Agent Intercept | Xbox Series X Review

I’ve always believed that games are games, regardless of platform. Whether you obsessively play nothing but Candy Crush Saga on your phone, or if you go all in on a top of line PC with a $2000 graphics card and RGB lighting, you’re a gamer in my eyes. That being said, mobile platforms are a strange beast. 

On one hand it’s mighty impressive to get a cutting edge console game running on a phone, though I can’t imagine it being the most ideal way to play without linking an external controller. But the inverse of that, games originally made for phones coming to consoles, are oftentimes too rudimentary and simple as they’re made with a different design philosophy in mind. Agent Intercept, developed and published by New Zealand based studio PikPok, was able to make the move from mobile to console taking full advantage of hardware too big for pockets.

License to Kill?

Originally released in 2019 as a launch title for the Apple Arcade service, Agent Intercept is a vehicular combat game taking inspiration from the 80s arcade classic Spy Hunter. You play as a nameless agent working for The Agency and you must stop CLAW, an evil organization bent on world domination using highly advanced AI tech. At your disposal is the Scepter, a high tech spy car with the ability to transform and become other vehicles.

In addition to the obvious nods to Spy Hunter, I was also reminded of all the driving sections of James Bond games from the PS1/PS2 era. In fact, while playing the story mode I couldn’t help but try to identify the game’s cast of characters to their 007 counterparts, as they’re all archetypes of the genre as a whole. Overall, the story is rather straightforward yet embraces all the outlandish clichés, much like a Roger Moore era Bond film. After all, he was the only Bond to drive a car that turned into a submarine!

I Never Joke About My Work

When playing the levels themselves, it becomes blatantly apparent that this was once a mobile title. It’s predominantly played in an odd isometric view, making it hard to determine where you are in relation to the environment around you. As such it can be hard to line up shots or avoid enemy fire. The car’s controls are very simplistic and basic as you only control steering, boost, and weapons. Your vehicle is constantly in motion like an endless runner. Scattered along the road are item icons you can pick up that include boost replenishing, ammo, and point icons. The primary gameplay loop plays exactly like Spy Hunter, but the bigger climactic moments occur in scripted cutscenes with the occasional QTE style button prompt. Same goes for the car’s transformation; they happen on cutscenes only, which was kind of a letdown.

The campaign mode is split into three chapters with five levels in each. In each mission there are multiple objectives to meet, known as intel points. These consist mostly of basic objectives like reaching a certain number of points, distance to drift, and enemies to eliminate. Most of which can be obtained through natural gameplay. The total accumulative number of Intel points is how you unlock the last level in each chapter. 

There may be times you’ll have to replay previous missions, in order to meet the minimum requirements to unlock levels. All said the campaign can be completed entirely in roughly 2-3 hours. Beyond the campaign, there are several different game modes to pad out the replayability including a score grab, time attack, and target practice modes. You do get quite the bang for your buck here.

Mission: Very Possible

The overall presentation of Agent Intercept is actually really good. This port took full advantage of the bump in hardware going from mobile to console. The graphics aren’t realistically detailed or anything, in fact they resemble early to mid 2000s graphics, but they are bright and colorful. And with the Series X, it can run at 4K resolution with over 60 frames per second without breaking a sweat. 

It features full voice acting which mostly occurs during mission briefings before starting the actual level. You’ve got your no-nonsense M type character, a nerdy and timid gadget guy, the femme Fatale double agent, along with an assorted cast of outlandish henchmen. 

🎵 F, F, G, F, G# A, F, A#, A 🎵

To summarize, this is a well crafted game that’s sure to give you a good number of hours to play. There’s plenty of content to keep you going beyond the story, and because of its mobile origins it’s easy to pick up and play. It doesn’t require a lot of precise dexterity or reflexes, but its simplicity may be a turn off to some folks who tend to overlook phone games. I myself don’t often participate in on-the-go gaming as I wasn’t much of a portable gamer growing up. 

I highly recommend checking Agent Intercept out for yourself. Beyond the odd camera angle and the fact that all the bombastic moments are in cutscenes only, I can’t think of a reason not to check this game out for yourself. Besides, those gripes are only because of the limitations of its former platform. But this conversion from a pocket device to a current generation console shouldn’t be overlooked.

 

This review is based on an Xbox Series X copy of Agent Intercept provided by Stride PR for coverage purposes. It is also available on Xbox One, PlayStation, Nintendo Switch, and PC via Steam.