Agent 64 Spies Never Die: the owned GoldenEye homage, with the return of the cousin peeking at your screen

First reaction to the screenshots: this is GoldenEye. Second reaction, after reading the store page: nobody is hiding it, and that is the whole project. The studio Replicant D6 speaks of an homage to the console shooters of the nineties and sets its action in a futuristic 1997. Hard to be clearer about intentions.

Let us say it straight away: in this particular case, owned imitation beats bashful inspiration.

The story, since you asked

It is exactly where it needs to be, no more and no less. You play secret agent John Walter, an elite operative sent on fourteen missions to save the world from his arch-nemesis, Dominic Pulp. The studio's own line sums up the tone: protect the future against the phantoms of the past.

This is spy-film pastiche, owned right down to the names. Do not look for narrative subtlety, look for a pretext to visit locations, and on that count it delivers: skyscrapers, nightclubs, museums, catacombs, snow bases. Each mission is a self-contained environment with varied objectives, hacking terminals, stealing secret plans, freeing hostages, all while shooting it out with armed guards. That is the mission structure of the great console shooters of the era, reproduced faithfully.

The detail that shows the studio understood its model deeply: the three difficulty levels, Agent, Special Agent and 64 Agent, do not merely change how tough enemies are. Raising the difficulty adds objectives and opens additional areas. That was precisely the model's clever trick, and reusing it is smarter than copying the aesthetic.

The mode that concerns you directly

You mentioned hours spent hiding in the toilets with a weapon waiting for a friend. Good news, it is all here.

There is an Arena playable in local split-screen, but also the entire campaign playable cooperatively, locally and online. That is more generous than the model, which had no co-op.

Bad news for pure nostalgia, though: your cousin will no longer be able to cheat by looking at your half of the screen, since online play exists. What is gained in fairness is lost in accusations shouted across a living room. That is progress, and we must live with it.

The rest of the content

The game adds a Paradox mode unlocked by beating par times, with more than seventy modifiers and cheats: big heads, melee disarms, slowed bullets, no reloading. These are the time-trial unlockable cheats of the model, brought up to date, and they were precisely what gave those games their longevity. Add Contracts, remixed missions with different objectives and imposed Paradox presets.

On paper the structure is therefore complete, and fuller than a simple exercise in style. The game is out today, has no reviews yet, and so we are not scoring it. Worth flagging, and welcome for a project this size: it is available in French.

That leaves the real question, the one no store page answers: does the feel of the shooting hold up against the memory we have of it? Because in this register, nostalgia is a fearsome judge, and it always flatters.

Since our first look, players have settled it: Steam reviews are Very Positive at 91 percent across more than 220 reviews. The homage keeps its promises, including on the feel of the shooting, which was our one real unknown.