Secret Agent HD

The Good
Once you’ve opened up the game, say hello to the new VGA-esque colours and textures, which do a fantastic job of bringing out better blending of sprites and objects with the backgrounds, and are easy on the eyes. The music tracks that mimic the Adlib chiptunes capture the theme of daring, danger, and determination as you play the levels.

The new content of the game doesn’t end here. After experiencing the first three episodes with some visual flavour added to the cutscenes, you’ll be pleasantly surprised to find a fourth episode packed with new features and abilities, including a proper final boss encounter with Doctor Nobody himself. All those episodes can be played in not one, but three difficulties for any player’s comfort. And for endless enjoyment, what better way to top this game off with a level editor, a leaderboard, episode statistics, and achievements.

The Bad
Where to start, many previous problems are fixed such as minor adjustments made to the levels, where they have been panned unfair by players of the original Secret Agent. Most existing issues such as a temporary pair of running shoes being essential to reach an optional area in one of the levels are usually the fault of the player for lack of planning and scanning the surroundings.

The only real problem is the optional CGA mode once you’ve earned it. The choice of colours doesn’t seem well done, just the usual white, magenta, cyan and black, but no extra detail to compensate for straight up colour swaps. Maybe the developers could have thrown in CGA Composite mode as well. A finishing touch could have been adding Soundblaster effects instead of the old PC Speaker blips. Too bad there’s no way to bring this title to real hardware of the early 90s.

The Bottom Line
This game came out as a wonderful surprise for PC players everywhere. For those who grew up with the original Secret Agent, they can relive the experience like never before. For those new to the Apogee line of games, this game is a good investment where advanced games are too pricey and have demanding system requirements. You don’t have to have 3D perspective and tons of colour, effects and audio to enjoy gaming today. What was playable in the 90s can be brought back for round two, now that the gaming retro trend is catching up. If this had been released a year after the original game, this would have been a commercial success. Give this title the love you can and become a small part of something special.