180 Files: The Aegis Project
By Karelia Hall
“Did I tell you about Petrovich’s crocodiles?” Angel says, perversely upbeat. “Too good a chance to miss, especially since it’ll point the blame at him. You did us a favor there. He’s clearly far too unstable to be a good long-term asset. Once we’re done with you, I think it’s do svidaniya for poor Mikhail.”
Ever wonder what would happen if you mixed Totally Spies with a dash of Bond, Powers and Eggsy? Now, turn down the brightness and contrast with the dark, moral quandaries of a license to kill and trauma in the line of duty, and you’d get a whole new direction to take the Files in, Agent.
Don’t forget the cocktail!
General Story:
After suffering a traumatic event, the titular character Agent 180 with an anti-terrorist covert organization is placed on the trail of a bioweapon. Already under pressure, can they also handle the scrutiny of the legendary top agent, Agent 100?
Now this is a love-letter to Daniel Craig and Pierce Brosnan, with a postscript to M. Casino card games, dangling from helicopters, and flashing the Doctor’s psychic paper is the name of the game… well, the implied name. The story is necessarily fast-paced and reads like you are watching any spy film from the last thirty years.
Format and Typos:
High readability, and after going through quite a few paths, I’ve not noticed any typos.
Game Mechanics and Stats:
In a trend with some Choice titles, you build your character through choices over the course of the first few chapters. Your past and present determine your skill with technology, persuasion, skullduggery or combat. You also balance a personality that veers between loyal to the organization, to concern about your own well-being among others. These are pretty standard opposed pairs.
Throughout the title, success and failure determine how much information you can collect to hold against the main antagonist and the evil organization of DIABLO. This will determine your ending, which consists of both your overall choices and your assessment during the mission.
Difficulty checks ramp up pretty quickly as you progress through the story. It’s possible to focus on being good at three things, but all of a sudden, you won’t pass checks unless you’ve been focusing on only two things. And then, at the end, you’ll wish you had focused on being really good at one thing. Since character stat growth doesn’t really occur after the first few chapters, you may find yourself deep in the story and suddenly failing at a lot of things.
Replayability:
I found the title to be highly replayable. The ending can vary pretty wildly depending on your overall successes through the different romance options, choices, and paths you pursue. There are branching paths that can lead you through the final confrontation, and how the Agency views your successes and loyalty can affect the style of ending just as much. There are a few romance options (including gender variable, male, female, and non-binary), and the level of detail given to them fits perfectly in your standard Bond style.
Dislikes:
- Difficulty scaling without much growth in later chapters feels a bit harsh because of how easy some of the earlier choices were.
- Some parts in the middle of the title confused me a little on how to interact with some of the people I wanted to interact with.
- Choosing equipment felt like it should be done to counteract the things you were bad at, when in reality it was to make the thing you were second best at be possible in most situations.
Likes:
- Fast pace done well. Too often, stories that feel breakneck end up feeling shallow. The author includes all the details you need, but still makes the world feel like it’s actually moving around you.
- Perfect mix of absurd spy tech, overly suave characters while still representing the moral issues of an organization operating outside of the law.
- Might be one of the few enemy to lover-rival I’ve actually enjoyed.