241: World of Spycraft

Sanaj

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Mar 20, 2009
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I agree that in most "spy" games, you don't play as a spy.
You play as either a covert assassin or a James Bond type action hero.

If Spycraft gets on gog.com, I'll give it a look.
Fair enough. Thanks Anthony Burch.
 

Osloq

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Mar 9, 2008
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A really interesting article and a brilliant review of a game I've previously never heard mentioned or discussed. In entertainment it's often near impossible to find an accurate representation of a profession. Apart from the brilliant and 100% true to life Grey's Anatomy game.

While the newer James Bond films have been exploring the ruthlessness of James Bond as a character, none of them have attempted to portray the men behind the spy who spend years poring over telephone transcripts or, as you describe as an example, endlessly staring at a picture until they see a vital piece of evidence, or even more likely seeing nothing.

This game is one of the rare ones that helps to enlighten those of us with no experience in that world beyond what we see on a movie screen, that there are men and women behind the facade of martinis and attractive women who have to make decisions that will affect the lives of thousands every day and make decisions that could very well haunt them for the rest of their lives for the greater good.

While your article did whet my appetite for this game, I'll have to give it a miss. I doubt I have the patience and most importantly the moral fibre to see this game through to the end and the inevitably agonising decision.
 

VondeVon

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Dec 30, 2009
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Talk about nostalgia.

I remember playing that game when I was a little girl, visiting my Dad in the holidays. That and Doom.

I often wonder if it had an effect on my development..
 

Tonimata

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Jul 21, 2008
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"Spycraft isn't about big setpiece moments, though it does have one or two of those. Instead, it's about the sensation of scouring through phone conversations for a single name, about using intellect, rather than firepower, to catch your prey, about spending 20 minutes going over a security photo with a digital magnifier until suddenly, wonderfully, you find the sniper's face reflected in a shop window."

Well that sounds A LOT like Phoenix Wright...
 

Mr_Confuzed

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May 6, 2009
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Azure-Supernova said:
Great article and I was considering buying it, until the ending was given away of course. I don't remember reading a spoiler warning.
The journey is often far more important than the destination.
 

NeoShinGundam

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May 2, 2009
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Y'know, I've never believed that what I've seen in Splinter Cell, Alpha Protocol, or James Bond is what real spies do. I'm not saying that any of those are bad or unentertaining, but I've always had to keep in the back of my mind going the caveat "The real CIA/KGB/MI6 doesn't work like that." Still, it's nice to know that a truly realistic espionage game like Spycraft can be made.

Thanks for the interesting article Anthony.

P.S. I'm a big fan of Destructoid! A very cool website.
 

Tiamat666

Level 80 Legendary Postlord
Dec 4, 2007
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sylphmortem said:
To me, Covert Action (the game) still takes the cake.
Covert Action was a pretty cool game at the time. I can barely remember the game mechanics... most of the time you where breaking into enemy HQs searching for clues, or you could wiretap phonelines in a minigame... there was more I can't remember, but I recall having my share of fun with it.
 

Raithnor

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Jul 26, 2009
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If I remember correctly, the spy in the bad disguse went to the office at either the end of the day or after hours. So it wasn't like he was going to run into a lot of people the person knew anyways. He just needed something that would hold up at a distance.

The wierd part is I think a good chunk of the mechcanics are used in the CSI and Law and Order games, and they're very much of a niche market.
 

yourbeliefs

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Jan 30, 2009
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I remember this game. I enjoyed my time with it, although I wouldn't throw down the same type of accolades as this writer did. The game definitely had a number of cool, original ideas, such as plotting the path of a bullet to pinpoint an assassin (with a program ironically called the 'Kennedy Assassination Tool' if I recall correctly) and having to figure out the precise amount of torture to force on a subject to get them to talk without killing them or having them laugh at your efforts. Still, it was a FMV heavy game without a great deal of intervention from the player, except for a few conversation options, and the mini-games were a bit few and far-between, and most of the gameplay came down to trial and error, like trying to doctor a photo to trick a suspect in custody and having to get all the sizes and locations of things EXACTLY correct, to where pixel size shaving is the difference between success and failure.

I'm still waiting on the Spycraft sequel. At the end the game proclaimed that the character would be returning in Spycraft 2. I wouldn't mind playing through the first one again, but I'm not holding my breath on that possibility.
 

Christer

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Jul 15, 2008
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Just thought of this game the other day, actually :) Definitely a nice little overlooked gem. Of course, a lot of my enthusiasm was due to the fact that it was the late nineties and OMG VIDEO ON MY COMPUTER!

Here's the intro, it gives you an idea of the feel of the game: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQ63E8R8kd8

I never got through any of the Monkey Island games, but this made sense.
 

DjinnFor

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Nov 20, 2009
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The terrible thing about so-called moral choice systems that work off of binary decisions is that they're designed to make it seem like moral choices are ambiguous or cloudy, when they're not.

The following assumption, for example, is false: "and that means Yuri has to die."

The very simple solution is to contact Yuri and inform him that if he continues to try and get the presidential candidate arrested, that members of the CIA will attempt to assassinate him and whether they do so or not is entirely out of your control. Because, the reality is, even if you refuse to kill him to think that the U.S. would be unable to respond in any other way is absurd.

He can drop his complaints and live, or continue and risk death. The moral choice goes from being a conundrum for you (when by all rights it should have nothing to do with you), to a conundrum for him (where he gets to decided whether the risks warrant the possible rewards).

It was never your decision to make. Your bosses made their choice, and he makes his choice. You don't have a choice because whether or not you make one shouldn't actually change a damn thing.

(If you're looking for a more interesting and realistic model of moral choice, that would be it)