As a gamer of a certain vintage, I grew up with the rise of 3D gaming. I was in my teens when the original PlayStation and Nintendo 64 launched and spent most of those years playing both consoles – Sony’s machine at home and Nintendo at my friend’s house. One of the major highlights of that time was running around the hastily cobbled-together multiplayer levels on the Nintendo 64 exclusive GoldenEye 007. Rare’s epic movie tie-in and its follow-up, Perfect Dark, are to this day some of my favourite first-person shooters. Have these games aged well? Perhaps not as much as I’d like, but the memories remain.
For some reason, modern boomer shooters have stayed away from this era so far, being stuck in the Doom- and Quake-days mostly. But now, French solo-developer Replicant D6 has taken it upon themselves to change this. As the title might suggest, Agent 64: Spies Never Die takes great inspiration from all of the best Nintendo 64 FPS games, such as the aforementioned Rare titles and the TimeSplitters series as well. This becomes immediately obvious when you just look at the game: the blocky character models and architecture seem almost copy-pasted from the N64, in the best way. You can add to that atmosphere yourself by turning on a very well-developed CRT filter which just takes you back to the early 2000s completely.
Rather than playing as Bond or Joanna Dark, in Agent 64 you play as Secret Agent John Walter, a very experienced spy, who once again encounters his arch-nemesis Dominic Pulp, a man John thought long dead. Why Dominic suddenly reappears in John’s life, and just what dangers that brings with it, is for you to figure out when you play the game, but it’s fair to say it’s a pretty standard spy adventure, which once again takes its cues from the games that inspired it. You’ll get the lore behind the game from short-cut scenes before and after missions, with no voice acting – which suits the atmosphere of the game perfectly.
You are joined by your own daughter, Dana, as you try to figure out the mystery behind Dominic’s return, which leads nicely into the fact that this game can also be played in co-op, a feature I didn’t get to test out for the purpose of this review. It’s a nice addition, especially with this mode both available online and offline in split-screen. That last bit makes me very happy, as I think the disappearance of split-screen multiplayer remains a shame. Just be careful not to shoot your friend!
Hitting them might happen faster than you would first think, as this game heavily relies on auto aim, just like its inspirations did. It’s a feature that takes some getting used to but works well within the setting of the game. This is not a modern FPS, as it also has no crouch or sprint buttons, choosing to use the limits of its predecessor’s time to create a challenge here as well. Once you’re used to the auto-aim, though, it becomes incredibly helpful and allows you to get into a flow during combat. Some people might think this just makes the game easier, and that might be true, but especially on the harder difficulty settings, it’s very welcome.
And you will have to play those harder difficulty levels. Maybe not 64 Agent, but at least Special Agent, as beating levels in any difficulty gives you Cyphers you need to unlock the next Act of the game. Playing the game on its easiest mode, Agent, will not give you enough Cyphers to continue further into the game without having to replay everything, or doing extra challenges like the Contracts, where you have to find certain items within the levels. Harder difficulty modes come with more goals to achieve during your missions – snatching statues in the museum level, connecting a hard drive to a server in the bad guy’s lair, that sort of thing – which adds to the immersion, but it also brings extra challenge, with 64 Agent being pretty brutal at times, while Agent mode might just be a little too easy, even for someone like me who’s not very good at shooters.
Aside from the story mode with its 14 different missions, Agent 64 also offers plenty for those who prefer to play their shooters in multiplayer. There are different game types; you can add bots to expand the lobbies even further, you can play online or battle it out on your couch, and you can relive the glory days of adding cheats to your multiplayer game like big head mode or slow bullet speed and watching the chaos ensue. I’m really hoping this multiplayer takes off and that it gets an online following to keep the game alive, although that’s not an easy feat to pull off for any indie.
I’m just rooting for this game in general. It’s such a beautiful love letter to a specific time in videogame history, and it makes me wish there were more like it, as going back to those originals does not always feel all that good. But it also sets up a conundrum: do I like this game for what it is, or am I being blinded by the nostalgia I feel for Rare’s classics? I do believe that people who grew up with those titles will find something to adore here, even if only for a little while. But those of you who don’t have that particular sense of nostalgia? Maybe you’ll find something here too, actually. Agent 64: Spies Never Die might not be a modern shooter, but it must have learned lessons from the past two decades of gaming to bring something like Goldeneye 007 to the modern age.
What I’m trying to say is that playing Agent 64 might give you an idea of how it felt for us to play those originals back in the day, more so than emulating those actual games might. It’s just a really beautifully crafted tribute to something that brought so much joy to plenty of people, and I’m grateful to Replicant D6 for making it.
