Developer: PikPok
Publisher: PikPok
Platform: PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S
Tested on: Switch
Agent Intercept – Review
We do sometimes miss the good old days when spy movies were absolutely over the top. For example, Daniel Craig’s outing as James Bond was a lot more serious than that of Pierce Brosnan. The latter created a legacy with GoldenEye, which was also turned into an extremely popular Nintendo 64 game. Agent Intercept tries emulate the feeling of those old school experiences with its action-packed gameplay. In this bite-sized arcade game, you’ll be playing as an unnamed ‘Agent’ who has to save the world by controlling an experimental vehicle called Sceptre. Even with a few stutters here and there, we very much enjoyed playing through this relatively short title.
Story
In Agent Intercept you’ll be playing as an unnamed ‘Agent’ who is the only person that can stop the evil organization that goes by the name CLAW. This villainous faction is trying to take over the world, and they are gaining more and more control over advanced weapon systems. You, the aforementioned Agent, will have to commandeer an experimental vehicle, Sceptre, which has state-of-the-art technology and weaponry for you to utilize.
The story is actually surprisingly good. While the narrative never strays away from old-school spy movie cliches, it is just nicely presented via voiced dialogues, and character portraits, and it simply manages to be captivating from start to finish. The game also has a few in-game cinematics, further fleshing out the simple, yet interesting plot.
Graphics
Graphically Agent Intercept is a fairly simple-looking game. Nonetheless, what’s on offer is actually quite attractive. The game utilizes a lot of vibrant colors in combination with well-polished vehicle models on a simple backdrop. This makes sure that you’re properly focusing on what matters, as the game is quite action-packed. We loved the smooth transitions when Sceptre transformed into another vehicle type, and even the dialogue portraits are very nicely handled.
We did notice a few framerate issues when it came to more explosive sections of the game, and also the off-road sections (as well as those in the water or snow) did have a sort of lag that made precision a bit harder. Even though the overall graphical prowess isn’t extremely taxing for the Switch’s hardware, we do reckon that all the explosive elements combined are fairly hard to process for Nintendo’s hybrid console.
Sound
The sound design is absolutely amazing in this speed-infused vehicle battler. Not only will you get fully voiced dialogues and explosive sound effects, but you’ll also be treated to old-school Batman-like sound effects. Whenever you gun down an enemy vehicle or perform another explosive action, you’ll hear that 60s-infused ‘Ka-Pow’. These little sound effects add a lot of charm to the equation.
Gameplay
Agent Intercept is an action-packed arcade game where you’ll be playing through very linear levels with your state-of-the-art armored vehicle. This racing car can transform into other vehicles when the situation asks for it. The offset of the game is very simple, as this is somewhat of an ‘on-rail’ shooter. You’ll move automatically, and you’re limited to moving sideways to avoid obstacles, knocking out enemies, or grabbing weapons and score multipliers. Other than that, you have a boost button to gain more speed and, of course, you’re able to fire the weapons you pick up. These weapons can range from machine guns and missiles to landmines. The game then tries to spice things up by changing the camera view from time to time. That’s pretty much all there is to the game.
Even though the concept of the game is simple, the game does its best to provide you with a fair number of stages to blow your way through. Outside of the story, you’ll be able to complete side missions, which we found slightly harder than the story missions. These side missions will add a reasonable amount of content to the mix, as you’ll be able to play through the story mode in roughly two hours. You’ll also have a score attack mode, which allows you to replay levels, earn a high score, and perhaps earn your place on the leaderboards.
As mentioned above, the game does have a few issues with keeping up a stable FPS, which then makes it harder for the player to avoid obstacles. On top of that, we couldn’t help but feel that the game sometimes has a bit of input lag. This is also quite annoying during certain hectic segments. We even once defeated an enemy, for the game to still register he escaped. While these issues are not always present, the accumulation of all these tiny bugs does take away a bit from the otherwise polished feel of the game. We do hope that things get ironed out a bit more.
Conclusion
Agent Intercept is a very fun arcade experience that managed to entertain us throughout both its story and side content. We loved the simple concept and the very easy controls. The only thing dragging down the overall fun to be had were the frame drops and the input lag for the controls. Other than that, we can wholeheartedly recommend this game to gamers looking for an easy-to-get-into experience, as well as those looking for a retro-inspired action game.
Agent Intercept - Review,
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