Agent 64: Spies Never Die is a retro FPS spy game, that was heavily inspired by the retro FPS games. It was developed and published by Replicant D6. Released on August 11, 2026, so the game is still quite new.
I always enjoy a good FPS game, and whenever I hear the word ‘retro’, it always brings joy to my heart to watch or play a game like that. For this specific game, I did have expectations for this game, and let’s just say, it didn’t disappoint in the slightest. For this review, I only played Story, so no Co-op, Challenges, Online or Arena will be explored in this review.
Back to the Past
Launching the game will welcome you with a retro-style menu. A simple, animated, zooming background, with simple options on the screen. The soundtrack reminds me of early 2000s games, that have similar vibes. When launching it, you will be set in automatic resolution, which is 1280×1440, with your set refresh rate shown next to it. It simulates the retro feelings, because this allows you to have blackbars, like other games in these times had. You can obviously change it to your prefered resolution in the display settings. These details all together show its retroness clearly, and give a good idea of what kind of game this is.
You can play Agent 64: Spies Never Die in singleplayer or co-op with a split screen experience. This is more made for LAN than online, another thing that was really present for older titles.
Mission Briefing
Clicking on Story will present you with the available story acts. At first, only Act 1 will be available. Next to it are showcased the level name, and the cyphers. Cyphers are tied to the difficulties. You have 3 difficulty choices, which are Agent, Special Agent and 64 Agent. This is the order from easiest to hardest, with the easiest having the fewest objectives, while the others are more difficult with more objectives. For this review, I played on Agent difficulty. One thing noteworthy, the harder the difficulty, the more cyphers you earn. This scales from 1 to 6. On Agent, you get 1, while on Agent 64, you get 3. This is later very important, because the only way you can progress in acts are with a certain amount of cypher. A great way to gate progression.
The game uses a difficulty lock once you complete the first level. This means, you are tied to the difficulty you chose at the beginning, and can only change it after you completed it on a different difficulty. This makes the replay value more important. You will also unlock a Paradox Mode after completing a level, which is basically the modifier mode. Here, you can add the features you unlock on the levels. For those to unlock, you need to complete the level under an X amount of time, so it makes the quick pace really crucial when replaying levels.
Once you complete an act, extras will unlock, which are hidden masks on the previously played levels. You can obviously just ignore it, and move on to the next act, or just play them if you are completionist. Finding hidden masks will earn you extra cyphers if you get stuck behind a certain act.
Life of a Secret Agent
You will be thrown into a level, where hired hitman-like figures will infiltrate your penthouse. The game does a little introduction, by showing helicopters approaching the penthouse from above. The game’s antagonist is shown giving the order to kill John, the protagonist. You can see that he is watching a TV, trying to enjoy himself, but his peace is quickly interrupted by the unwanted guests. Your job is to escape the penthouse as quick as you can while staying alive.
There are some easter eggs in the game, that are quickly presented. When you get control over John, on the table in front of you will be a Nintendo 64. A great little addition to the retro feeling, and works nicely as an easter egg.
Pressing Escape will pause the game. Here is an interesting option, which is ‘Gear’. You can edit your loadout for the levels with weapons that you unlock by killing the enemies. For whatever reason, you can even go unarmed, which feels unreasonable for a game in this genre. On some levels, you will lose your weapons, but it’s story-based.
Speaking of the weapons, there is a solid range of them, starting from a silenced pistol all the way to shotguns and snipers.
Simple But Consistent
The controls are really simple. You can move with WASD, and shoot with left click. You can also aim with a crosshair, using RMB, if you use a weapon like a sniper for example. It also has an objective usage, shooting locks on doors. Without it, they are impossible to shoot down. Doors can be opened with ‘E’, which is a little unclear at first sight due to its design. It uses a filled circle before the door, giving you an unclear option how to open the door. Later on, the game will explain more control features, like the usage of level-tied items. The animations are well-made. This is shown clearly with the RMB aim, where the weapon moves to wherever the crosshair is placed.
You can switch between weapons with the numbers on your keyboard, which basically makes most of the Gear options irrelevant to the game.
Classic Level Designs
Agent 64: Spies Never Die has some well-designed levels, fitting the retro style. The maze-like levels for this age were great, and I think it’s one of the things that stood out. A maze with multiple ways, secrets behind walls, and what felt like never ending content for a single level. This game tries something similar, but much more straightforward. You do have multiple ways, but they do have their ends behind locked doors, or blocked off passages with crates or gates. The pixelated background buildings were also a crucial retro detail. This game brings that vibe out, a vibe that can hardly be replicated in modern games.
The windows are breakable, giving you a great surface to shoot through to hit your targets. This is a crucial part for the ‘spy’ subgenre. But they are not the only breakable things in the game. You can shoot wooden crates, wine bottles, plates and even explosive barrels. The last one works in favour of you, because it damages the enemies and even kills them.
In later levels, you will have some allies too. They are represented with the blue armband on them. They help you distract and kill enemies, making progression much quicker. There will also be companions, who will follow you around, and help you out, yet they feel useless due to the genre.
Scoreboard System
A level will complete once you have finished the objectives. Each level usually ends the same way, with you escaping or progressing to some different area. Completing a level will showcase a scoreboard-like screen. It shows the difficulty it was done on, and the cyphers earned from the level. It also has a par time and time you finished it in. If you managed to do it under the given time, you unlock extra features for the Paradox mode, like aim assist or permanent crosshair. I don’t think they are meant for games in this genre, but it’s an interesting idea.
Final Verdict
Overall, this game was a nice surprise. I expected it to be boring after 1-2 levels, making it really repetitive. Instead, I got a nice, well-layered story with some smaller twists. The level designs make this game much more enjoyable, but it’s not its only strong point. The weapon variety is another strong part. The ally system and control variety are all interesting ideas. Also making the players replay levels for additional hidden content, like the masks is a great way to earn replay value. Paradox Mode adds a nice way to change the flow of the game making it more chaotic, but enjoyable. I think this game is definitely worth playing.
