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Are You a Spy or a Merc?

SOE Gamer Day: The Agency Preview

By Garrett Fuller

You can call me Fuller. Garrett Fuller. I like my drinks shaken, not stirred. Thankfully, I don’t have a license to kill.

The modern day spy MMO has finally arrived via the fine folks at Sony Online Entertainment. From all that Ten Ton Hammer saw at SOE’s Gamer Day in New York, The Agency has the makings of a fast-paced spy thriller that can carry you into fights, espionage, and missions around the world. This game was the real show-stopper at SOE Gamer Day back in May, and we can finally talk about it this month. If you are looking for a change of pace in your normal fantasy MMO, then log in, grab your gun, and put on your sun glasses so you can start working for The Agency.

The Agency Logo

As classy and stylish as the game sounds from our intro, we still need to explore the real features of this game that could make or break SOE’s first step into modern day MMO game play. The Agency storyline is as complex as a spy thriller plot should be. The two separate factions in the game have heaps of missions to choose from, all of which drive the gameplay forward. UNITE and ParaGON are the two agencies that you can choose from, and there are some major differences between the two. Let’s look at it this way, James Bond would work for UNITE; Arnold Schwarzenegger in Commando would work for ParaGON. The guys and gals in UNITE are the super spies, the tuxedo wearing, cool gadget wielding, poker players. ParaGON, on the other hand are big guns that work in a much more destructive, give-me-the-rocket-launcher kind of way. Depending on your play style, these are the two options are on the roulette table.

Members of the Unite faction

You’ve selected your faction, gone through the tutorial, and done a few missions. Now it’s time to start building up your own spy agency. NPC crews can be created by the player and asked to work on different projects. Whether it is gathering intelligence or building your super cool spy car. You heard right, you can have your NPCs build you a spy car while you’re offline.

Here’s a scenario for you: you’re sitting at work, having a boring day, and a text message comes in from your operatives in-game to your real-life cell phone. Yes. your Razer, iPhone, Blackberry, or whatever piece of equipment you carry with you would receive that message. “Agent Fuller, your car is ready!” the agents state. Now the work day gets a whole lot better, because tonight when you go home to play, you’ll have a new car online ready to blast that bridge you’ve been researching for the last week. Sounds crazy right? These are the types of features and interactive game play that the producer, Matt Wilson, and lead designer, Hal Milton, are planning for the game.  

In The Agency, you can play as a mercenary or spy. Either way you can work on doing missions by stealth or via complete destruction. There’s more than one way to accomplish missions in the game, and each of these two classescan gain influence and power in different areas.

A Paragon Roll Call

As a spy you may be able to influence the owners of a high-end casino in Prague. As a merc, you may be dealing with a much lower class of people, who, if used correctly, could have a huge influence over the underworld. Either way there are paths to be taken in the game that lead the players through the dark, shades-of-gray world of espionage.

It’s obvious that you have lots of areas to advance your character alone, but what about getting along with other players? In the game, you can team up to create stronger agencies with other players by boosting the overall quality of your NPC operatives. As a player you can trade operatives with others, getting the best mechanics, inventors, information gatherers that money can buy. Let’s say you have a top engineering operative in your organization that a friend wants so he can build a car. Trade him out for a spy who can get you that satellite scan you needed of the enemy hideout. Operatives play a huge part in the game since they operate as a player’s “living loot.”

She's going to get sniped!

Also players can interact via the many mini-games in The Agency. What would a spy game be without a casino? Stop in and challenge other players to a game of poker or Bacharach. You can also challenge players at the shooting range or in head-to-head combat. That being said, there wan’t much mentioned in the presentation about PvP in the game. Let’s hope that the developers add some serious spy-level PvP for players to engage in. What’s better than fighting it out with other spies?

Overall, The Agency definitely brings something new to the MMO marketplace. The game will be available for the PC and PS3, but there has been no confirmed release date or beta test date. The team is heavily in development right now. The good thing is the trailer is actual game play and shows a lot of what is involved. We will certainly be following up with SOE on the development of The Agency as we get more information down the road. For now, practice that Sean Connery accent and get the virtual tux ready. The Agency’s coming.

Ten Ton Hammer is your unofficial source for The Agency news and features!

Make sure you check out all of our The Agency screenshots!