Publishers - PlayStation Mobile Inc, Sony Interactive Entertainment
PS4 Pro Review
This game has been sitting on my shelf for ages, it still was wrapped in plastic waiting for one of us to play it and I finally gave in. I was putting it off for a while because I would have to use my phone and an app to make choices throughout the game which made the PS4 controller unusable unless I wanted to close the game but I soon realised just how accessible using an app made the game. With the simple swoop of my finger for each option it's easy to control what happens next. For those with mobility issues its a great way for them to be able to play and engross themselves in the game play too, each time you login on the game you're prompted to install put your name in the app, load the game and carry on from where you left off.
Hidden Agenda is a dark a gloomy game centered around the crimes of a killer called The Trapper, the man police thought was the killer has been on death row for years but recently the killings have started again, was it a copycat? Or do the police have the wrong man? You get the chance to play as a female protagonist called Detective Becky Marney and a district attorney called Felicity Graves, they have taken on the task to try to find out who The Trapper killer really is, doubt has been planted in your head by the suspect originally put on death row for the killings and it's obvious something doesn't add up. The convicted killer only has a matter of days before he is sentenced to death so both Becky and Felicity need to get their head in the game and gather all the evidence they need to prove he isn't The Trapper.
Choices you make will determine who you can save, the outcome of sticky situations and whether or not you can get others to listen to you, this is not an easy task especially when you're a woman in the police force and have a history with what happened with The Trapper years before. I would have liked to of seen a lot more to Becky and Felicity, their personalities didn't appeal to me much and the game seemed rushed at times when it came to getting to the end, there are also no options to skip bits of the game it would have been handy if there was when the game crashed and I had to go back and rewatch everything I had just seen.
Dialogue is what helps you make your choices, due to the nature of the game being cinematic you sit back and press a few buttons to take you in the direction you think is best. On my first play through of games like this I always choose the cautious approach to see how it plays out, at times I missed cues which messed it up for me so the ending I ended up getting wasn't the one I wanted. I never felt that rush of excitement playing Hidden Agenda as I did when playing Supermassive Games other releases, it fell flat compared to the likes of Until Dawn which drew me in with the story, Hidden Agenda felt like it lacked a more indepth story and I was left unsatisfied.
The main thing that stood out to me though was that the game is accessible thanks to being able to use an app on your phone (easily downloaded from the app store) to make your choices by just moving the cursor with one finger. You can use it to complete secret objectives (which is why the game is called Hidden Agenda), stay up to date with any choices you have made and where the story is currently taking you but my favourite part were the characters biographies, learning more about them helped me work out if I should trust someone or what kind of response I should give them. The app supports up to 6 players on competitive mode, which makes a fun gaming evening, not sure how different the game plays out in competitive mode but I would like to give it a go, whilst there is more playability in the game I think it will get tedious very quickly and people will want to play something different.
Interactive games are right up my street, I could play them for hours and not get bored just because it's like playing through a novel and I love imaging a book play out in my mind when I read it. Supermassive have a way of bringing characters to life and use some amazing life like graphics, their approach to games take you on a different kind of journey, each game unique and different from each other. I had a lot of high hopes due to this and maybe I shouldn't try and compare it to the likes of Supermassive games other games but I expected more from this game if I'm honest, I never felt on the edge of my seat like I had hoped.
I finished the game in no time, it's a good way to fill in that gaming void in your life especially if you're in between games and not sure what to play next, it took just over an hour and a half to get to the end on a solo playthrough. Although I felt deflated as the game as a whole that doesn't mean other people will, the idea of using a phone app instead of a gaming pad appeals to me a lot though, especially with a group of people playing together, it's a bit like making the choices in your movie for a movie night with friends.
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