Agent 64: Spies Never Die has been hotly anticipated in certain circles since it was first announced, and especially since its demo was released. This one-person labour of love is a clear homage to Rare’s influential shooters for the N64, GoldenEye and Perfect Dark. True to their name, developer Replicant D6 has done a stellar job of precisely reproducing the GoldenEye style in particular. Ultimately though, the game is a little disappointing because it carves out no distinctive territory of its own.
In a nutshell, Agent 64: Spies Never Die can be thought of as equivalent to a GoldenEye sequel that Rare never got around to making, albeit one shorn of the 007 license. Replicant D6 has made a meticulous study of every gameplay and visual element of Rare’s fondly remembered game, and brought them all back to life. Agent 64 himself, the silver-haired veteran John Walter, moves just as Brosnan’s Bond did in 1997. His face is pasted on to a low-poly model in just the same way, his guns drift around while aiming as if the N64 controller is in play, and foes keel over bloodlessly in a satisfying fashion every ‘90s kid will recognise.
The museum level does allow for a semblance of spying to complement the shooting
It is difficult to overstate how precisely the feel of GoldenEye has been recreated here and to be clear, that is an achievement in itself. Agent 64: Spies Never Die absolutely feels like a lost N64 game made available on the PC in 2026, as if through emulation or dark magic (if there is a difference). In fact, though, it is built on the Unity engine. There is a lot to admire and enjoy in this masterwork of necromancy. The issue is that Agent 64 never even attempts to transcend its influences. To all intents and purposes it is a lost N64 shooter, with all the strengths and weaknesses that implies.
Narrative is not to be listed in the strengths column, as the story is threadbare and very silly. John Walter and his daughter are tasked with defeating the schemes of the curiously named villain Dominic Pulp, who the super-spy believed to be dead but has actually cloned himself many times over. The resulting haphazard pursuit does lead to a healthily varied selection of locales, including a castle, a snowy mountain base, a skyscraper, and of course an evil lair worthy of peak-era Ken Adam.
For better or worse, players will revisit these locations numerous times. This is because progression into new phases of the campaign requires spending points, which are earned by completing earlier levels under more stringent conditions. Higher difficulty levels do not only make agent Walter more fragile; they also impose additional objectives on him. Unfortunately, these objectives are consistently bland and only a couple of levels provide any hint of spy subtlety; Walter’s way is to mow down hordes of enemies with whatever automatic weapons come to hand.
What sinister space base would be complete without a homage to E1M1?
Regrettably, those weapons offer little to write home about. They are entirely predictable and serviceable, with no surprising or creative tools available at all. The various automatic weapons in particular are essentially interchangeable, with no distinctive characteristics of their own. This sameness is perhaps even more keenly felt in the multiplayer modes, which hew very closely indeed to the classic GoldenEye experience.
Retro-style shooters are ten-a-penny these days, and need to do something special to stand out. Agent 64: Spies Never Die goes some way towards doing this in its loving and faithful recreation of Rare’s style. The very best shooters, though, use their inspirations as a foundation for something new, fresh, and distinctive. Cultic, for example, is superb because it is so much more than a derivative of Blood. Agent 64: Spies Never Die simply fails to transcend its inspirations. It certainly provides a lot of fun, in single- or multiplayer, for players of a particular nostalgic cast of mind – but it could have been more.
