As Bond, who looks nothing like any of the gentleman who have become him over the decades, you play through scenes from four Bond films, including Goldfinger and Live and Let Die. But each scene is really just a series of Pokemon-like battles against a series of boring chumps. The same dude appears over and over again in dozens of fights, occasionally replaced by a recognizable villain or henchman. In each battle, Bond just stands there, facing his opponent and trading blows, gun shots, or gadget throws. Really, somebody pulls out an assault rifle and Bond takes it like a Revolutionary War battalion, waiting patiently for his turn to attack?
After each successful fight, you bank cash and experience. As you level up, you can improve stats like melee or gun attacks, as well as increase your defenses. The money is used to buy weapons, armor and gadgets. This is the only good idea here and it makes sense in the context of a paper-rock-scissors game… except that Bond is completely ill-suited for this dull turn-based fighter.
This is such a poorly paced game. And it's not consistent. For example, you have a quick-shot attack where you're essentially trading damage for speed. That makes sense because if Bond pulls his gun to get that first shot, he won't necessarily have perfect aim. But sometimes you go first with that attack and sometimes you just stand there, watch your opponent run at you and then take a punch to the face. You're also told to watch the attack patterns of your enemies so you can react properly. In one battle, a guard repeatedly (and only) used punches and kicks. So, during our rematch, I started employing parries. Guess what? He never used a melee attack once. He then just started shooting every turn.
Top Agent also offers online play against other Bonds. Finding matches was easy enough. There was actually some decent activity in the community today. After each battle, you can check your new standing in the global rankings. Top Agent supports an in-game friends list so you can play against favorite players.
007: Top Agent was reviewed with version 1.0.
