Imagine if you will, a former CIA director, a retired KGB major general, and a hit espionage novelist locked together in a room by one of the greatest gaming companies ever. Their mission, come up with the most horrific post cold-war spy scenario they can conjure. The result, an unparalleled multimedia journey into the shrouded life of a covert CIA operative.
Actually you don't need to imagine it, because Activision has already done it! Having been released this week, Spycraft: The Great Game, is beyond anything most gamers have tried to date. The three aforementioned "fathers" of Spycraft are William Colby, Oleg Kalugin, and James Adams respectively. These three espionage experts have created a riveting drama that totally immerses the player in the role of a CIA agent. Production and marketing costs for Spycraft were over 4.5 million US dollars, and it shows. The over 400 still photographs (some of which are actual CIA photos), 80 separate digital video sequences, incredible 35mm film sequences, and a cast of hundreds almost make a Tom Clancy movie pale by comparison.
To make the game even more intriguing and authentic, an "on-line" element has
been incorporated. Activision has dedicated web servers that contain time
sensitive data. These "covert" pages, along with tons of links to real
government agency web servers can be accessed at any point in the game using
Intelink. In reality Intelink is a highly classified information network
shared by security and law enforcement agencies such as the FBI, CIA, NSA,
DEA, and the U.S. State Department. In the game, Intelink is your "launch
area" for game related e-mail, video, and telephone correspondence. If the
on-line component is enabled, the player can access the internet via a
supported browser such as Netscape Navigator or MS Internet Explorer. This is
a very unique approach to making a game as interactive as possible. No other
Win95 game I know of makes use of the power of the Internet as Spycraft does.
GAMEPLAY As gameplay begins, you report to CIA headquarters in Langley VA. There, you learn you must complete Basic CIA skills training at the "Farm" (a real CIA training base) before going on to the mission. Your training consists of in the field recon and fire missions, and familiarization with various CIA "tools".
Fire missions are one part of game play in which players get to kill things.
Movement on these scenes is primitive. You only move a set distance by
clicking on an arrow in the direction you want to move. Aiming and firing
your sidearm is another simple affair - just move the aiming reticle over the
target with the mouse and click. The SFX are great and the view is live video,
similar to what one would see in a GameGun title. When moving from one locale
to another, a small still of the location expands into a very high res video
"fly-in" to that location. The whole game is played from a first-person
perspective, shot on location on sets that look so good you'd swear you were
standing in the lobby at Langley. As part of Spycraft's true authenticity,
several CIA investigation tools are an integral part of the game. These tools
include the Kennedy Assassination tool for plotting bullet trajectories, image
analysis, 3D composite imaging for identifying suspects, photo manipulation,
cryptograph, sound analysis, and more. Mastering these tools is simple, and
essential for tracking down leads and data collection. These specialized
tools are very realistic sims of what some CIA operatives use every day.
Once you complete training, you join your team members and start the mission. Everything is presented in a first person perspective as the action seamlessly unfolds through three CDs worth of video sequences. As you make your way through the investigation you are faced with moral and legal dilemmas that test your mettle as an operative. Since this is a very authentic game, you must break the law and more than a few commandments to get the job done - not unlike the very agency the game simulates. Spycraft is very interactive. You have "conversations" with some of the characters and complete your assignments as they are given. The story line fluctuates based on your decisions and skills as a CIA agent. To torture or not to torture, that is the question. (Go for it! I just love the bullpen.)
I don't want to give away too much of the plot, but trust me when I say it is very plausible, and scary. OK, OK, a small morsel. What would you say to an independent intelligence group made up of disgruntled X-spooks? Add some stolen secret CIA weapons, an assassination or two, a few missing soviet nukes and a deviously written plot by espionage expert and noted journalist James Adams. It all adds up to some completely immersive weeks of game play, and of course, the fate of the world rests on your shoulders.
Reprinted with permission
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Creative Labs, Inc.