Good, though incredibly creepy
video game by
Activision, produced with the help of
William Colby of the
CIA and
Oleg Kalugin of the
KGB, involving a
terrorist who wants to pick off both the President of the Russian Republics and the
POTUS. Rumored to have been based on a real-life training excercise, it debuted in
1996, got rave reviews, and promptly tanked -- a pity, since it also included interesting features such as an
on-line component, image manipulation tools, and a game of
Shanghai....
Or was it the Illuminati?
Adding to its numerous difficulties is its reliance on such time-specific technologies as early QuickTime (later versions don't register as such) and its relatively huge size: 3 CD's, which must be switched on a regular basis. On the plus side, the thrills are more psychological than say, Quake: often, you must make a moral decision such as "Should I torture the Korean mercenary, or abide by the Geneva Convention, considering the Agency is about to be investigated by Congress?" (You'll get input on both sides on this question.) Dying during a training excercise in "The Farm" is a real possibility...and unlike Quake, people will drop when you shoot them...in the right place. (I found myself humming the Rolling Stones "One Hit"...when I wasn't too petrified to move...)
Some of the data seems horribly outdated, for instance, there's way too much exposition about the Russian Mafia, and cypherpunks will find the crypto section laughably ordinary. Still, it would be valuable if Activision were somehow ...persuaded...to reissue.