Covert Action is one of Sid Meier's earlier works and, while not as commercially successful from what I have read than some of his other projects, it does offer a unique blend of strategic thinking, action, and role-playing. In some ways, it is similar to Pirates in that you fight to work towards short-term goals but it is the cumulative efforts overall that determine how well your character will be rated in the end. This is what gives it its role-playing feel given that you don't roll stats and things like traditional role-playing games (although you do have picks to use in the four main areas that affect the difficulty of Combat, Driving, Lockpicking, and Codebreaking).
Covert Action is one of Sid Meier's earlier works and, while not as commercially successful from what I have read than some of his other projects, it does offer a unique blend of strategic thinking, action, and role-playing. In some ways, it is similar to Pirates in that you fight to work towards short-term goals but it is the cumulative efforts overall that determine how well your character will be rated in the end. This is what gives it its role-playing feel given that you don't roll stats and things like traditional role-playing games (although you do have picks to use in the four main areas that affect the difficulty of Combat, Driving, Lockpicking, and Codebreaking).
In Covert Action, you play Max (male or female)
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Remington, a superspy that works for the President. Each mission starts with a meeting with the President in the Oval Office where he briefs you on suspicious activity that suggests a possible terrorist plot. You are given a series of clues that usually include a name, an organization, a city, or a suspicious activity such as a weapons purchase or money wire transfer. The details of the names and locations of the enemy agents are random for each mission. From these small beginnings, you have to fly to different cities in search of more clues. When you find the house of a suspicious individual, you can place wiretaps on the phones (using an action sequence of replacing chips on a circuit board while avoid setting off an alarm). This can get quite challenging at high difficulties as there are hidden chips and one change can set off a cascading set of other changes and, if you are not careful, you will trip of the alarm chips which greatly increases the alert level of the house (and adds many more guards to deal with). A successful wire tap can reveal more clues which, if they match any existing ones you have, are automatically paired together in your folders for your review. To get the most useful information, however, you have to break in.
Breaking in to a building is the most dangerous because you have to avoid the various guards walking around. You can crouch behind furniture and, when their backs are to you, stand up to take them out with your gun. You also have grenades but they will set off the alarm (the only exception are the gas grenades that will knock them out without setting off the alarm but you need a gas mask to use them safely).
You have your choice of equipment to use when you break into the building and, having a limited number of picks, your choices will depend on your purpose. If you are seeking information and clues, you would include the camera, safe-cracking kit, and bugs (to listen in a room). If you are going in to arrest a suspect, you would include the bullet-proof vest, sub-machine gun, and gas mask and grenades. The security level of the building determines the number of guards you have to deal with and mistakes such as setting off an alarm during wire-tapping or a previous break-in in which you were discovered will increase that level.
The most challenging aspect of Covert Action is not just the combat sequences but time as well. As soon as the mission begins, the various agents involved in the plot are working and you have to discovered the nature of the plot, and names, locations, and role in the plot (so you can arrest them), and the various items such as sniper guns, payoff money, and electronic components that are to be used in the plot. If you arrest a key agent before his or her part has been played, the plot may fall apart and all the other agents will go into hiding. You will have succeeded in stopping the plot but, given that you score for that mission is dependent on how much evidence you gather and how many agents you arrest, stopping the plot too soon will result in a low score for the mission. However, if you wait too long to arrest an agent, they might finish their part and go into hiding before you can arrest them and the plot will continue. The biggest challenge is trying to find and arrest the agents in term while still preventing the plot from succeeding.
The role-playing elements of the game come into play over the space of your career. Each plot is part of a larger plot which is overseen by a Mastermind. Each terrorist organization in the game has a Mastermind. Your ultimate goal for each mission is to get the highest score possible, while your overall goal is to find and arrest the Mastermind. Until the Mastermind is arrested, the same connected series of plots will continue until the overall goal of the Mastermind's scheme succeeds. In a larger since, you "win" the game by arresting all the Masterminds in the game. Given the length of time each mission takes and how many missions are needed just to find and stop one Mastermind, winning the overall game is a long and involved process. As much as I like this game, I've not actually finished all the way through myself.
Overall, I'd recommend this game to anyone who likes a good, challenging game with a number of unique play elements. Even if you don't end up finishing the whole game by arresting all the Masterminds, each mission is a fun mini-game by itself and is worth the time and effort. Enjoy!
