One of my favourite classic games ever, it's great to see Covert Action available on Steam.

The Infiltration Mini-game is like hotline Miami except instead of caving thugs heads in you sneak around and search through all the cupboards.

I love the driving sections although the cars could use more camber and the Cryptography section is just like the Code words puzzles in the Sunday papers so I always feel like a professor when i complete one.

Just make sure you have a pen and paper to hand if you're thinking of catching a mastermind on anything above national threat difficulty

I also love the splashscreen recommending other microprose games when you close the game. When is knights of the Sky comming to Steam?

This is one of the best games I've ever played.

This game is from the era of Microprose games that expertly combined mini-games using a cohesive big picture to give them context and motivation. Its siblings are Sword of the Samurai and Pirates! (the modern remake of which is available on Steam as well, at http://store.steampowered.com/app/3920/, and also highly recommended).

You play as freelance spy Max Remmington, contracted to the CIA, and your job is to foil terrorist attacks before they can occur. You do this by gathering evidence against the members of the conspiracy through wiretapping, stakeouts, infiltrating and searching their hideouts, or simply following them in your car. Once you have the evidence you need, you pounce on them and bring them in. The trick is to let the conspiracy progress far enough that you can implicate everyone involved without spooking them and sending them to ground, while still preventing the attack from actually happening.

How you approach the case is totally up to you. You could wiretap the local cartel hideout in the hopes of catching some encrypted message, then take it back to the CIA office to crack the code. Or you can infiltrate the hideout yourself, plant bugs, photograph documents (with your super spy camera) and slip out before the guards notice you. When it's time to haul in the bad guys, you could go in with guns and grenades, or you could go with a high-speed car chase.

Each conspiracy you thwart gets you one step closer to identifying and capturing the leader of one of the terrorist factions involved. The overall, eventual goal of the game is to wipe out every one of these organisations by arresting and convicting each leader.

This game is dated in its interface and graphics, but otherwise stands up remarkably well. When I say this is one of the best games ever, I do so with no nostalgia goggles on - I first played it 15 to 20 years AFTER its release in 1990, as abandonware. I've bought it now for the first time.

The one flaw in the game that jumps out is that the number of different encrypted message texts are rather limited considering how many cases you need to play if you want to capture every single terrorist leader. After a while you recognise the texts fairly quickly, which makes cryptography quite easy. Still, you'll be tens if not hundreds of hours into the game by the time you reach this point.

Note also that you will need to read the PDF manual, as this game predates in-game tutorials. It's well worth it, however.

edit: I see Steam doesn't actually include the manual yet, which is inexplicable to me. It's worth tracking down. At the very least, you will need the controls, which I've found at http://www.allgame.com/game.php?id=20219&tab=controls

edit again: it turns out pdf copies of the manual and technical supplement (which is where the controls are) are actually included in the Steam\steamapps\common\Sid Meier's Covert Action. That said, my technical supplement is apparently "Handbuch.pdf" and is entirely in German. Not as helpful as if it were in English, but it's a start! ;)

Overall: highly, highly recommended.

What can I say about Covert Action? Crap graphics, crap sound, no mouse support, very slow reactions to the controls, and despite all that - completely playable.

This is one of those rare games that you will enjoy if you can get past the superficial and enjoy the gameplay; there has been no other game like it and that's why it's still enjoyable today.

The basic premise is investigation - no handholding here - you're given the basic details of a plot at the start of a mission, and depending on the difficultly level, you'll get some starter info - maybe a name or two, or a face and perhaps an intercepted communication.

It's then up to you to expand on the information, putting names and faces together, identifying groups involved, who is doing what, with who, where, and when. You do this by wiretapping and/or breaking into buildings, and following suspects to see if they lead you to anywhere/anyone else.

Once you've got the evidence you need; it's time to strike - don't take too long otherwise the plot will come together and end up being completed! Break into the buildings containing the suspects and either arrest or, if you're lucky, turn them into a double agent. Arrest them at the wrong time and other plotters will get spooked and hide because they can't complete their mission, and you lose the chance to get them. Turn them and they will carry on with the plot but send a copy of every communication sent to and received from their co-consipirators back to you so you can see how things are unfolding.

Stopping the plot is the most basic of wins; the more participants you can arrest or turn, the more points you get, capture the elusive masterminds (who don't actually actively participate in the plot so you don't get the luxury of intercepted communications) and get even more points; and there's even a 'Mr Big' apparently behind the scenes that's even more difficult to find.

This game is utterly immersive - even in 2015.

If someone simply remade this as-is but with updated sound and visuals, it would probably do well.... If someone had a good look and tweaked the gameplay a little and added some modding support, i'm convinced it would be a hit.

10/10. One of Sid's early classics. I really miss the maximum replayability of 90's video games. For its time, I can't think of a single thing that would make this game better, even after 20 years of playing it (and STILL not being brave enough to go past the bottom difficulty level! XD)

If you want to talk about games using random generators for each session of playing, that's this. EVERYTHING is perfectly randomized EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. I love it. Maximizes the playability. :D

But no one knows the feeling of your heart sinking when you find a floor safe, photograph it, and it has only grenades, a floor plan, or (worst of all) NOTHING!!! Come on, man! I wanna turn this dude into a double agent! :'(

So yeah. 90s ingenuity and maximum replayability are huge factors in this game. Shoot, I'm still playing it 20 years later!

How many modern games do you think will be playable again and again in 20 years? What titles?

If any game deserves a remake it is this one.

why hasn't this game gotten a reboot yet?

all encompassing espionage puzzle/stealth-action game with terrible graphics.

did i mention it's cheap?

9/10

A 25 year old game that's still a better cop game than battlefield hardline

This game demands a keyboard numpad. With a ton of practice you can manage to play it on a laptop but that's really tough. That caveat aside, this game was a huge part of my childhood and honestly, it holds up amazingly well to the test of time.

Please please please do a modern retake on this. I love this and seeing it in an updated skin would be absolutely amazing.

This is a wonderful classic game, and entirely unique in its playstyle as far as I am aware. I have often wondered why it was never remade or a sequel developed.

Unfortunately, it seems Steam deliver this without a manual. Maybe that's only because I got it in a package, but I'm not sure. Happily I already have the manual from GOG, and you can probably google it, but the most important instructions are as follows:

Car driving:
Increase/Decrease speed +/-
Car turns cursor keys
Switch car space
Arrest suspect F1
Escape F2
Follow car F10
Quit chase ESC


Wiretapping:
select chips with keypads and switch with space or return


Combat:
Examine/open/close F1
Take photo F2
Plant bug F3
Use computer F4
Throw grenade F5/6/7
Remote control F8
Set grenade F9
Select grenade F10
Move keypad
Jump shift + keypad
Crouch 5
Shoot Space


Cryptography
Identify letter/replacement by pressing the letter key or space bar to erase it
Computer Assistance F1
Erase all guesses F10



Hope that helps somebody out there!