Review: ARCHER: DANGER PHONE

Developed by East Side Games Studio, and Based on the Hit FX/FXX Adult Animated series of the same name. ARCHER: DANGER PHONE is a plot-driven idle game. As of right now. It’s available now for both iOS and Android with FX Networks hoping it’ll keep fans entertained for the arrival of the show’s eleventh season, which begins on September 16th.

The game’s primary plot begins with Dr. Krieger explaining the main story & mechanics of the game. As Krieger is making his own cryptocurrency called “Kriegerrand” that he hopes will rival the American dollar. With no support from the other agents, and under the encouragement of his Hologram Anime Bride, he makes hologram versions of his co-workers to participate in simulated Kriegerrand-related scenarios in the hopes of a desired result. Each part of the game separates into “operations”, which are where the idle portion of the game comes into play.

The graphics and animation are pretty spot-on. Fans will enjoy seeing all of their favorite characters appear, along with all the fun & crazy in-jokes & references from the show. Music in the game comes from the show as well, but strangely there isn’t any voice acting. Occasionally you will hear random vocals from Krieger, but that’s as far as it’ll go. The characters animate when their comic/text bubble pops up, but there is no sound. The written dialogue, however, is perfect. And uses the same style of humor as the show, and each character is utilized fully with an actual purpose in the narrative.

Confined to a rectangular space, you only slowly start out with four Common rooms found on the show to generate cash that progressively you can add and scroll down for even more rooms each time you have more characters you unlock. These rooms can be upgraded using “cocktail” power-ups to produce more cash. In the same way, you can upgrade the characters that appear in the rooms to increase the cash flow. Upgrading with cash increases the output during each operation, but everything resets after you’ve completed the operation with “Kriegerrand” currency as the high-level currency in the game that you can purchase buy with real money along with certain characters from the show that can also be unlocked or different versions of the same character in different outfits (such as Sterling in either his usual business attire or his tactical outfit, etc) What thankfully breaks the monotony are the narrative cutscenes that keep you compelled enough to see where the plot happens next, and at the end of every “mission”, there’s an over the shoulder boss fight where Sterling opens fire on various enemies and the main boss that you can instantly shoot by tapping your fingertips on the enemies with quick & responsive accuracy.

The music, writing, and cutscenes were meticulously crafted, and excel in terms of presentation as the game’s plot manages to bring Archer to life within both a compelling yet comical storyline in tandem with clever elements and lines of dialogue that feel like an actual episode of the show built around a “Tycoon”-style gameplay experience.