Social Game Reviews

Sony is the first of the Big 3 (Nintendo, Microsoft, Sony) to bring a MMO game to everyone’s favourite social network, Facebook. Sony’s offering called “The Agency: Covert Ops” puts you in the shoes of your secret agent avatar who is tasked with saving the world ! (Aren’t they all?) Does this game meet the high standards of 007 or does it fade out like a bad remake of Inspector Gadget?

The Art of Being A Secret Agent

If you’ve played games like Zygna’s Mafia Wars (or anything ending in Wars for that matter), you’ll be familiar with the gameplay stylings of the Agency. After crafting your secret agent persona, you start off with Cover points which can be used to attempt a mission. Successfully completing missions earns your secret agent more “Influence” (the player’s experience points), cold hard cash and from time to time, components, which can be used to craft weapon, armor and gadget upgrades. As your influence increases, your agent will progress to the next level and you will gain points to spend on his/her attributes.

Missions

The missions you undertake come in two forms: those with and without mini-games. Missions without mini-games are akin to missions in Mafia Wars, you simply select the action button to complete the mission and earn your spoils. Missions with mini-games add some variety to the simple click-to-advance gameplay that most of the games of this type seem to follow.

Mini-Games

Missions with mini-games breakaway from the click-to-advance gameplay by offering the player a short “spy” themed game to play to complete the level. Mini-games encountered thus far include a suped up version of suduko, eye-spy, Canabalt and even Rock-Paper-Scissors (the fighting mini-game). Most of these simple games will be quite familiar to even the most casual of players. As an added touch, tutorial videos are available to the player before each game to get you familiar with the game you’re about to attempt.

Secret Agency Currency

The game runs on two forms of currency: in-game cash and Station cash. In-game cash is earned from completing missions and Station cash can be bought from Sony. Certain items can only be bought with either in-game cash or Station cash. In addition, in-game cash can be bought with Station cash but not vice versa. You start the game off with 250 Station cash points which can be spent on items such as replenishing your Cover points or buying Agents that you can send out on missions. In-game cash can be used to purchase weapon and defense upgrades, gadgets and even items to decorate your super super secret (Squirrel?) agent headquarters.

Social Networking

Your friends are playing the Agency on Facebook and Sony has integrated that into the overall gameplay experience. The game itself is played across the world map and as you advance through the game’s story, you move from location to location. If any of your friends are in a location that you are in, you can send them off to complete side missions that earn you influence, cash and components, much like the computer controlled agents that you control. You can also visit your friend’s secret headquarters to see how they’ve been spending their hard earned cash.

Double-O Status

For the fans of games like Mafia Wars, The Agency will be familiar territory. For others, the gameplay is quite accessible and easy to play. The player feedback is very informative and tutorial videos are used appropriately to guide the player through the game. The Agency follows the model that lets you play for free but to really unlock and even finish the game, the player must spend real world money to buy items, components and agents. Only the hardcore gamers who feel the need to follow the game through to the end would part with their real world dollars. But what’s a few dollars when you’re trying to save the world, right?