Agent 64: Spies Never Die Wiki
Agent 64: Spies Never Die is a retro first-person shooter from solo developer Replicant D6, releasing August 11, 2026 on PC via Steam after a 5.5-year, self-described "grueling" development process. It's a direct homage to Rare's N64-era shooters -- GoldenEye 007, Perfect Dark, and later TimeSplitters -- rebuilding their specific low-poly look, feel, and objective-based mission design for modern hardware rather than simply imitating their aesthetic.
The Story
You play secret agent John Walter, working through a 14-mission campaign (solo or co-op) to stop his arch-nemesis, Dominic Pulp. Missions combine gunfights, exploration, and objective-based design -- hacking terminals, rescuing hostages, and stealing secret plans -- against what the developer describes as "state-of-the-art 1997 enemy AI," a knowing wink at the era it's paying tribute to.
Three Difficulty Tiers, Genuinely Different Missions
Every mission can be completed on three distinct difficulty settings -- Agent, Special Agent, and 64 Agent -- and higher difficulty doesn't just mean tougher enemies. It adds more objectives and opens up more explorable areas within the same mission, mirroring how GoldenEye 007's own classic difficulty structure worked. The developer's own advice is to start on Agent to learn a mission's layout, then replay on higher difficulties to see what's added.
A Real, Old-School Design Choice: One Life, One Try
There are no mid-mission checkpoints or healing stations -- if you go down, you restart the mission from the beginning, memorizing enemy placement and objectives as you go, in the same tradition as the N64 originals. This has drawn some real, mixed community reaction ahead of launch, with a portion of players finding it too punishing for modern tastes.
Paradox Mode and Contracts
Beating a mission's par time and other trials unlocks Paradox Mode, a collection of 70+ modifiers and cheats -- Big Heads, Melee Disarms, slow bullet speeds, disabled reloading, and random weapon changes among them -- for custom, chaotic replays. Contracts take this further with remixed versions of existing missions featuring different objectives and preset Paradox modifier combinations, unlocking additional Paradox content as rewards.
Multiplayer: Splitscreen and Slapping, Still Alive
Local four-player split-screen multiplayer sits alongside 8-player online matches (with up to 8 additional bots), across Deathmatch, Zone, and Briefcase modes (where agents fight to hold classified documents the longest). True to the source material, unarmed melee slapping -- GoldenEye's beloved, ridiculous house rule -- is confirmed to make the cut, along with full lobby customization covering teams, weapon sets, rule sets, and Paradox modifiers, with up to 10 savable presets.
An Honest Note on a Real Pre-Launch Controversy
Some community members have expressed real frustration on the game's Steam Community hub regarding the inclusion of kernel-level anti-cheat software, with a portion of players stating they won't purchase the game as a result. This is a genuine, ongoing point of friction ahead of launch worth being aware of if that's a concern for you specifically.