As a general rule, I really dig espionage games. Although stealth is old hat for some, it’s a nice change of pace from the action-heavy games I usually play, and as a fan of James Bond and other classic spy franchises, nice little gags and references usually bring a smile to my face. But with Agent Awesome ($1.99), things get a little awkward, with some tacky writing and weird delivery.
Agent Awesome is a strategy game at heart, with a wacky story to boot. It’s kind of like a parody of the Hitman games, but it doesn’t really follow through and a lot of the jokes fall flat. Your job, if you choose to accept [and pay for] it, is to infiltrate E.V.I.L. As you can probably tell the setup is pretty hammy, and the dialog is awkwardly attempting to lampoon spy lampoon films. For instance, when approaching an enemy, your handler might say something like “wait, they have a family!" or something stereotypical like that. Think Archer but more straight-forward and without likable characters.
That type of dialog persists throughout the experience — all jokes you’ve heard before hundreds of times, but with very flat writing and no real dramatic flair. It even gets a bit dark at times and I’m not even sure where they were going with that general theme. It doesn’t help that they constantly try to inject memes and existing characters in seemingly at random. I enjoy crude humor, but only if it’s funny. Visually, things are fairly rough, and the character models are garish and uninspired. It’s like they were going for a Pixar-film feel, but only spent half of the time required modeling it.
Gameplay-wise the strategy mechanics do translate well to a touch screen, as Agent Awesome is played in a grid-like fashion. You’ll move your agent to different nodes on a road of sorts, carefully timing your taps to ensure that you avoid guards, much like your standard stealth game. Combat is limited, in that you’ll only have a few bullets or gadget uses at a time, so you really have to plan our your moves carefully.
It’s actually a nice little strategy romp in that you can’t go in guns blazing all the time, and although the levels tend to blend together, all of them offer up a challenge. The controls are fairly responsive, and it’s a joy to be able to slowly plan out your attacks, with split-second decisions being a commonplace occurrence. It opens up once the maps start to get bigger, and the maze-like setup sprawls to multiple screens.
On the IAP front Agent Awesome is fair, but the fact that there’s a $9.99 option for extra currency (rather than deliver it to the player at a faster rate) is a bummer, especially when you consider the premium pricepoint, and that the game will likely only last you five hours or less. Still, the game is currently sitting on $9.99 on PC, so mobile users are getting a discounted version all the same.
If you’re in the mood for an unpolished stealth game with a weird sense of humor that’s hit or miss, Agent Awesome is a decent flawed experience that’s good for a rainy day. Just don’t expect a whole lot from it and you’ll be fine.
