Spooks: The Mobile Game
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I can't be objective when it comes to Spooks – the television show, that is. Without doubt, Harry's band of secret agents have served up a British drama of the highest order over the last three or so years, and it's the highlight of my weekly TV schedule. It's probably no surprise that its maker, Kudos, has decided to cash in on its top franchise by luring in fans such as me to carry out MI5 ops on their mobiles. What's more, by and large, Gameloft has pulled off Kudos's vision with style.

The unimaginatively titled Spooks: The Mobile Game isn't without its glitches, however. But then again, when have you tuned in on a Monday night to see Ros, Harry, Jo and Lucas carrying out an operation without something going slightly askew? It's perhaps fitting that things regularly come a cropper mid-mission throughout the game, the application freezing in between tasks with annoying consistency.

Luckily, Spooks's auto-save feature means you never lose your progress (and, indeed, if playing on a Nokia, it's simple enough to kick the game back into action by holding down the menu key and re-selecting the game), but you certainly couldn't mark it down as a plus point.

That aside, anyone familiar with the TV show will feel instantly at home with the game's array of settings. Playing as series newcomer (but in actuality a spy with several years of experience) Lucas North, you take charge of his movements as the team deals with a bomb threat at the QEII Conference Centre in London.

As play moves forward, it becomes clear that connections in India and indeed Al Qaeda are behind the threat, and the whole storyline - though short - could have been lifted straight from an episode in the series.

In terms of what's actually required, most of the game centres around point and click play - meaning you'll spend most of your time moving a cursor around the screen and using the '5' key to interact with objects key to your quest. You also have plenty of tools in your inventory that you can call upon (a PDA to hack computers, DNA scans and movement trackers, amongst others) and, essentially, most of your tasks revolve around problem solving.

Need to get into a locked office? Then you'll need to trick the security guard into thinking you're there for a valid reason in order to gain access to a security card. After a DNA scan? Perhaps scanning the subject's phone or glass for traces of saliva would prove fruitful.

The puzzles are never especially hard, but that doesn't really seem to matter. With the settings constantly changing and the story moving on, it's the desire to move the plot forward – sometimes taking Ros on missions, calling on Jo back at the grid and reporting pre and post op details to Harry – that drives you on.

There are also a few mini-games woven into play (they can also be accessed separately from the main menu once unlocked in the Story mode) that help keep things varied. Hacking involves repeating a sequence of numbers in quick time, for instance, while you'll also regularly have to clean up sound recordings and grainy images, using the right filters in the right order to achieve your aim.

All in all, everything on offer here feels very Spooks – from the missions themselves to the visual representation of the MI5 offices. There are a few errors (the crashes aside, there are small slips, such as Lucas calling the UK 'England' and the map of the country looking more like something squashed on the bottom of your shoe than the British Isles), but there's also a dose of wit and charm (Lucas is seemingly obsessed with how objects you come across would look in his flat), leaving us with an enjoyable but short tale that's a little rough around the edges but still worthy of fans' attention.

If nothing else, Spooks: The Mobile Game proves that the Beeb's action-packed show is the perfect vehicle for a mobile adventure. This is most definitely an op that Gameloft should revisit in the future, and there's plenty of merit here to suggest we should all come along for another ride.

Spooks: The Mobile Game

Spooks through and through, the TV show's first foray into the world of mobile gaming is a fruitful effort. Slightly marred by some irritating bugs, Spooks: The Mobile Game nevertheless does justice to the series and brings a fair dose of panache to the table
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Keith Andrew
Keith Andrew
With a fine eye for detail, Keith Andrew is fuelled by strong coffee, Kylie Minogue and the shapely curve of a san serif font. He's also Pocket Gamer's resident football gaming expert and, thanks to his work on PG.biz, monitors the market share of all mobile OSes on a daily basis.