magine, if you will that you owned a house, sitting on the edge of a cliff overlooking the ocean. Filled with sliding windows to allow the ocean breeze to enter, many levels (including an internal elevator) and even a boat jettied below in case you want to go for a ride. Now imagine that the entire house is filled with hidden secrets that a stealthy agent will admire. Well, this house has a tenant named Ruby La Rouge and she is simply an agent disposer. You play as Agent A and your task is to stop Ruby knocking off another agent named “B”, and of course you as well.
The gameplay style is coined as a “point-and-click” adventure game. To move about, you click on the “area” to entre and “backtrack” is simply use the right mouse button. It’s really that simple. Yet, and based on my previous experience on point-and-click adventure games, this game shows no indication where to point and click – that is, the cursor doesn’t change when being around a “hotspot”, the area doesn’t highlight to give you an indicator – nothing.
You may wonder what to click and what not to click – that is, avoid spamming the left click button until something happens. Thankfully, the game plays in a logical fashion – meaning if you see a red button, click on it; you see a vase, click on it and hopefully something happens; you see an area that seems “out of place”, click on it and see if the game “zooms” in and so forth. There is very little of “pixel” hunting (meaning you don’t have to strain your eyes every single nock and cranny). Just let your curiosity guide you and no, you cannot die.
The graphics are simple in nature however effective in what it does. All items are recognisable and colourful to boot. Because of this “simple” visuals, it makes the gameplay much more flowing as you rarely get stumped. Yet, it’s highly advisable to record down some of the puzzles (or screenshot it) as if Agent A comments on some object or thing, you know it will play a part later (most of the time). If you don’t, it will become frustrating as some puzzles has some sort of “decoder”. Yet, some puzzles rely heavily on colours and because I’m colour-blind (red / green – deuteranopia), this can wreak havoc with some of the puzzles. Yet, and thankfully so, I have passed them in flying colours (oh the puns).
The sounds are all decent yet very, very simple. The musical scores are pleasant to the ears yet very short thus it will loop quite often. The voice acting, as few as the sounds, are ok – nothing to write about. Yet, there are still some texts that can easily translate into spoken words. Not sure why this wasn’t done. Stylish cut-scenes adds character to the “retro” overall look of this game – clear yet concise.
The length of the game can be completed in less than two hours. Why I said this is because there is an achievement for that (Speedy Time). In my first playthrough, it took me about five hours to complete. It has five chapters in total and once completed them, there is no real reason to play it again unless you missed an achievement (or more). You can replay a chapter by selecting it, yet you cannot save your progress – the game “saves” the game once you exit it. So, if you happen to miss an achievement and you know what chapter it’s in, you need to start that chapter all over again hence overrides your save. Thankfully, each chapter are quite short in nature.
And speaking of achievements, there are thirty to earn and technically, you can get them all through just one playthrough however I doubt that (unless you used a walkthrough yet remember, one achievement governs your speed to finish the game and some puzzles have a random element that’s tailored just for that run). The storyline has thirteen achievements I believe, and the rest are simply “experimenting” – I feel the “experimenting” achievements are awesome as it will come to a pleasant surprise when you unlock one because you mucked around a bit. Yet, there are a couple of achievements that links up to the fish…I won’t say anymore.
Agent A: A puzzle in Disguise is a pleasant point-and-click adventure game. All plays upon that stylish “retro” feel that’s certainly not pretentious. It’s literally “what you see is what you get”. No gimmicks, no “clever” marketing – it’s just what’s been advertised is what you’ll get (and a little bit more). All rendered in that versatile Unity engine, and to my surprise, it’s made in Victoria, Australia to my understanding. Yet, the downside to this game is it’s steep (AUD $28.95). If you can get it on sale or, in my opinion, about $20 (AUD), go for it. It’s a very enjoyable experience.