A fast paced game that’s all about bouncing projectiles with a katana sounds great to me, a famous fan of the game. bulletproof. I bought a new indie game Specialized agent within 20 seconds of seeing it. Then I played it. Oh no. I feel old. Am I too old? What I can tell you is, if you like fast-paced action games with bullets to parry, death to punish you, and no checkpoints to assist you, then you have may like this. It’s just £2 to find out.
Agent In Depth is a 2D sub-platform set on just 15 single screen rooms (or that’s how many the store description says; I don’t know because I’m too old). As a kewl dood with a black coat and katana, you just need to take the bullets towards the enemy to destroy them, clear the room and continue. The game’s leaderboard indicates that the game’s top players can complete the game in less than three minutes. I bet it took them hours to perfect those three minutes.
One hit kills you. It has no checkpoints, so each death is a full reboot. To win, you will need to avoid every shot. And since you can only kill enemies by parrying bullets with your sword, you’ll need to put yourself directly into the line of fire. It’s a good setup for tension, skill and the pursuit of a perfect run, not to mention frustration.
Agent In Depth feels tough, feels cruel, and certainly feels puny at first, but it doesn’t feel unfair. Your man is quick and responsive, and his block time is quite generous. You just need to learn the patterns and not make mistakes. Easy, I’m sure.
I’m probably too old for this myself. Maybe that’s why I stalled on Hyper Demon too. But look, maybe it’s been a tough year, and maybe I’m tired, and maybe everything will turn out great on the right day with enough coffee. Either way, you’ll need to take on this kind of killer challenge.
I really imagine that, as in other games like this, having to go through the opening stages over and over again makes it hard to think once you’re good enough. Running through those open rooms will warm your fingers but not tax them. Treating those killer rooms as mere passages will make you proud, confident, and build your resolve. But maybe I’m too old for that.
Agent Of Depth launched early access on Friday. The solo developer plans to add more modes, maps, abilities, and possibly characters before the full version launch in about six months. Maybe six months is long enough for me to beat these first 15 rooms.
You can buy Agent Of Depth Early access on Steam for Windows, Mac and Linux. The 25% off launch week still applies for a bit longer and brings the game down to £1.86/€2.24/$2.24.
