Agent 64: Spies Never Die

This is how homages to the past should be done – without pretense or winking, and a health dose of fun sprinkled liberally throughout.

Overall, this game was a nice surprise. I expected it to be boring after 1-2 levels, making it really repetitive. Instead, I got a nice, well-layered story with some smaller twists. The level designs make this game much more enjoyable, but it’s not its only strong point. The weapon variety is another strong part. The ally system and control variety are all interesting ideas. Also making the players replay levels for additional hidden content, like the masks is a great way to earn replay value. Paradox Mode adds a nice way to change the flow of the game making it more chaotic, but enjoyable. I think this game is definitely worth playing.

It masterfully recreates the essence of Rare’s Nintendo 64 classics through precise auto-aim mechanics and nostalgic level design. Each mission evolves into a satisfying puzzle of memorization and efficiency, although the brief campaign and uninspired cutscenes hinder the solo experience. Despite these shortcomings, the robust split-screen and bot modes deliver a faithful, high-stakes tribute.

Agent 64: Spies Never Die is a fun homage to a retro game, standing out as one of the few titles that captures the Nintendo 64 era. It’s enjoyable, with updated controls, a classic feel, a fun story, and interesting levels. Its generic interface, forgettable soundtrack, and forced attempt to extend the campaign with Cypher hold it back from being the perfect spiritual successor to Rare’s classics.

Even if it expects fond memories of GoldenEye 007 to get players on board, Agent 64 offers a solid, if unremarkable, retro experience with a strong amount of content.

If you enjoy a touch of nostalgia, step into the shoes of a special agent—just like in the old days—and take on relentless enemies. It’s an appealing choice for veterans, though younger players likely won't be won over by the archaic game mechanics.

It’s hard to judge someone else’s passion project, especially when it targets such a niche, but Agent 64: Spies Never Die does fill part of the GoldenEye 64-shaped hole with genuinely entertaining couch co-op. Aside from the framerate, almost everything feels like playing an actual Nintendo 64 game, which is both the developer’s greatest achievement and its biggest limitation. Fans of the genre may get a lot out of Agent 64, but with more time spent on the campaign and overall game design, this could have been a much stronger shooter for the average gamer.

Agent 64: Spies Never Die est avant tout un véritable hommage aux FPS d'espionnage de la Nintendo 64. Son intérêt ne vient pas uniquement de ses graphismes low-poly ou de son filtre CRT. Le jeu reprend également les principes de gameplay de cette époque, de la visée particulière à l'absence de checkpoints, en passant par une progression qui demande de connaître progressivement les **** quelques aspérités peuvent demander un temps d'adaptation. La visée surprend au départ, certaines missions peuvent demander plusieurs tentatives et l'absence de checkpoints rend quelques échecs plus lourds à encaisser. Le système de Cyphers pousse lui aussi à rejouer les niveaux pour progresser, ce qui ne conviendra pas forcément à tous les joueurs.Mais cette exigence trouve rapidement son intérêt lorsque l'on entre dans la logique du jeu. Agent 64 récompense la maîtrise plutôt que la précipitation et propose surtout un level design suffisamment travaillé pour justifier plusieurs passages dans les mêmes missions. ****/article/agent-64-spies-never-die-un-hommage-retro-qui-demande-de-l-investissement

Agent 64 delivers solid nostalgia for classic N64 FPS fans, but fails to evolve past its influences. Core action and level design feel nostalgic, capturing GoldenEye 007 atmosphere through retro visuals and gunplay. However, mission structure bogs down experience fast. Levels run too long without checkpoints or armor pickups, punishing small mistakes and forcing full restarts. Inconsistent enemy AI, extreme melee damage, and annoying objectives make campaign feel tedious rather than rewarding. Locking progression behind challenge levels drags out momentum further. Core mechanics get boring after two hours because title clings too tightly to archaic 90s design quirks instead of modernizing movement and balancing. Fun in short bursts for diehard N64 purists, but drags for average player.

I like to finish my games, and I like replaying old games as well. Goldeneye and Perfect Dark are some of the most enjoyable shooters I've played, so naturally, when this game got announced about five years ago or so, I gave the demo a try, loved my time with it, and then anticipated the full release until about two days ago when it finally came out. The game sadly is a title riddled with strange design choices, with some being so egregious that end up ruining the entire experience for me. Perhaps the worst aspect of the game is how poorly balanced it is. Levels are relatively long - specially when compared to early Goldeneye & Perfect Dark - yet the title retains the lack of checkpoints and few armor pickups (if any). What this means is, if you get to the last couple of minutes of a six minute level or so, and you can't find any armor, you'll probably have to redo the whole level again. Did I mentioned enemies take away more than half your health with a single melee attack? Not taking into consideration either that on the hardest difficulty setting armor pickups are absent, so even if you were trying to get the one (literally) armor pickup that appears in the level, you're out of luck. You have to memorize the game and also hope that enemies don't appear or react in specific ways. The AI is extremely inconsistent, sometimes they follow you, sometimes they don't, sometimes they rush you, sometimes they shoot at you, sometimes they hear your shots, sometimes they don't. Sometimes they're extremely accurate, other times they're not... sometimes aim assist triggers, other times it doesn't. Pair that up with the fact that a lot of the objectives tend to be quite annoying. Perfect Dark and Goldeneye worked because the levels were extremely short, even taking your time you could finish most levels in about three minutes or so. Failing as such, wasn't as punishing. Here is different, you get ten minute levels, by the time I'm failing a single time I'm dreading replaying through those ten minutes again from the start. There's also the issue of the game locking the main story content behind "ciphers" you can get these ciphers by playing through harder difficulties and/or completing challenges, this last thing is a separate bonus mode that puts you in specific levels with added modifiers. Some of these challenge levels are really fun, others are clearly not tested in the least and can take you hours just trying to find ways to cheese the AI or watch guides to get through them. Even when you do complete the challenge levels, you only get a single cipher or so. Usually you need increasingly more and more ciphers with each set of levels. So you'll eventually be forced to deal with the obnoxious and poorly balanced level of difficulty of the game in order to even see the ending. Which in turn makes me question, why even add difficulty modes in the first place dev? People are commending it because it was made by a single person, but it's still a game that's asking for your time and money, despite being a passion project and me respecting such passion, I can't but help to point out the many issues that plague the title. They playtest the game, but they playtest it with people who have been playing Goldeneye since it came out, every single day, since it's release... how is that a good group to playtest your game? What about the rest of the players who weren't even born when the game came out. The saddest thing though, is that the titles this game takes inspiration from don't take away your ability to finish them because you choose to play on easier settings. Nor do they implement challenge by plaguing the game with obnoxious objectives or the idea that something is better, simply because there's more of it. I was really excited for this game, but as such, for as many times as I've tried to finish it, I've ended up binning it.