If you’re a gamer of a certain age, you almost certainly recall hours spent sprawled across a bean bag chair, or on the lower bunk of a dorm room bed, or wherever else. You recall gripping the three-pronged Nintendo 64 controller in your sweaty hands, and maybe the smells that wafted your way from your roommates as they prepped for another deathmatch in the Facility.
GoldenEye 007 had a moment. It was a long and glorious moment, one that defined what the first-person shooter could look like on a console. We played it obsessively for a few formative years. Perhaps that’s why, even though we recently enjoyed the modern take on England’s best agent that 007 First Light so capably provided, we can’t help but get excited when we see a more retro approach that Agent 64: Spies Never Die is attempting. Because when it comes to the protagonist, the name is not Bond, James Bond. But it might as well be.
Agent 64 makes it feel good to be a spy again
Developed by Replicant D6, a one-person team who clearly understood the assignment, Agent 64 follows a visual approach that recalls GoldenEye. The textures are ever so slightly blurry. The villains roll to avoid your shots, vaguely resembling paper dolls the entire time. Corpses lie on muddy floors, folded in death.
Looking back at GoldenEye through a 2026 lens, its flaws are easy to see. Visually, it was no stunner even on the day it was released. Decades later, compared to modern competition from big-budget fare such as 007 First Light, it’s downright hideous. The muddy environmental textures and low-definition faces assume an almost nightmarish quality. But they were once very effective, and they enabled experiences we’ve never forgotten even as prettier successors came along and reached for the crown.
Agent 64 splits the difference, providing environments and gunplay that are uglier than you probably remember in your mind’s eye, but prettier than the old game actually was. And it looks faithful in all the right ways, despite the necessary concessions to advancing technology. You’ll visit varied destinations that wouldn’t have felt out of place in the old game. You’ll watch characters duck behind stone columns, raise their weapons by their sides, and do their best Pierce Brosnan impressions. Clouds of smoke fill hallways and locker rooms. A quick toss plants a mine on a distant computer terminal, seconds before a subdued but satisfying explosion.
In Agent 64, you are John Walter, an operative who faces off against his nemesis, the nefarious Dominic Pulp. Your mission propels you through a 14-stage campaign alone or with up to three friends, or you might try your hand at Challenges and Contract modes featuring varied objectives and limitations that extend the experience.
GoldenEye had a fun campaign of its own (except for the Control stage, which can rot in hell), but most of us remember the game fondly today because of the time we spent trying to take out our friends. Agent 64 looks to bring local competitive play back by dividing the screen four ways and pitting you against your buddies once again. When you take it online, you’ll find custom lobbies that support up to eight human players, along with as many bots and more than 70 gameplay modifiers. There’s even a Big Head mode. What about that for a retro throwback?
When does Agent 64 release?
If you’re wondering when you can get your hands on Agent 64: Spies Never Die, there’s some good news. The game launches Aug. 11, and you can wishlist it on Steam today. But you don’t have to wait. A free demo is available right now and downloads in seconds.
Unfortunately, there’s no word on when or if a console version of Agent 64 might arrive. Ports can always come later, though. We’re just glad this promising homage to one of the great games of the late ‘90s and early 2000s is finally almost here.
