Sid Meier's Covert Action

This game is old, its classic, and it's got that old DOS charm that just sucks you right with this era of early 90s game. The mechanics are not complicated, but they are ROCK SOLID. The random missions and locations, clues and enemies always make this an exciting romp. You really feel like an agent on a case, desperately hunting that next clue, desperate to make that last arrest before the evil plot of the games villians goes off. Youre always one step behind evil, and when virtual lives are on the line, the pressure is on. There hasn't been one time I played where I wasnt fully engaged and sucked into the story. Once the case is over, you get a breakdown of what happened between you and the villians, and it's always really satisfying. Break down doors, hack computers, and arrest the terrorists! What more do you want?

One of the greatest game I played as a child. Controls are a bit wonky, but it's worth trying it out. You create your character simply from Male or Female, then from 4 skill sets; Combat, Crypto, Driving, and Electronics which all have a rating to them. Then you in a free roam world to a degree, you hang out at the office, review the case files, place a wire tap, break into a suspect's building (stealth or loud), tail a suspects car to a new location, travel to exotic locations. It's a great game that shouldn't be missed! Matter of fact I still own the original and couldn't figure out out how to get 3.5 floppies to run. Here it is ready to go! Thanks!

Covert Action is a game almost as old as I am, and it has aged very well. Players begin play as special agent Max Remington of the CIA and their goal is to stop nefarious terrorist plots from happening. To do this the game offers a few clues and the tools to find out more about the plot currently in motion. These tools come in the form of four minigames. A combat/stealth hybrid, a driving game, a cipher, and an electronics game. If you find yourself incapable of figuring out the plot one way, you can go through things with an other minigame. This coupled with plentiful options for clues such as local informants means that you will never truly be stuck. But with time of the essence, you will need to decide on how to spend your time, as with every move you make time progresses and the plot continues. That said, all plots are doable in about an hour each if you don't purposefully delay them. A big part of the game is figuring out this plot, and finding a way to get into it and disrupt it. You may not always know the hideout of your enemy, you may not always have the evidence to arrest someone who you know is involved. And there are red herrings out there. You need to think things through before acting, figure out where you want to go and when or you will just plain not be able to stop the plot. It's a bit of thought to figure these things out, but it is very satisfying when you get it right. Good design ages well, and it shows. All these minigames work together to make for a great game, four minigames with a single overarching almost puzzle-like game that lets you work your brain to figure things out. Then feel great about yourself for stopping a plot and arresting everyone involved, getting a trip to the casino and having a well deserved vacation. Or you know, you could bumble around for a while and then your failure sends the country spiralling into chaos.

This is a very unique, classic game that is different each time you play. I used to play this for hours and hours years ago. You're a spy trying to solve a case. You can break into buildings, follow cars, decrypt encrypted messages and other things in an attempt to prevent the bad guys from committing a crime. This game was truly ahead of it's time and is simply brilliant. For a few bucks you really can't go wrong.

I have played this since late 90s and so happy it made it's way to here. I play this game quite often and still to this day haven't been able to get the exact same mission twice. So many mechanics and ways to play, difficulty is insane at higher levels, and more work with pen and paper trying to figure out what is going on than actually letting the game do the math for me. Non linearity and everything... I love this.