Hands-On: The Agency

[Kialee]

I looked this game up again last night, actually, just to see if it was still in production or not.
I'm ruddy tired of MMOs that are "click on monster, wait ten seconds, loot and move on."
I'm much more for "move mouse, click twice, move on."
...okay it sounds bad when it's simplified like that

Either way, I'm just glad it's still on the right track, even though it's been in development for fucking ever.

 

[ProfessorLayton]

This game was set to come out in 2009... it's going on my "want" list right next to Duke Nukem Forever and Diablo III...

But still, I'm surprised that there aren't more games like this already. But I'm also surprised that this is a PS3 exclusive. I thought that it was a PC exclusive...

 

[listlurker]

The closer this game gets to completion, the more it sounds like yet another online PvP shooter, with less and less of the spy RPG elements which made me want to play in the first place.

Don't get me wrong; I'm not hating on shooters or PvP shooters -- but, dammit, good new shooters come out regularly every year, and I don't have to pay a monthly fee for them. Plus, I have an XBox Live account, so Halo PvP, Team Fortress PvP, and all the rest are /already/ available to me.

I've played enough shooters at this point, I could probably qualify for a mercenary unit without even trying.

Okay, that last was a /joke/, but you get my point:

I don't need another online shooter with some spy-flavored icing around the edges. I was interested in The Agency originally because it sounded like a /hybrid/ of shooter elements and spy rpg elements (story, advancement, espionage faction missions, etc).

As The Agency gets closer to release, it sounds more and more like the APB MMO in an espionage skin, it becomes less and less something I'm willing to pay an ongoing fee to play.

Power to those who dig it, but I think I've been here before, and once too often.

My opinions, anyway. Yours may vary, and that's cool.

LL

 

[Korten12]

This game was set to come out in 2009... it's going on my "want" list right next to Duke Nukem Forever and Diablo III...

But still, I'm surprised that there aren't more games like this already. But I'm also surprised that this is a PS3 exclusive. I thought that it was a PC exclusive...

Its PC and PS3.

 

[ViRi]

Ive played The Agency facebook game a little and its fun, However the actual game looks alot like a Half Life mod or something.

 

[genericgamer]

The closer this game gets to completion, the more it sounds like yet another online PvP shooter, with less and less of the spy RPG elements which made me want to play in the first place.

Don't get me wrong; I'm not hating on shooters or PvP shooters -- but, dammit, good new shooters come out regularly every year, and I don't have to pay a monthly fee for them. Plus, I have an XBox Live account, so Halo PvP, Team Fortress PvP, and all the rest are /already/ available to me.

I've played enough shooters at this point, I could probably qualify for a mercenary unit without even trying.

Okay, that last was a /joke/, but you get my point:

I don't need another online shooter with some spy-flavored icing around the edges. I was interested in The Agency originally because it sounded like a /hybrid/ of shooter elements and spy rpg elements (story, advancement, espionage faction missions, etc).

As The Agency gets closer to release, it sounds more and more like the APB MMO in an espionage skin, it becomes less and less something I'm willing to pay an ongoing fee to play.

Power to those who dig it, but I think I've been here before, and once too often.

My opinions, anyway. Yours may vary, and that's cool.

LL

And your opinions are my opinions. I originally liked The Agency because it was a more James Bond/Shadowrun(the PnP RPG)/Alpha Protocol style game. Now it seems more like multiplayer shooter number 8967598.

 

[Dr. wonderful]

Oh man, I hadn't see this game in YEARS.

I mean, I thought it was dropped, hell I was about to make a thread about it this morning!

Well I guess John did it for you.

Well since he did a thread about a lost game...and he ninja'd it to me.

which means...I lost the game.


*Sudden realization."

SONOVA-

 

[Korten12]

Oh man, I hadn't see this game in YEARS.

I mean, I thought it was dropped, hell I was about to make a thread about it this morning!

Well I guess John did it for you.

Well since he did a thread about a lost game...and he ninja'd it to me.

which means...I lost the game.


*Sudden realization."

SONOVA-

*Runs away and hides, then looks outside and see an explosion*

O_O

 

[jonnosferatu]

...honestly, I think it looks pretty crap, but that might just be me getting tripped up by the fact that I regard graphics as somewhat significant in the FPS genre and have very little experience with professional MMOs. I could be getting het up over something perfectly normal, but...w/e. I'll stick to TF2.

 

[Chipperz]

Yeah, I've just got APB and am experiencing everything that is wrong with games like this - I can't hit a damn thing because my lag's so bad it barely registers other player's existence (I finally saw what some of my clan-mates looked like today. It usually takes so long to load their skins I'm stuck with the generic "white T-shit and jeans guy".

For the near future at least, turn based/button based RPG combat will be the way to go for MMO games of all types.

 

[SirCannonFodder]

I would really, truly like to see a non-fantasy MMO that was still in the mold of a traditional MMO take off. Yes, I know there's EVE Online, and as someone who love science fiction, I thought I'd be all over that, but it's just really not my type of game. A MMOFPS has the problem of feeling like you're just battling all day over the same stuff - but isn't that all Modern Warfare 2 is? It's arguably as much an MMOFPS as there ever has been, even if your character isn't all that well defined and mutable.

Have you tried Anarchy Online? It's mostly free (base game is free to play, but once you add the expansions which actually make the game worth playing, you need to pay a subscription), and about as good as most other pre-WoW MMOs.

 

[mattaui]

I would really, truly like to see a non-fantasy MMO that was still in the mold of a traditional MMO take off. Yes, I know there's EVE Online, and as someone who love science fiction, I thought I'd be all over that, but it's just really not my type of game. A MMOFPS has the problem of feeling like you're just battling all day over the same stuff - but isn't that all Modern Warfare 2 is? It's arguably as much an MMOFPS as there ever has been, even if your character isn't all that well defined and mutable.

Have you tried Anarchy Online? It's mostly free (base game is free to play, but once you add the expansions which actually make the game worth playing, you need to pay a subscription), and about as good as most other pre-WoW MMOs.

Ah yes, I was there for the opening days of AO, painful as they were. It was fun for a time, and it's about as close as we've come to a sci-fi MMO, you're right. I think I gave it a spin a year or two ago, but at this point it's only good for a dose of nostalgia. I do hope whatever Blizzard's new MMO is going to be that it's something in that direction.

 

[FallenTraveler]

Conceptually, it's fantastic, and I get the feeling that if SOE pulls this one off it'll have firmly planted its foot in a relatively untrodden area (the last major title in this space was SOE's own Planetside).

Oh really?

So Global Agenda didn't release earlier this year? That was some sort of fever dream I guess.

or even Fallen Earth

OT: I don't quite get this though... What's the difference between an "MMOFPS" and a multiplayer FPS? oh, and wasnt the last "MMOFPS" MAG? or was that ALSO a fever dream?

I am very confused

 

[unacomn]

Have they shown anything from the PvE side of the game? This year they've only spoken about PvP. The only thing we got last year was the chateau mission and its trailer. I was really hoping they would elaborate more on the PvE, mostly because I don't like PvP all that much.

 

[Darth_Dude]

The whole time I was watching the trailer I was thinking, WHERE'S THE MMO PART?

 

[Jared]

And MMOFPS? Intresting. Although, I find it hard to get excited about all the new MMO's, this one has actually grabbed my attention now

 

[xDarc]

PlanetSide was the closest to being successful and had the lightest RPG elements.

The problem with MMOFPS is that RPG elements want to stick their nose where they don't belong, because MMO is synonymous with RPG. This is why they've all failed.

What an MMOFPS needs to be, to be successful, is simply an FPS on a massive scale.

What's the hook?

The community aspect of FPS gaming is built directly into the game, into a persistent world. Sites like gamebattles are followed by millions perhaps, but what if the site became completely unnecessary?

No stupid story. An FPS game that knows it's an FPS game. An FPS game with a world that is designed with admin tools built into it's world. It supports clan or outfit building, fighting for territory, private matches in private zones completely customizable, in-game consoles and terminals that let you customize elements in clan owned practice zones.

Basically it's an FPS game that can be customized, it incorporates all of the behind the scenes stuff that goes on in the FPS gaming world and makes it accessible to everyone; except there's only one "pub" server and it's massive... maybe make people choose a faction to play for to get folks on the same page even if they're not with a clan or outfit or whatever word you want to use... It's not hard to herd people around like cattle, PlanetSide showed us that with just a chat window and the privilege to speak to the entire server.

Scripted markers that start an extra instance of stats to start tracking, just for that battle, from the start or finish of certain actions... like a fight over a base... which delivers a breakdown for everyone involved at the end of that fight... like a round in a regular FPS game...

Basically it's an FPS sandbox... Allow people to make private zones, maybe stuff you have to purchase with points from playing in pubs, whatever, so they make custom maps with prefabs, keeps the game fresh without really needing a grind or story arc.

That's how you do it.

I'd make it myself... but I have a life.

 

[Jumplion]

The closer this game gets to completion, the more it sounds like yet another online PvP shooter, with less and less of the spy RPG elements which made me want to play in the first place.

Don't get me wrong; I'm not hating on shooters or PvP shooters -- but, dammit, good new shooters come out regularly every year, and I don't have to pay a monthly fee for them. Plus, I have an XBox Live account, so Halo PvP, Team Fortress PvP, and all the rest are /already/ available to me.

I've played enough shooters at this point, I could probably qualify for a mercenary unit without even trying.

Okay, that last was a /joke/, but you get my point:

I don't need another online shooter with some spy-flavored icing around the edges. I was interested in The Agency originally because it sounded like a /hybrid/ of shooter elements and spy rpg elements (story, advancement, espionage faction missions, etc).

As The Agency gets closer to release, it sounds more and more like the APB MMO in an espionage skin, it becomes less and less something I'm willing to pay an ongoing fee to play.

Power to those who dig it, but I think I've been here before, and once too often.

My opinions, anyway. Yours may vary, and that's cool.

LL

Yeah, a lot of what yo usaid is true. I remember reading an article on this way back and it said that there were many RPG elements to it. you could get story missions by gambling and winning a lot or losing enough money, you could go into hideouts and hack into computers with a buddy or two, all sorts of stuff. Of course, that was way back, probably still in conception stage, but it did seem like it had potential.

Right now, The Agency will be a steady blip on my radar. I'm farily interested in it, but I do hope that it's not going to be one of those standard multiplayer only FPS games like, Halo, TF2, or MAG (though the 256 simultaneous players does help distinguish it). It has potential, though ritght now I'm feeling cynical and doubt they will utilize it.

 

[SomebodyNowhere]

I've been following this game's development for years, I am almost to the point where I've given up ever expecting to see it get released.

 

[RvLeshrac]

Unless I see a persistent, online, (mostly) non-instanced world, I'm not interested. Near as I can tell, the shooter part looks good. Unless the MMO part ties it all together, I just don't think it will work.

I wish people would stop it with the "non-instanced world" crap. Is it going to take someone releasing a non-instanced 3D MMO-shooter for people to realise why you can't have tens of thousands of models on-screen simultaneously, running around a seamless world, shooting at each other, with all the calculation that entails?

Every MMO is "mostly" non-instanced. The reason instancing crops up is because there are far too many people to pile them all into one area at times.

Yeah, I've just got APB and am experiencing everything that is wrong with games like this - I can't hit a damn thing because my lag's so bad it barely registers other player's existence (I finally saw what some of my clan-mates looked like today. It usually takes so long to load their skins I'm stuck with the generic "white T-shit and jeans guy".

For the near future at least, turn based/button based RPG combat will be the way to go for MMO games of all types.

APB is abysmal, and *STILL* not ready for release. You can't hit things in APB not because of lag, though it does contribute, but because there's inherent inaccuracy in all of the weapons. That's fine when you're talking "spread," but APB's weapons, like most third-person shooters, are abysmally inaccurate at anything but point-blank. Face of Mankind is the game to look at for horrific FPS combat, for similar reasons - the weapons are just too inaccurate to allow for any skill.

Planetside had MMO-shooter combat down-pat. When you fired a weapon at someone, you could be reasonably certain that it would hit them, or at least very close to them, assuming that your aim was decent.

There's nothing wrong with providing a stat-based accuracy system, of course, but APB and FOM are the latest in a long line of shooters that want to "level the playing field," and eliminate skill from the game.