E3 Hands-On: The Agency - Preview
by VGChartz Staff , posted on 17 June 2010 / 2,865 Views
While many FPS games have had elements of RPG's to them for a while such as experience points and skill trees, The Agency is taking it one step further by stealing a solid shooter and putting it into the MMO context. VG Chartz grabbed a controller and racked up quite a killstreak in the new game from Sony Online Entertainment: The Agency.
The Agency takes place in Venice, Italy. A terrorist organization has stolen an experimental weapon that changes the buoyancy properties of water and starts sinking buildings in Venice. You work for one of two privatized military intelligence agencies hired to take care of the problem. You have a base of operations and can wander the streets of Venice maintaining your cover, interacting with players, and accepting missions. Once you enter the missions, however, the MMO elements fall away gracefully to reveal a fast-paced, visceral shooter.
The demo presented to us was just such a mission with checkpoints to capture and plenty of real and AI opponents to gun down. SOE felt it was important to make sure the shooter elements of the game took precedent. If you are a level one character and run into a level 50 character, a headshot is a headshot. Granted, that level 50 character will have plenty of abilities and upgrades to make it easier for her to aim or zoom, but a bullet to the brain is just as deadly to a noob as a seasoned veteran. There are no random virtual dice scores governing those bullets, just player skill. Levels unlock abilities, not hit points.
Characters are class-based. While there are many classes, this demo showed off the recon unit which utilizes things like radar and seeing through walls as well as helping teammates do that same thing. Also present was an assault class with a shield, and a suppressor class that moves slow but uses heavy weapons. There were also a few AI commanders roaming around that presented a nice challenge.
At its core, The Agency is a thoroughbred shooter with a great and intuitive cover system, but there are some MMO elements still present. Experience points earn you gun customizations and abilities. There are both public and private instances available throughout The Agency's virtual Venice as well.
I really enjoyed The Agency because I felt very at home in the mission. I've played my fair share of first-person shooters and this really didn't feel like a MMO when you were looking down your sites or killing a guy with the butt of your rifle. The level design was complex and yet easy to navigate and the action was hectic and fun. Unfortunately we didn't get to see any of the MMO elements other than earning experience, but I have high hopes.
