Secret Agent HD (PC) Gameplay
61Apogee platformer fans, rejoice! Secret Agent, a classic DOS puzzle-platformer from the early 90s, has been given an HD facelift and is now available on stores like Steam and GOG.
If you've never played Secret Agent before, it's essentially a game in which you must navigate mazelike levels, open doors with keycards, activate computers with floppy disks, destroy radar dishes, and ultimately breach the exit with a bundle of dynamite. One of my favorite aspects of the game is its "open-world" approach in which you can tackle levels on the world map (err, island map?) in several different orders. Each episode of course features its own large island chock full of levels.
The HD remaster includes a bunch of cool new features like a brand new fourth episode as well as an intuitive level editor complete with full Steam Workshop support. An awesome Adlib-like soundtrack has also been added to the game, and it's composed by none other than James "Jimmy" Paddock, whose outstanding work has been featured in such renowned DOOM WADs as Eviternity and even John Romero's Sigil.
The only complaint I can muster is that there's no way to toggle between the HD and original DOS graphics. It would've been awesome to switch between them on the fly just to study the differences and improvements.
If you'd like to check out Secret Agent HD for yourself, here are its Steam and GOG store pages:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1607670/Secret_Agent_HD/
https://www.gog.com/game/secret_agent_hd
The original DOS version of the game is also still available on Steam at the following link:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/358350/Secret_Agent/
It's also worth mentioning that Crystal Caves, another classic Apogee platformer, was remastered by the same developer in 2020. You can check it out at the following links:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1330890/Crystal_Caves_HD/
https://www.gog.com/game/crystal_caves_hd
Timestamps:
00:00 Intro/Title Screen
00:35 First Level
03:47 Second Level