If you are a fan of Tom Clancy-style spy thrillers from the Cold War era, this game is definitely for you. Each mission basically follows a heist or plot of some sort, and your job as a CIA agent is to stop it. However, what Covert Action does that I haven't seen any other game do is that the plots are driven forward organically, with each conspirator performing their job in turn. The planner of a plot might send a coded message to an inside contact in another organisation, that in turn hires an assassin and commissions a sniper rifle from an arms dealer. The assassin then travels to the location to perform the hit. Most games today would probably have the entire heist scripted with key events for maximum cinematic tension, but in Covert Action, depending on how quickly you act, you can prevent the plot at any stage. Even though the plots are kind of similar every turn, the realistic, time-based development of the plots means that it's always feeling fresh, and that you're really racing against the clock to stop the plot. If you waste your time chasing the wrong leads, your mission will probably fail. Another unique thing about Covert Action is that it allows you to choose your approach to some extent. The game consists of various minigames, like hacking, driving and combat. Although the combat part is mandatory, you can choose not to do the others if you don't like them. It almost dips into immersive sim territory in that regard, long before that genre became a thing. Much of the graphics are still beautiful, with hand-drawn animated panels, and although the controls in the combat sections are very unintuitive, they are by no means the worst of the times. I keep coming back to play this game again and again, and although I've probably seen every plot the game has to offer it always feel exciting and new. I can't recommend it enough.
I admit it, I was seduced by the slick cyberpunk neon lights and the clingy cyber-suit worn by the "protagonist", thinking it'd be some simple puzzle game with some nice visuals. This is hardly even a game. At the time of writing, the game has three stages that can be completed in minutes if you know what to do. Problem is; you don't. A good puzzle game should present the rules of the puzzle and then let you figure out. This game, to some extent; put glowing cylinders inside Portal-style cylinder holders. The second stage, which I guess was the longest, I spent most of the time just looking for the holders among all the cyberpunk city clutter. It's not really a puzzle per se. (SPOILER) It also features a wall that looks like a wall but is in fact a teleporter, with no indication whatsoever (/ SPOILER) It's barely a puzzle game at all. Controls are bare-bones, there are invisible walls everywhere and there are plenty of gaps in the world where you can fall though and keep falling forever. The game's mechanics are also completely copied from another game called Cade Prime. It's basically the same game, except that instead of playing as a robot you play as a female robot with a big butt. Even if more levels are added, I don't think this game has any potential whatsoever. Even if the price is in the single digits, it's not worth it.
