|
Welcome to the CIA, recruits! I am Special Agent SlightlyMad, and I will be your handler and lead operative in the coming missions. We will take a plunge into the world of espionage in Sid Meier's Covert Action, a classic investigation game from the year 1990(!). I'm not kidding, the game is really that old. However, it has stood the test of time unlike just about any game I know of. The game consists of several minigames that you must complete to gather clues and intelligence data about people and criminal or terrorist organisations behind an advancing plot. Every action you take costs time and the bad guys are using that time to progress towards their goals, whatever they may be. Your goal is to stop the evildoers from succeeding and ultimately arrest the Mastermind behind the enemy operations. If you fail to arrest him, he will continue his actions in the next mission. Enemy agents will go into hiding if they can't complete their objectives or if they have completed their objectives. Each organisation has exactly one Mastermind and there are dozens of organisations in the game. Gotta catch them all! Covert Action has four difficulty levels, ranging from too easy to infuriatingly hard. I will play the game on the second level of difficulty where the gameplay is fun and challenging enough for my tastes. I will probably not complete the entire game during the course of this let's play due to the fact that the late game becomes a bit repetitive and the same criminal conspiracies get recycled over and over again. The format for the LP is screen shots, because I have no recording software and lack the talent for witty and interesting banter anyways. The game is all about the clues and intelligence and is probably best followed through screen shots. I will try to keep the number of pictures to a manageable level so as to keep the pages readable. Later on we may take a peek at the higher difficulty levels just to show how badly I fail at them. The missions and maps are randomly generated from a number of templates that guarantee virtually endless replayability. The game is available on GOG or Steam and I highly recommend it. See also Alpha Protocol for good spy RPG action. Now for some background information: The main minigames are: Phone tapping and electronics Driving and vehicle surveillance Cryptanalysis (Code breaking) Breaking into safehouses and combat I avoid the driving minigame because I suck at it, but fortunately for me, you can bypass it by planting a bug on the suspect vehicle. In the beginning of your character creation you can choose to focus your skills into particular minigames to make them easier if you want. I tend to put points into combat and code breaking because the challenge of electronics hacking is welcome and fun. Combat is hard and should be avoided, ambush and deceive the enemy sentries whenever possible. The beginning of the game has you choose the gender of your agent, I am male so I will choose to be Max Remington, instead of Maxine. The choice should only really effect the "reward" screen at the end of the mission where Max goes out with a Bond-girl depending on the success of the mission. Viewer participation is welcome, I will take breaks during the investigation and you can suggest courses of action and I may or may not follow them as I see fit. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to arrest the conspirators behind the plot. With the initial choices made, let's see what our first clues are on investigation 1:    This is our boss, we work as a free agent directly under the head of the CIA. Now, let's see what we'll be working on:         The president is keeping an eye on us. Wonderful, no pressure.  Here is the HQ building where we analyse the intelligence we gather. Code breaking is in the crypto branch, but we have no signals intercepts yet, so let's check out some data.      Outside the office we can choose destinations in the city we are in or head for the airport. Saving the game happens in the hotel. Now, where should we head next? So, a summary of intel we have now:  --------------------------------------- PFO is involved Message traffic FROM: Madrid La Paz Bulevard 42 in Madrid - connected to an internal security inspector Holmley Park 2 in Athens -connected to Ibrahim Abbas Chrysler #64 - belongs to Ailha Moussa Known locations in Athens: PFO, Direct Action Known locations in Madrid: PIFA, Direct Action Activity found in Athens and Madrid. --------------------------------------- These are all the clues we need to get started. Now a brief survey of the various organisations active in Europe: CIA- Central Intelligence Agency. That is our agency. MI6- British Military Intelligence 6 also known as SIS, James Bond's agency. Our allies. Mossad- Israeli intelligence agency. Also our allies in game. KGB- Soviet intelligence agency. Our rivals. PFO-(I think this is Palestine Freedom/Fighting Organisation, in-game terrorist group. Not sure.) Red Army- Not the Soviet Army, but Red Army Faction aka Baader-Meinhof Group. Real life terrorists. Union Corsique- criminal organisation from Corsica and France. Stasi- East German intelligence agency. KGB with German efficiency basically. Iraqi Secret Police- self-explanatory. Saddam's spies. PIFA- (Provisional Irish Freedom Army) Red Battalion- left wing revolutionaries Mafia- organised crime group Libyan Embassy- Gaddafi's spies operating from the embassies of Libya Direct Action- French urban guerrilla group aka Action Directe Marxists- communist revolutionaries ---------------------------------------- The choice is simple, fly into Athens or fly into Madrid. We could alternatively hang around in Washington waiting for more activity to show up or try to look into the local contacts to see if there is any intel to be had about Ibrahim Abbas or Ailha Moussa or the PFO. We currently have no intel on the PFO or other organisations besides a safehouse in Athens. PROs: Athens: known PFO location and Ibrahim Abbas' house Madrid: Early signal traffic indicates high level operatives present, security inspector present Washington: Immediate access to some rough intel CONs: Flight times allow the enemy to work while we travel, waiting in Washington is likely to be counterproductive also. Suggestions, agents? Time is ticking. SlightlyMad fucked around with this message at 15:53 on Jul 4, 2015 |
#
?
Jun 28, 2015 13:39
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 16, 2024 17:41 |
|
|
Hm. So, we have field reports of there being a specific street in a city. Couldn't we have just found that out by looking at a map? Also, we know someone owns a car. Uh... I guess what I'm getting at is "so what"? Or is it stated somewhere that any piece of information that you receive is absolutely, definitely tied in to some sort of evil terrorist plot? Also, what the hell has the head of the Stasi got to do with anything, whoever he or she is? It all seems quite random and confusing so far.
|
|
#
?
Jun 28, 2015 15:38
|
|
|
Ghostwoods posted:Also, what the hell has the head of the Stasi got to do with anything, whoever he or she is? I think the Stasi thing is copy-protection. Pick the wrong one and you get sent to prison, I guess. Granted, it also makes sense to arrest you if you pick the right one; only a KGB spy would what the head of a rival secret spy network would look like! Going out on a limb here, I'm gonna pick looking up intel on terrorists, then go to Athens.
|
|
#
?
Jun 28, 2015 16:04
|
|
|
Ghostwoods posted:Hm. So, we have field reports of there being a specific street in a city. Couldn't we have just found that out by looking at a map? Also, we know someone owns a car. Uh... Evidently the President of the USA is Mycroft Holmes. He takes one look at a few completely trivial snippets of information, deduces that there's a grand evil plot behind it all, then hands it off to us because he's too lazy to do the rest of the work.  Finest defenders of the western world, ladies and gentlemen. (I do love this game, but it's quite hokey in places.) Since we know that the PFO's involved, let's go to Athens and
|
|
#
?
Jun 28, 2015 16:06
|
|
|
inflatablefish posted:Evidently the President of the USA is Mycroft Holmes. That makes a horrible amount of sense. The Stasi serving as copy-protection seems slightly ironic, given their history, but it makes sense too. I guess Athens seems like a good place to be. Great souvlaki, at least.
|
|
#
?
Jun 28, 2015 16:13
|
|
|
Oh, this game. I remember when Frankomatic did it years ago. I tried playing it back then but I didn't have a number pad to use so the controls were awful. Now I have a number pad but I don't know how to get this game and DosBox working anymore. I've always wanted to give this a shot.
|
|
#
?
Jun 28, 2015 16:16
|
|
|
The screen that shows the masterminds is in fact a defunct copy protection scheme, but it will serve us well in the future. If you spot a familiar face in any of the updates, it will clue us to the identity of the mastermind.  If you have trouble getting the game to work with dosbox, X_countryguy, you can buy the Steam version, it will work right out of the box, so to speak. The initial clues are always relevant to the investigation, unlike some of the other clues you may pick up during a wiretap for example. Some later clues are definately red herrings. It is up to the player to piece the clues together and form a picture of what is happening. I hope to shed some light on the conspiracy in future updates. Sorry if the start is confusing, it's partly the game being obtuse, partly my disorganised way of thinking. It will all come together in the end.
|
|
#
?
Jun 28, 2015 21:35
|
|
|
I'm surprised that this one has never gotten the remake treatment like every other Sid Meier's game. It's got some really interesting stuff.
|
|
#
?
Jun 28, 2015 23:55
|
|
|
Panzeh posted:I'm surprised that this one has never gotten the remake treatment like every other Sid Meier's game. Apparently Sid Meier wasn't too happy about how this one turned out - there's been at least one interview where he's said that there's too much of a disconnect between the minigames and the main deduction section of the game.
|
|
#
?
Jun 29, 2015 00:04
|
|
|
Go to Madrid and wiretap that address. It's our I like this game a lot, but sometimes the mini games distract from the main game. Unlike, say, Pirates, some are too long and by the time they are over you have forgotten what you were doing.
|
|
#
?
Jun 29, 2015 01:02
|
|
|
Fat Samurai posted:I like this game a lot, but sometimes the mini games distract from the main game. Unlike, say, Pirates, some are too long and by the time they are over you have forgotten what you were doing. Infiltrating buildings when you've got little more than a bunch of soft leads in hopes of finding SOMETHING of value is easily the worst for this. Of course, that doesn't start happening for a good while unless you're playing on the highest difficulty, but playing this on the highest difficulty is an exercise in masochism anyway.
|
|
#
?
Jun 29, 2015 02:04
|
|
|
By the time I started playing, Athens had the most votes. Since Jalak wanted me to look up intel first, that is my first move. Asking local contacts nets us a single lead: Iraqi SP is Ailha Moussa's organisation.   We fly to Athens and check out Holmley Park 2, which turns out to be the PFO building.    We naturally want to wiretap them, which brings us to the electronics minigame. By switching integrated circuits around, we try to connect the ground wire (green) to the phone lines without setting off the alarms (the yellow bells). Each phone line gives us some new intel.          Since we were able to intercept communications, it's time to break their code at the crypto workstation. On the left you see a frequency analysis tool which shows you the occurrence of letters. The main clue here is that the letter E is the most common in English and it corresponds to the letter O at 31 letters frequency. The word "the" is useful for finding more letters. Then you look for city names, common phrases etc. and after a bit of work, we're done.    This gives us enough intel on Ibrahim Abbas to make an arrest. We need to know the role of the person in the conspiracy in order to make the arrest valid. Otherwise they would walk due to lack of evidence.   Time to bring some law and justice! So we become burglars and break into the PFO building.  In the equipment selection I tend to favor using the pistol, motion detector, gas mask, kevlar, camera and safe cracking kit. You need these to be able to gather new evidence. Large red safes are the main prize, because they sometimes have information which can be used to turn a suspect into a double agent.  After scouting the outer rooms we encounter a nosy sentry and ambush him from the side of the door.  Now we have a disguise. It won't fool anybody from the front but keeping your back to the sentries will buy you time if they are focused on doing something else.  Having found a few computers and bits and pieces of a password, we try to log in by guessing the rest of the word. I use the opportunity to investigate a name that I found in one of the file cabinets.  Damnit, a false lead. Well, at least we know not to waste any more time checking out this one.  I drop another sentry on my way to the main suspect and find two floor safes. From them we find a useful personnel file that shows all PFO operatives involved in the plot.   Rummaging around the suspect's room causes the alarms to go off, and I arrest the bastard. The security in the building is pretty weak so I don't need to fight my way through a horde of guards like I would at a higher difficulty level.      The interrogation reveals more details of the messages this organiser has been sending out.     Hmm. The Mafia activity has increased, I wonder if it is relevant or not? ------------------------------- The plot involves an alarm bypass box and a courier. The target seems to be a locomotive plant of some sort. We know the following names are involved in the plot: Ailha Moussa -Iraqi SP, Washington, Alarm specialist Yasr Hosayn -PFO, Madrid Gerard Verne -MI6, Madrid, inside contact Saadi Nasr -PFO, Budapest Ibrahim Abbas -PFO, Athens, Organizer, aka Agent G, ARRESTED ------------------------------ The following names turned up but their involvement is unknown: Hasana Khaled -Libyan Emb., Rome, NOT INVOLVED David Dubrovnik Yezid Nidal Frieda Baader We know this much about the organisations involved: MI6 has a double agent, Gerard Verne in Madrid. We know the MI6 office location. Iraqi SP -Known locations: Amsterdam, Budapest -Allies: PFO, Stassi, Libyan Emb., Marxists -Associates: KGB PFO -Known locations: Amsterdam, Budapest, London, Paris, Rome, Vienna -Allies: Stassi, Iraqi SP, Direct Action -Associates: Red Army, Libyan Emb., Marxists ----------------------------- Options: 1.-We know Saadi Nasr's address in Budapest and an Iraqi SP office in Budapest could lead us to their Washington address. 2.-Gerard Verne in Madrid might lead us to Yasr Hosayn in the same city. 3.-Returning to Washington to blindly look for the Iraqi SP office by backchannel means. What do you suggest, agents? SlightlyMad fucked around with this message at 09:09 on Jun 29, 2015 |
|
#
?
Jun 29, 2015 09:04
|
|
|
Go after Verne. I love the wiretap minigame. At the intermediate levels is quick and tense, and it fits right in a spy movie. The infiltration, however, can drag on if you're trying to be exhaustive. You can spent a good 20 minutes storming a heavily guarded building only to blow it in the last room. At that point, you barely remember your suspects, let alone your plans after that. The decryption minigame is OK. As you play you start to notice patterns and "fluff" sentences (the ones that don't make it to the printed version) that help a lot. Now I have an itch to play this and Sword of the Samurai.
|
|
#
?
Jun 29, 2015 09:42
|
|
|
I concur that we should go after Verne. Any chance you could try showing off the driving minigame for us? It's the one part of the game I never really tried. My favourite trick with the computers is using them to find other hideouts -they always seem to know all the hideouts in their own city, and all their organisation's hideouts in other cities. If only you could check your data whilst infiltrating!
|
|
#
?
Jun 29, 2015 18:36
|
|
|
Fat Samurai posted:. The infiltration, however, can drag on if you're trying to be exhaustive. You can spent a good 20 minutes storming a heavily guarded building only to blow it in the last room. At that point, you barely remember your suspects, let alone your plans after that. Go after Verne
|
|
#
?
Jun 29, 2015 20:27
|
|
|
warhammer651 posted:This game would be drastically improved if you had the ability to look at evidence or write notes to yourself mid-minigame. I am an old-fashioned guy, so pen and paper helps. Any remake of the game should come with an in-game notebook of some sort, you're right about that. If you play in windowed mode, having a couple of notepads on screen is a good way to play.I will try to show how the driving minigame works when I go after Verne. We have his mugshot, so spotting him in a crowd should be possible. The next update will come when I get around to it, hopefully soon.
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2015 05:29
|
|
|
Is the game sophisticated enough that Verne receiving a message means he could be either still working for MI6 but has infiltrated the bad guys OR has flipped and is a bad guy now inside MI6? Or in this is anyone who communicates with the bad guys only ever a bad guy them self?
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2015 06:35
|
|
|
Verne is a baddie, there's no doubt about it. Mossad and MI6 sometimes have a single mole involved in the conspiracy. There can also be double agents within the CIA that leak information to the enemies, but they are never members of the conspiracy themselves. You can accuse a local agent of being a double agent, but risk losing access to the local CIA office if you get it wrong. We will need to either intercept Verne when he is driving or break into the MI6 office as if they were an enemy organisation. The guns used in the game may come equipped with tranquilizer rounds, I guess. If you find enough data on a conspirator in a floor safe, you can turn enemies into double agents who work for you. They will continue to work in the conspiracy, but inform you of everything they do. This gives you double the score for catching that enemy when the mission is over.
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2015 07:10
|
|
|
 We travel to Madrid to chase Gerard Verne, as our agents in the thread suggested.  I start by watching the MI6 building from a distance.  This guy seems to me to match Verne's mugshot. Either that or he's a doppelganger.  Since it was requested by our agent Inflatablefish, here's the driving minigame. In order to track a suspect, you must choose two chase cars. Their top speed, handling and conspicuousity vary. A rust bucket that draws no attention to itself can tail a suspect better, while a fast sports car can intercept a suspect by driving along adjacent streets.  Here's the city map with known locations marked. On the top right you see your speedometer and a view from the car. In the lower right you see your cars in green and the suspect is greyed out because that was the last location he was seen in.   Success! He suspected nothing. And we find ourselves at the Mossad office. Useless. Either we chased the wrong suspect or he visited Mossad because they are allies to MI6.  I return to MI6 and attempt a wiretap.    Damnit! This minigame is harder than it seems. The XOR and NOT gates or whatever they are known as can lead to unexpected connections if you're not careful.  And the alarm immediately draws more security personnel to the building. Great.  Despite the added security, I will make entry. A disguise should come in handy. Thank you, mister security man.  And we find the infamous mr. Gerard Verne sitting in his office.   First, we'll check the safes just in case.  We already knew this much. There can only be one mole in the MI6 during a mission.  Let's hack the MI6 computers. That's what allies are for. (NSA, cough, cough)  And that gives us the address of Yasr Husain of the PFO. Just what the doctor ordered.  I decide to leave for now. I got the intel I was after. Verne will have to wait.  Now the MI6 people seem to be pissed off. This could be trouble.  As I leave the scene of my crimes, someone takes offense to my presense.   I drive quickly to the CIA building and run inside at the last moment. That was close! To be continued...
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2015 11:41
|
|
|
How exactly does the driving minigame work? Do you have to keep the car in sight as he arrives at the destination? I think I've played it exactly 3 times. Also I've started playing again. Man I'm a bad secret agent 
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2015 11:55
|
|
|
You can lose sight of the target vehicle for a moment, and it turns grey on your screen. Find him and he turns pink again. You switch cars with the spacebar to give them separate orders (clunky, I know). If you want to intercept and attempt an arrest, you need to send a fast car ahead of the target and block his path, I think. Then you press F1 to arrest suspect. If you are being chased, you head to an allied building and press F2 when you reach it to make a dash for the door. If you are intercepted, you end up in a gunfight. Controlling the speed of your vehicles is with + & - keys or F for fast, D for default speed and S for slow. Turn at intersections with arrow keys to the direction you want to head to. Press F10 to order your cars to follow the suspect. You may need to see the parked vehicle at it's destination to succesfully complete the vehicle surveillance. If you lose sight of the target and can't find him again, you can quit with ESC.
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2015 12:07
|
|
|
Now, a voluntary exercise for the viewer: If you want to make a guess about the identity of the Mastermind, now is your chance. The following names have turned up in intelligence chatter on the airwaves, what is your reasoning and who do you guess: -Ailha Moussa -Yasr Hosayn -David Dubrovnik -Gerard Verne -Yezid Nidal -Saadi Nasr -Frieda Baader -Suleiman Musafir -Ismail Verne -Ibrahim Abbas -Hasana Khaled If anyone gets the right answer, they will get a field promotion and a mention in the second post of the thread. So far you have a rank of Recruit. Time to put your brains to work!
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2015 14:50
|
|
|
Well now, there's an interesting quandary. Let's start by ruling out all the small fry - Masterminds are not known for doing their own drudge work. -David Dubrovnik -Yezid Nidal -Saadi Nasr -Frieda Baader -Suleiman Musafir -Ismail Verne We've seen Saadi Nasr on the PFO action plan, which again suggests that he's someone else's henchman, so I'll tentatively rule him out. This leaves us with just five names, but little more than guesswork to go on from here. However, from what I remember, Masterminds tend to recruit their minions from allied organisations (usually not their own organisation, oddly enough), so I'm going to guess that a PFO-aligned Mastermind would have a Middle-Eastern name. So let's rule out David Dubrovnik and Frieda Baader. TV Tropes tells us that there is a One Steve Limit, i.e. that works of drama tend not to have multiple significant people with the same name, so let's cross off Ismail Verne on the grounds that we already have a Verne. This leaves us with just Yezid Nidal and Suleiman Musafir. Hmmm. The word "Mastermind" begins with the letter M. It must be Suleiman Musafir!
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2015 23:14
|
|
|
Is this clue relevant, or am I misreading it? Which of that list of people are based in Athens besides Ibrahim Abbas?
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2015 23:23
|
|
|
-Davin Valkri, you and I were both fooled by that clue initially. It says there's a criminal mastermind but it actually refers to his role as an Organizer. Confusing, but it may be deliberately confusing. As for people placed in Athens, Ibrahim Abbas seems to be alone. -Inflatablefish, there are sometimes people with similar last names involved in a conspiracy. Maybe they were recruited by their brothers or something. I like your thinking with the Middle Eastern name, that would be what I would go for first. I will leave the question open for a little while, we may know more about the Mastermind in the next update, which will be coming soon. No votes on next action I'm afraid. I am way ahead in the investigation. Stay tuned! SlightlyMad fucked around with this message at 05:47 on Jul 1, 2015 |
|
#
?
Jul 1, 2015 05:40
|
|
|
I'd been idly considering try to make pretty much exactly this game except with more of a strategy/manager angle. How does it control? Crummy outdated UI and controls are about 95% of the reason I ever dislike old games.
|
|
#
?
Jul 1, 2015 08:13
|
|
|
The controls are a bit varied between the minigames. The code breaking is excellent, you click the alphabet keys on your keyboard to make a guess and it is well thought out. The driving minigame I find to be a hassle, you are constantly switching cars and issuing orders which I think could be done better. Don't ask me how, I don't design user interfaces, I just use them. The electronics minigame is simple, you use arrow keys to move an integrated circuit block around and replace other such blocks one by one. The controls are good for this one. The combat seems to require a keypad for adequate control. I've never tried the game with a joystick+keyboard combo, so I can't comment on that. You use the function keys to set booby-traps or lob grenades, take pictures or use computers and bugs. Spacebar fires your gun once your aim reticule on the target is lit. It is a question of timing, and on harder difficulties it is a nightmare to try to shoot before the bad guy does. With multiple enemies in a room your only hope is using grenades. Overall, a modern remake could be done better as far as controls go. I hope to see other games like this, there would be a place for them in the market I believe. I do recommend you try the game out, it should not be very expensive on Steam for example.
|
|
#
?
Jul 1, 2015 08:25
|
|
|
I'd hate to post so many updates on the first page, the number of images gets out of control and reloading them every time the page is viewed seems a waste. If there are goons who want to make a guess about the identity of the Mastermind, post soon. The clock is ticking. The urge to make my next update is rising. Your chance of a promotion is now. Will I mess up the investigation with my crude electronics skills? Who is behind the plot? What color is the boathouse in Hereford? The answers may be around the corner. Some gameplay tips: To those who may have noticed the grenade icons in the breaking-and-entering minigame, the white ones are stun grenades, red ones are fragmentation and greens are gas grenades that fill a room with knock-out gas. They are the reason for carrying a gas-mask: The enemy sentries will throw grenades all over the place when they are aggroed. Some of them have gas masks too. The way to use grenades is with function keys. F5-F6-F7 throws a grenade with a short, medium or long throw. F10 changes grenade type. F9 places the grenade as a booby-trap on the ground. F8 sets it off, unless someone trips over it first. The proper use of grenades is vital in crowded rooms, you can't shoot fast enough to clear a crowd of sentries. If there are no new posts, I will post the next update in a couple of hours.
|
|
#
?
Jul 1, 2015 10:47
|
|
|
 A coded message was intercepted during the break-in, so let's crack the code.    Nothing spectacular, just details of the operation they are planning.   As I head to the PFO agent, a news flash from Interpol appears.   The wiretap gets me a photo of the suspect.  Oh for God's sake. This is getting ridiculous. Will the whole operation end in tears?  The PFO know something is wrong and they are now out in force.  Despite that, we must press on. Some new addresses show up when I search the building, but this is not what I want.  That's more like it. We now have Yasr Hosayn by the balls.  More hacking reveals information about a suspicious fellow whose name I've come accross.  Yezid Nidal of the PFO in Vienna, I know where you are. But who is he?       Back to the MI6, they are on high alert.  Searching the MI6 files reveals the rank of Yezid Nidal, he is the PFO Mastermind! I still have no evidence against him, though.   And then I hit paydirt. Gerard Verne has some incriminating details I can use against him. With this information, he will be VERY co-operative. To be continued... Known individuals: Yezid Nidal of the PFO in Vienna is our primary target! Gerard Verne of the MI6 is now a triple-agent. We own him. TURNED Yasr Hosayn of the PFO in Madrid is a known burglar. ARRESTED Ibrahim Abbas -PFO, Athens, Organizer ARRESTED Ailha Moussa -Iraqi SP, Washington, Alarm Specialist Saadi Nasr -PFO, Budapest
|
|
#
?
Jul 1, 2015 12:29
|
|
|
Regarding infiltration, besides the functions and the numpad (because you need 5 to duck), you can also jump over stuff with the arrow keys, Max Payne-style. So yeah, controls are pretty bad and require three hands. What difficulty level are you playing on? I don't remember the wiretap minigame being so hard and I played on the third difficulty level, IIRC. Can't remember the node on the lower row, second from the right, either. I also love that Madrid is a medieval Mexican village 
|
|
#
?
Jul 1, 2015 12:39
|
|
|
I am playing on National Threat -level, the second of the four. The minigame difficulty varies according to the points you put into your skills in the beginning. My points are: Combat level Excellent (which makes it easy), and if I remember correctly, one point in code breaking. This means I will have a challenge with the electronics and driving. Once you start playing on the third and fourth difficulty levels, the baddies may break out of prison and generally make life hell for the player, as you're desperately playing whack-a-mole with a string of failed burglaries and double agents everywhere. I don't recommend it, but we will eventually get to that point in this Let's Play. Not for a while, though.
|
|
#
?
Jul 1, 2015 12:46
|
|
|
Remind us what benefits you get for turning Verne? Does he rat out the Mastermind?
|
|
#
?
Jul 1, 2015 15:25
|
|
|
So what happens if you arrest some suspicious character and it turns out to be a double-agent for one of your allies, or even a member of the CIA? Also, does the CIA try to bail you out or something special happens if you get caught by MI6 or Mossad? Is there a lot of awkward shuffling around and embarrassed coughs?
|
|
#
?
Jul 1, 2015 16:10
|
|
|
Double agents are great to have in your pocket, because they continue to take part in the plot and allow you to arrest other members of the conspiracy, who otherwise might go into hiding once you make an arrest. A lesser benefit is that they rat out anyone they come into contact with. Finally, you get double the score for any double agent you manage to recruit. Sometimes it pays off to make repeated visits to an enemy hideout, just so you can farm the red floor safes for intel that could turn an enemy agent into a double agent. It usually pays off to have as complete an intelligence dossier on a suspect as possible before going for the floor safe, because that seems to increase the odds of turning him successfully. The more information you have, the better you can blackmail him basically.
|
|
#
?
Jul 1, 2015 16:10
|
|
|
Jalak posted:So what happens if you arrest some suspicious character and it turns out to be a double-agent for one of your allies, or even a member of the CIA? There are no double agents working for the allies unless you personally recruit them for the CIA. If you get caught by anyone, you have a chance to accept to a prisoner exchange which leads to a double agent being planted into one of the CIA offices. Alternatively, you can wait a while and make an attempt at escaping the enemy hideout. I believe this applies to the allied agencies too, but I'm not 100% certain.
|
|
#
?
Jul 1, 2015 16:14
|
|
|
SlightlyMad posted:Double agents are great to have in your pocket, because they continue to take part in the plot and allow you to arrest other members of the conspiracy, who otherwise might go into hiding once you make an arrest.
|
|
#
?
Jul 1, 2015 16:23
|
|
|
Fat Samurai posted:One of the problems I have with this game is how easy is to have someone escape because you arrest someone else who acts earlier in the plan. I guess it's logical that they will go into hiding if they cannot fulfil their role, but not being able to grab them all is annoying. Once you learn the patterns of the different conspiracies, you can arrest the plotters in sequence, so that the plot advances while you are making your arrests. It is a bit artificial in a way and by that point it is possible you are already tired of playing. Taking a break helps, but then you forget the patterns again. Either way, the game does have replayability at least. I don't remember the different plotlines since it's been a few years since I've played it.
|
|
#
?
Jul 1, 2015 18:09
|
|
|
So close!  I usually put a point of skill into electronics rather than codebreaking, mainly because being able to bug somebody's car lets you skip the driving completely. Also, I tend to play on the 3rd difficulty level, at which point codebreaking starts to lose out - in the time it takes you to go to the CIA, crack a code, and then travel back to wherever you were going, people can easily go into hiding or hand over their Besides, nothing compares to breaking and entering.
|
|
#
?
Jul 1, 2015 18:52
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 16, 2024 17:41 |
|
|
All this talk about difficulty levels has me thinking. I am showing successful investigation techniques and progress at the National Threat-level because it's been a long time since I've played the game and need the training wheels on initially. - Would you personally be interested in seeing me succeed or would the more challenging gameplay level and constant failures be more to your liking? I will shift gears eventually to show the third difficulty level, but the choice will come after this mission is over. In between missions it is possible to change difficulties. So, what will mission 2 be like when the time comes? Time for a vote: 1. Local Disturbance  (well, ok I guess?)2. National Threat  (current level)3. Regional Conflict  (my suggestion for next mission)4. Global Crisis  (Oh God why?)
|
|
#
?
Jul 2, 2015 05:18
|
|