Agent, Run! Review

Agent, Run! is an auto-runner with a difference. Instead of swiping to help your character move from side to side, you swipe and tap in order to clear obstacles in his wake. It provides a more entertaining experience than the usual methods.

For free, you get the first area to negotiate. This introduces you to the main concepts behind Agent, Run!. There are enemy agents chasing you at all times so you can only make so many mistakes before it’s game over. As you race through the lands there are coins to collect, often through crates suspended in mid air. These coins can be used in-game to buy a speed boost or extra life, or you can opt to buy permanent upgrades after a session.

Often, you’ll come across dogs that will slow you down unless you swipe at a bone to cast it to them and keep them occupied. Battering rams and mines get in the way too, easily vanquished with a well-timed swipe. Later on, as you unlock new areas and abilities, you can use a rope to swing across pits, fend off lasers, create stairways, and eventually even use jetpacks and bazookas. Agent, Run! does a reasonable job of keeping a simple mechanism quite interesting.

Expect to pay up, though. While the first level is free, you need to pay $1.99 to unlock the rest. It’s mostly worth it though as later stages are more interesting than the introductory section. Further impetus is provided through the various missions that can be completed for extra coins and that general feeling of success. These tend to correlate to things like running a certain distance or surviving a set number of dog attacks, so they’re reasonably convenient to complete.

Carefully sidestepping the risk of being too much like a regular running game, Agent, Run! is pretty fun. It’ll keep you alert and on your toes much more so than with regular runners, and its change of pace is certainly a welcome one.