Hidden Agenda Reviews
Hidden Agenda proves that PlayLink works not only with funny party games, but also with more mature, dark stories that can be controlled even by very casual gamers.
Review in Polish | Read full review
In single-player or multiplayer, Hidden Agenda is a game in which winning almost always feels like losing.
Hidden Agenda is a gritty and intriguing experience that should entertain up to six players for about the length of the average movie. It isn't without its flaws though, and most likely won't be something you'll play more than once.
Even after finding out who the true culprit is at the end of your first playthrough, Hidden Agenda makes it challenging for players to collect all the clues and gain a complete picture of what really happened in one go. There are so many things you can do differently over the course of the story, and the game has incredible replay value.
Hidden Agenda has all the trappings of a Supermassive game, but its potential is cut short as Crime Thriller: The Party Game. Stiff animations give the impression that Hidden Agenda was rushed. While the PlayLink technology has potential and does some really cool things by turning your phone into a controller, it also adds unnecessary complications to a game that uses the second screen functionality as more of a gimmick than a core gameplay mechanic. Hidden Agenda is a good game, but is held back from being great by trying to fit it into the party game mold.
It's clear that Hidden Agenda has an interesting concept. But this interactive thriller playable with your phone doesn't really fit with the idea of a party game and sometimes feels a bit rushed in terchnical terms and not really memorable.
Review in French | Read full review
As a game for chilling out on the sofa with a handful of friends or the family, Hidden Agenda is pretty cool. Yet there's a lot about the mechanics, the story, the situations and the characters that seems wilfully, crazily dumb. For £20 for a few hours of fun it's well worth a try, but this feels like an interesting concept that needs some work before it all comes good.
If you love choose-your-own-adventure games, Hidden Agenda is compelling enough to make for an evening's entertainment, especially given its price – but it feels more a glimpse of what could be enabled by mobile-connected games in the future, than a showcase of them at the moment.
Hidden Agenda is a nice thriller to play, thats lacks some fine tuning in terms of Story and mechanics.
Review in German | Read full review
Hidden Agenda is a great concept with some impressive set pieces and performances, but its narrative lets it down and it lacks any major impact.
However, someone may not like the primitive gameplay, and the price for a two-hour movie may seem quite high.
Review in Russian | Read full review
_____________________________ “The game doesn't manage to create anything resembling tension as you play
With a huge web of choices to make and an enjoyable competitive mode to boot, there's a lot to like in this crime analysis. Hidden Agenda proves that the PlayLink initiative can be taken advantage of in more than just casual party games, but this particular outing doesn't quite realise its full potential. This investigation is absolutely one worth experiencing, but one too many caveats with the app itself holds things back from greatness.
Hidden Agenda is a hard recommendation, because the game feels like a natural fit to share with non-gamers, but we had one playthrough that ended so abruptly and unsatisfyingly I thought we had somehow skipped a section, and had I brought this game out at a party I would have felt like we totally wasted two hours.
PlayLink's experiment in multiplayer narrative is sound but suffers from poor execution
Hidden Agenda is like stepping into a crime drama and influencing how it plays out. The branching narrative is a welcoming aspect and makes me want to play it multiple times. It's fun to play alone, but taking it on with friends is a treat all on it's own.
It's doing something different as part of Play Link, and there is no better studio to do a crime story using this service, even though some of the gameplay elements are a bit dull.
$20 isn't much to spend for a night's entertainment, but there are much better games of this type for about the same price. Skip it.
A movie dressed like a videogame that fails to retain your attention once you have completed it... And it only lasts for two hours.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
There's some good ideas in how PlayLink can be used to let a group of players (and non-gamers in particular) join together and shape a filmic story, but the actual interface feels clumsy, and the story and scripting leaves plenty to be desired. It's safe to say that Hidden Agenda is an obvious disappointment.