Agents Under Fire

With Sony Online's spy game The Agency, you won't just be playing Spy vs. Spy.
12/27/2007 12:00 AM | 0 Comments | Page 2 of 5

Crispy Gamer: How many people can engage in these missions?

Milton: The team can be up to four players.

Crispy Gamer: But what if you don't play well with others?

Milton: You'll be okay. In our game, there are different levels of completion for each mission. As a solo player, you can make your way through the game at a bronze level, but if you want to finish the secondary objectives and really master a mission, you might want to team up with some other people.

Wilson: It's kind of like how in Mario 64 you could get the first star pretty easily, but you had to work hard to get the second or third star.

Milton: An example of this might be that you complete a mission where you infiltrate a warehouse and steal secrets from a safe. Now you still get the experience, you still advance your agent's rank, but if you go back and play it again with some friends and complete the other objectives in the mission, you'll get even more experience.

Wilson: We recognize the importance of solo players. We've noticed that even in MMOs a lot of people still sometimes play on their own even if they've joined guilds, so we want to make sure we support that.

Crispy Gamer: Is it then not possible to fully complete a mission on your own?

Milton: I think in some cases some really, really crafty people might be able to do it. We're not forcing you to group up, but we are encouraging it.

Crispy Gamer: How many missions will there be at launch?

Milton: I don't know if we want to answer that specifically, but there will be a whole bunch. There are two agencies in the game -- U.N.I.T.E. [United Nations Intelligence and Tactical Experts], who are James Bond-type spies, and ParaGON [Paramilitary Global Operations Network], who are mercenaries -- and they'll both have three-act world story structures, and an event structure on top of that for ongoing episodic missions, so there will be more than enough to keep people going for a while.

Crispy Gamer: What are some of the types of missions you go on?

Milton: One of the things we decided when we started this project was that there were certain moments we definitely wanted to include. The first is joining your friends to take down a madman and his paramilitary goons in the jungles of South America. The next is infiltrating an enemy organization to steal secrets or perpetrate sabotage, which, of course, is one where you won't be able to use your gun. The third one is engaging in a high-speed vehicle chase down the streets of an exotic city. After all, you can't have a spy game without some vehicle missions.

Crispy Gamer: Does the fact that there are two different agencies mean people will want to make up two spies and play as both sides?

Milton: I hope so. That was actually a conscious choice for us. In fact, that's the only time when you have to create a new character. We kind of ditched the hard class system. In some games, you'll play for a while before realizing, 'Holy crap, I hate being a wizard!' So then you go back and create a warrior. But then you have to back and play the same six hours over again as a warrior. Instead, we let people swap between different roles on the fly. If you feel like blowing the crap out of stuff one night, put on a combat outfit, play as the combat specialty, and you'll gain experience towards that title. Want to be a field medic the next night? Not a problem. Your agent is actually a superagent, capable of filling many roles. The only decision you're locked into at the beginning of the game is what your character looks like and whether you'd like to be a U.N.I.T.E. agent or a ParaGON one.