Play2Chill and Games Operators’ Counter Terrorist Agency was moving towards its December 5th, 2019 release with some moderate momentum, mostly thanks to to the game’s pitch on putting players in charge of running a counter terrorist agency to curb extremists before they carried out a terrorist attack. However, not everyone loved the game when it first made its way to Steam.

We covered the game briefly back in April of 2019, giving gamers a heads-up about the strategy-management game, and it went on release in December for $19.99 over on the Steam store. During the first week of release you can actually get the title for 20% off the normal price for only $15.99.

The title sees you in charge of recruiting agents, gathering information ab out potential suspects, uncovering terrorist networks, and choosing who to spy on and how.

You can check out the trailer below from Worthplaying Videos to get an idea of what the gameplay loops and concepts are like.

So why the mixed reviews? Well, there are several issues and it mostly revolves around the game’s lack of depth for the gameplay loops, as well as a focus on resource management instead of the tools to get into the nitty gritty of individually picking people or groups out and identifying them as potential terror threats.

Jeff The French Canadian actually had a pretty good review that succinctly summed up what the major issues were, while still noting that Counter Terrorist Agency still has a lot of potential up its sleeve…

“[…] “ very much like the idea of managing a counter-terror Agency, using intel, clues and such to figure out potential attacks and suspects. Make a very interesting puzzle/management game. I think this game has an excellent potential.

 

“However, there is quite a few problems:

 

“Bad UI interface. It’s confusing to use and seem to lack any kind of of proper explainations or descriptions, so keeping track of the different clues/intels is very difficult and a pain in the butt along with a useless spiderweb which bring me to my next, major point.

 

“The clues/investigation interface is trash. You don’t know the details of the suspects, age, job, antecedents, skills, history, etc… It’s very hard to keep track of the different suspect since you can’t add notes or bookmarks to keep tracks of what can be many, many suspects at the same time. You totally lack information as to trying to find out what their roles or actions may be, so you constantly have to shoot in the dark and are forced to make assumptions based on very generic clues that doesn’t provide any substantial evidence, that you can’t reinforce since you can’t consult priors and such. There is only one true way to gain intel, by wiretapping. You can’t get tips from national agencies, maybe some defectors going out, etc..

 

“Also, i don’t like the way the resources and assets are made. It would be much better if you had to controls teams/agents around the world for them to gather intelligence and/or act upon the suspects. Right now we have to count solely on local assets provided by the countries that decided to join the CTA. I think we should have the ability to have both local and Agency assets. Perhaps Agency assets need to be moved around which take time and you have a limited supply of. […]”

Some of those issues are small and can be fixed with a bit of attention and dedication from Play2Chill. Specifically, updating the user interface to be more streamlined and easy-to-access could probably be fixed over the next couple of months.

Alogan19 also had similar issues with the limitations on the mechanics as well, going slightly more in depth as to why the more surface-level approach to managing agents and counter-terror solutions stripped away from the game’s immersion levels, writing…

“Extremely limited scenarios and mechanics. Considering you are anti terror for most of the planet, there is a shockingly small level of activity and actions you can take.

“Very shallow game with not much content or dynamics, 911 operator (by the same dev) is far more interesting and then you are leading the police force of a single city.

“This game puts you in charge of a global anti terror force. I had hoped for so much more from the premise, feels like the developer has done a bait and switch compared with what was promised for months and what has been unveiled.

“With a population of billions and so many possible threats to counter, you’d expect a game like this to be wildly stimulating, instead it is a basic resource management game with timed events and percentage chances for everything.

“Minimum effort of a game, do not buy.”

Elias Auxilibus had similar complaints, and also stated that Counter Terrorist Agency had a lot of potential but it just wasn’t being fulfilled right now…

“I expected a game where you focus on investigating potential international threats.

 

“Got a resource management game instead.

 

“I understand the need of managing resources, and normally it adds to the experience, but in this game it’s ridiculous to the extent that you spend more time worrying about those resources than who it is you’re supposed to be investigating. Perhaps later it’ll be adjusted somehow so that it’s actually an entertaining experience.

 

“However, I will say that, resource management simulator aside, there’s definitely a solid foundation for a game centered on an international intelligence agency, so please don’t just immediately dismiss this over the many “resource” complaints. Keep an eye on it if you don’t plan on buying it now.

 

“As of right now I can’t recommend it due to the impact of the poor implementation of how your available resources work, unfortunately.”

Another user went more in depth as to why the puzzle solving and strategy felt “surface”, explaining that once you get clues you act on them with either/or choices and then draw a conclusion from there. There’s no dissecting the clues, following through with additional leads and opening up a spiderweb of possibilities, false leads, double or triple agents, and the possibility of getting trapped in an information loop until you find the right lead.

On the upside at least everyone seems to acknowledge that Counter Terrorist Agency has a solid foundation in place and that the game could be so much more over time with a little more dedication to the gameplay loops and a more streamlined user interface.

Whether or not the developers will implement these features remains to be seen, but most people have also commented that they are listening to feedback and acting rather quickly based on community suggestions.