-90s gaming—the main villain, Dominic Pulp, feels like someone who would fit right into *WinBack: Covert Operations* or *Time Crisis* rather than a traditional Rareware rogue. The dialogue delivery and pacing in briefings and cutscenes lean into that same punchy arcade-tactical feel. **Controls, Performance, and Feel** * **Controls Done Right:** Anyone who has tried playing *GoldenEye* or *Perfect Dark* on the Switch with a standard controller knows the struggle—without an authentic N64 pad, the emulated stick mapping feels clumsy and awkward. *Agent 64* avoids that trap entirely. The default button layout resembles *TimeSplitters* on the PS2, but the actual movement and gliding cadence feel authentically close to *GoldenEye* and *Perfect Dark*. While purists have a classic 1.1 scheme available, the default setup is so dialed in that missing legacy layouts like Solitaire 1.2 is a total non-issue. * **Steam Deck Performance:** It runs smoothly on the Steam Deck out of the box, with the controls mapping naturally to the Deck’s layout. There is a slight bit of lag when bringing up the Steam Deck menu overlay button, though that may have been tied to testing it on a low battery. * **Sound Design:** The sound design is heavily reminiscent of *GoldenEye* and *Perfect Dark*—especially the classic enemy death grunts—which immediately scratches that specific retro itch. * **Soundtrack:** The score hits that nostalgic sweet spot of Grant Kirkhope and Graeme Norgate-style espionage music, mixed with other distinct 90s influences—several tracks have clear nods to the driving, breakbeat style of Rob D’s *Clubbed to Death* from *The Matrix*. * **Presentation:** Dialogue is delivered via classic on-screen text banners during briefings and cutscenes rather than full voice acting. **The Gameplay Loop: Speed, Survival & Par Times** The core campaign nails the tension between cautious exploration and aggressive routing: * **Difficulty Tiers & Objectives:** Higher difficulties layer on mandatory secondary objectives, forcing you to master the full layout. * **Health & Armor Economy:** Health cannot be replenished mid-mission—only armor pickups can save you. Careless skirmishes will leave you limping before the extraction point. * **The Par Time Grind:** Beating target par times to unlock cheats is quite difficult. You will definitely struggle to make some of the stricter times, but optimizing your route, bypassing non-essential rooms, and surviving late-mission enemy waves makes the time trial loop endlessly addictive. **Modes, Replayability, and Single-Player Depth** Unlike modern shooters that offer a flat story campaign and put all their eggs in the multiplayer deathmatch basket, *Agent 64* is stacked with content: * **Campaign & Co-Op:** Play through the entire story solo or team up via split-screen or online co-op. * **Challenge Mode:** A dedicated gauntlet inspired directly by *Perfect Dark*’s combat challenges. * **Custom Arena with Bots:** A full-featured combat simulator where you can set up custom matches against AI bots for offline solo skirmishes, or take it split-screen and online. * **The 100% Completion Journey:** Between tracking down cyphers, clearing higher difficulty objectives, uncovering hidden elements in levels for extra contracts, conquering combat challenges, and mastering par times for cheats, the solo suite provides an immense amount of depth to master. --- *Agent 64* captures far more than just retro aesthetics—it restores the sheer depth, varied level pacing, and rewarding progression systems that defined the golden age of console shooters, all while playing smoothly on modern pads and portable hardware alike.

TD;LR A nostalgic throwback that captures the feel of GoldenEye 007, but is held back a bit by inconsistent level design and progression structure Agent 64 is at its best when it fully embraces its nostalgia. It successfully recreates the spirit of GoldenEye 007, delivering solid shooting mechanics, several standout missions, and genuinely creative ideas that make moment-to-moment gameplay consistently engaging. However, this strong foundation is undermined by a campaign that becomes increasingly uneven, with confusing level layouts, abrupt difficulty spikes, limited weapon variety, and the frustrating requirement to replay missions to collect ciphers (in-game currency needed to unlock acts) to progress the story. Note, my experience was almost entirely focused on the campaign/story. I did very little Arena or the other additional modes. Those features seem well implemented, but they are not the focus of my interest at this time. While it does not reach the heights of the titles that inspired it, the core experience remains enjoyable throughout. Despite its flaws, I would still recommend it, particularly to players with nostalgia for this style of old-school FPS (e.g Golden Eye and Perfect Dark)!

En tant que fan absolu de Goldeneye, forcément j'attendais ce jeu et forcément j'en attendais beaucoup En vrai de vrai, je trouve que le jeu remplit bien son objectif à savoir d'être un hommage à Goldeneye et Perfect Dark malgré quelques problèmes qui entâche un peu l'ensemble Bon déjà le positif, c'est que je suis complètement fan de l'esthétique N64, low poly tout ça, vraiment je kiffe et ça marche bien. C'est un bel hommage à un de mes jeux préférés de tous les temps, on y retrouve pas mal de références (parfois trop faut pas se mentir), on a les sensations de l'époque en bien plus fluide bien évidemment avec 300fps ça aide, j'ai eu 0 problème technique Et franchement il y a des bonnes idées, quelques missions qui sortent du lot mais je suis venu chercher du shoot pur et dur et j'ai eu ce que je voulais Par contre faut quand même dire que la durée des niveaux est parfois ridicule (2 minutes ????), ça manque de variété au niveau des flingues, ça fait parfois trop copier coller sur Goldeneye avec certains levels où j'avais juste l'impression de refaire la même qu'à l'époque, même chose pour les objectifs Et pour finir je trouve ça dommage que le jeu en "agent" ait vraiment aucune difficulté parce que les ennemis sont pas foutus de te toucher et c'est dommage de devoir monter pour espérer qu'on me rentre un peu dedans En bref, c'est un jeu vraiment sympa, y'a un multi qui fait le taf en parallèle, je me demande si il y aura d'autres missions à l'avenir parce que ça peut être cool de temps en temps : je recommande si vous voulez un petit jeu pour tuer le temps !

Haven't finished it yet but had a brilliant time so far with Act 1. Secret Agent difficulty feels just right. I recommend not to rely on manual aim too much as it slows down the action to stand still and do that too often. This game is at its best when you run and gun and take cover around corners. Aim for fast speeds, no damage and all side missions cleared. Crank the music up a bit. All things you would want to do also in Goldeneye or Perfect Dark. That way you'll have the best time.

Very fun throwback arcade shooter. Super simple, but tons of fun and can get very challenging on higher difficulties. Solid good time

This game is a breath of fresh air that reminds me how traditional game development can still succeed. - No early access, just an on-time full 1.0 launch - Simple graphics & narrative, with an entertaining game loop - Difficult, but rewarding challenges outside of the main campaign I had so much fun that I felt compelled to achieve 100% completion in this shooter. Note: there were some scenarios where the game would crash w/ EAC enabled while restarting a lot during attempts to achieve par times during challenges. Despite this hiccup, I really enjoyed every moment!