As promised, something of a review/preview.
The Agency is based on the concept of a modern world setting with fast action which essentially puts you in the position of a first person shooter. It is primarily loot based – and kind of a term either that’s new or I haven’t heard of it before, but YAWYW – you are what you wear. There are classes, but you depending on what you’re wearing – and abilities are tied to items you wear – you can radically change your class in short fashion. Pun intended…
I think the game itself is confusing the community at large. As recently as E3, there were no character progressions listed, or levels. The characters gain XP, but I’ve yet to see in any screenshot or review page what exactly levels will do for you. Most FPS MMOs haven’t held much of their fan base, and this isn’t the first one that Sony has tried. I also believe what is wowing the masses are the beautiful screenshots and play videos that have been put out by Sony. One thing you can bank on with Sony is good marketing!
Now, if someone is interested in a good FPS, and that’s their forte, this may well work as a model – why bother with individual servers when you can get a semi-persistent world and perhaps a long-term avatar, combined with the ease of use of an MMO?
Perhaps, Sony needs to start advertising this as a persistent FPS as opposed to an MMO, as that will tend to just annoy the traditional MMO market and potentially miss the actual appropriate market who’d enjoy the game.
