From Jim Walls, designer of two of the most exciting and realistic graphics adventure games ever written, comes a story as chillingly authentic as tomorrow's headlines.
Action and intrigue combine with the latest in simulation technology to create a thrilling adventure. The scenario: a kidnapped U....
Windows 7 / 8 / 10, 1.8 GHz, 512 MB RAM, 3D graphics card compatible with DirectX 7 (compatible with...
Description
From Jim Walls, designer of two of the most exciting and realistic graphics adventure games ever written, comes a story as chillingly authentic as tomorrow's headlines.
Action and intrigue combine with the latest in simulation technology to create a thrilling adventure. The scenario: a kidnapped U.S. ambassador and the only man who can save him - Codename: ICEMAN.
Oil shortages, international politics and radical terrorists from the backdrop for a powerful story of world crisis, superpower conflict and high-tech escapades.
Use authentic Naval intelligence charts to pilot a nuclear submarine into enemy territory in a race against time.
Sierra's 3-D Adventure Game Format, enhanced graphics and sound capabilities add to your gaming enjoyment.
Exciting original soundtrack and realistic sound effects bring new life to your gaming experience.
Contains a realistic submarine simulator - the newest in simulation technology for a new kind of computer entertainment.
As other reviewers have noted, this has every worst aspect of adventure games magnified and concentrated into one game. Hidden fail conditions that invalidate hours of gameplay, strict time limits, zero explanation of mechanics, mini-games that rely on RNG, ugh.
The idea of this game is interesting at least, and if you play it with a walkthrough you'll probably only need to restart 200 times to get to the end.
I would recommend only playing this if you are a Sierra completionist or if the game holds nostalgic value for you.
The music is fantastic in an unexpected way (composer of PQ2 music as well).
I'm basing this on my memories of playing this as a kid, but I don't remember being as mortally offended by its existence as others. In fact, parts of the game had a limited charm. It starts off with a heavily-obscured copy protection scheme when you join a beach volleyball game and then have to use the manual's CPR guide to save a dude's life. You putter around in paradise, have a submarine mission with a woman (that's a euphemism,) who vanishes the next morning and is probably a spy if you play far enough, which I did not, and get called in by the military brass for a submarine mission (that's not a euphemism.)
It's recognizable as Sierra's middling days. You walk around, you have rudimentary conversations, you pick this up and use it with that. Sierra's art and music department squeeze what they can out of 16-color displays and Ad Lib sound boards, in that special Sierra way that nobody else could.
After this, the game gets a bit less interesting. You can anticipate having fewer areas to explore when you're confined to a sub, as well as a limited selection of characters who are either extremely bland or outlandishly archetypal, but the twin troubles of a gambling minigame and a near-indecipherable submarine combat section tanked the game for me. Maybe it was my pea-sized and pear-shaped kid brain, but I couldn't figure out what the combat section wanted me to do. I abandoned the game there and never went back.
Recently, a friend and I bought the Might and Magic pack to have a revenge play of the first game, which was a bully to us in our youths. I bring this up because I can't imagine going back to this one in the same manner. We had our summer, Codename: Iceman, and it is now over.
I remember playing Codename: Iceman back when it came out in 1990, but I do not remember this game being as frustrating as it is today. It was created by the same guy/team that did the Police Quest series. You have to follow every procedure and protocol more to the tee than even the PQ series. The story lacks any real meaning behind it other an you are a special agent sent to rescue a goverment official. This game was created at the time when we still had the U.S.S.R. (the Soviet Union fell apart shortly before the game came out).
I felt like the commands and text descriptions in Iceman were very basic and worse than the very first Sierra game. Sometimes you would tell the game to look at some object or person and it would give the generic "You see nothing", or worse it would do another command entirely (like talking to someone instead of looking). The submarine sequences are some of the most time sensitive and mind boggling I've ever played in a Sierra game. Sometimes luck came into play whether you hit or missed with torpedos. There is less direction in this game than any other Sierra adventure. I had to use a walkthrough to remember what to do at times.
I will point out that there is a nasty bug in this GOG version. When you are viewing the approaching warship with the captain above the sub (picture is shown on this page in the screenshots), the game ends as you are killed by that warship really fast due to a timing "bug". This game was created back when CPUs were really slow, so the computer time is of course sped up due to todays fast tech. I was able to fix it by replacing SCUMMVM with a newer version. The one GOG includes is 2.0.0, but the 2.6.1 version (latest at time of review) worked fine and must have patched that bug.
Overall, Iceman was a good gaming experience. If you are a fan of Sierra games, then you will probably like this one. But, make sure the kids are not around when you start swearing at it during the last half of the game.
Released in 1989 toward the end of Sierra's text parser days, Codename: ICEMAN has gained a rather notorious reputation over the years for being the hardest game in all of that company's adventure game catalog, and boy does it live up to that reputation. Like other adventure games developed at Sierra, ICEMAN has that trademark mix of puzzles and story with action sequences, random deaths, and the dreaded dead ends; but unlike most other Sierra games, it lacks much of the charm that would redeem it for its more annoying elements. If you have played any of the entries in lead designer Jim Wall's other series, Police Quest, you will be familiar with this game's focus on realism and procedure over the fantasy and high adventure that more often marks the genre. It is in this dedication to accuracy in Naval code and Submarine navigation and warfare that ICEMAN gives its best ideas, but this is also where it stumbles in forgetting to just be a game and be fun to play.
You play as Naval Officer Johnny Westland, soaking up the sun in Tahiti while on leave, but his vacation ends abruptly when he is selected for a dangerous rescue that will put your puzzle solving and submarine piloting skills to the test. Against the backdrop of a major oil crisis and the resulting conflict between the world's two biggest military powers, the stakes are high and the time is short. From here the story has some interesting twists and turns and will probably keep our attention through the rest of game; motivation that you will need to get passed some of the frustrating controls and unforgiving dead ends. Apart from the puzzles, the game has plenty of action sequences and mini games, but the mechanics focus too much and randomness and chance to really be enjoyable. I feel like there would be a great game lurking under the surface here if the execution had been more fair and logical. While I wouldn't call it fun, it can be a rewarding challenge to anyone willing to save and reload a whole lot.
Man, I love this game! Glad to see it picked up by GOG and hope the rest of the other miscellaneous Sierra titles also get added. To add to these other reviews, don't think you'll make it to the end of this game without using a walkthrough. This game is tough! Don't let that dismay you, this was Sierra in its golden age.
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