Agent Intercept Review (PC): Feel Like a Superspy in This Drive Action Flick

Agent Intercept sells the idea of you being a superspy who drives such an amazing car. It's one of those on-rails games that lets you control the action but tells you where to go. Think of it as a “guided experience” where you drive a vehicle on a pre-determined line without the possibility of going off the road or choosing another path.

In Agent Intercept, you'll be driving a Sceptre, the equivalent of James Bond's Aston Martin DB5, in a race against time to stop the criminal organization CLAW and its mysterious leader. To make it worthy of a superspy, your slick car has been outfitted with the latest spy gadgets and weapons. Not to mention that the Sceptre goes into off-road, boat or snowmobile mode when needed.

Behind the wheel of this all-around vehicle, you'll be racing after villains, infiltrate hidden bases, and battle bosses in multiple phases. Alas, this sounds more pompous than the game really is. Agent Intercept does away with the overly complex racing car action formula and gives you a compelling story to follow and an entertaining gameplay experience. Playing Agent Intercept is like watching a spy thriller that doesn't take itself too seriously. The difference is that you're the protagonist, so you get all the fun.

The gameplay is as basic as a car racing game can be, but that's hardly a bad thing. Each mission consists of driving your car on a pre-determined path using just three controls: steer left, steer right, and boost. Also, whenever you pick up ammunition along the road, you'll be able to use the Spectre's weapons. Since this is a PC port of a mobile game, the camera angle is fixed and might feel awkward at first, but I had absolutely no issues after a few races.

During missions, you'll be drifting, shooting, and bumping other cars into oblivion across different environments. Whenever you switch terrain, your Sceptre will automatically transform into a boat or snowmobile, depending on the scenery. Driving feels smooth and rewarding, especially when you manage to execute a perfect stunt while shooting your car's rocket launcher. The Sceptre is so versatile that you'll eventually be able to take out helicopters and fighter jets.

The game's campaign mode has three chapters, each featuring several missions and a final boss at the end. To unlock the last mission and fight the boss, you must earn enough “information” throughout the chapter. You'll be gaining info by achieving additional objectives during a mission. Typically, these additional objectives involve drifting for a longer distance or destroying a certain number of enemies. You can always redo a mission to complete any missed objectives.

As you progress, new game modes will unlock where you'll be able to do Side Missions or race against other players on the leaderboards. You won't actually be racing against other players, instead, you'll have to beat their scores.

The simple, yet fun, gameplay is complemented by an entertaining story and great voice acting. Everything sounds so British (as it should!) and full of movie tropes that it's impossible not to love Agent Intercept. The funky soundtrack is so good that it convinced developers to sell it separately for those who'd like to listen to it outside the game.

The game is fully voice acted (well, almost) and while some dialog lines can be silly, there's definitely that sense that everything is part of the “Hollywood action flick” formula. The briefings before missions are short intermezzos before the fun begins, but they're very well done and add to the immersion.

Visually, the art and graphics perfectly fit the recipe. While it's definitely nothing fancy, I believe the cartoonish art style is meant to recreate the retro feel of the old James Bond movies, and I absolutely enjoyed that.

Conclusion

I'd say Agent Intercept is a worthy successor of the Spy Hunter series, the vehicular combat action game that was very popular on arcades at the beginning of the '80s. The game perfectly blends basic car racing gameplay mechanics and spy thriller narrative to provide a simple, yet fun experience.

Its “save the world” scenario is goofy, exaggerated, and full of cliches, exactly like any of the James Bond or Mission Impossible movies, which is why it's so fun. I would definitely recommend playing Agent Intercept with a controller for the best gameplay experience, but keyboard and mouse control works fine as well.

I might be subjective on this one, but I think Agent Intercept is one of the best on-rails car racing games in the last couple of years. It has gorgeous art, great voice acting, amazingly fun gameplay, and a compelling story. It's old-school uncomplicated fun.

Rating: 80/100