History VideoGame / CovertAction

** Cryptography skill is of dubious usefulness. Solving the puzzles ''does'' reveal the sender and recipient's organization and their roles in the plot, but messages are more rarely intercepted on harder difficulty levels, and all information is abundant on easier difficulties. It might happen that you'll never learn what a message says, but most of the time, you won't need the decoded message in the first place.

* AwesomeMcCoolname: The agent you are playing is named Maximilian Remington (or Maxine, if female), which sounds incredibly badass.

* StunGuns: From the manual's description of the hand gun: "The rounds it fires are a recent, secret development that stun the target rather than penetrate. Humans stunned by this round remain unconscious for several hours and normally have no recollection of what happened to them."

* TheGuardsMustBeCrazy: Guards will ignore the dead bodies of their comrades or gas grenades detonating at their feet, and will turn off an alarm if Max has been able to hide for a while. On higher difficulties, they are difficult mostly because of ZergRush numerical superiority and the use of stun grenades.

* TheGreatPoliticsMessUp: In the real world, some of the game's organizations dissolved shortly after the game's release, such as the Stassi/Stasi (1990) and KGB (1992). Of course, the real CIA was also not fielding super agents to singlehandedly dismantle criminal empires in 1990.

A game released in 1990. The player is Max Remington, a "freelance" spy. Following authority only when it suits him/her, he/she works for various Western agencies and is permitted to operate because he/she is very, very good at espionage. Max Remington does respect some authority though: he/she will always take a case at the direct request of the American President. With new threats appearing all over the world, the President is making a lot of such requests for Max to work for the [=CIA=]. As Max Remington, the player will solve these cases and foil international terrorist plots before they happen. --Or, fail horribly.

Half of it is reminiscent of a complicated, adult Franchise/CarmenSandiego game, where the player flies from city to city, finding secret agents, tracking down enemy organizations, following cars, and the like, all from a partially-menu-based, partially-mini-game-based interface. Once the player discovers a need to break into enemy offices, though, the game switches gears entirely, and becomes a top-down sneaker - a {{Stealth Based Game}} seen from the ceiling. The player ''can'' assault guards head-on with grenades, and even win, but it would alarm opponents so much that suspects run away and hide in holes like cockroaches, and the objective is arresting suspects while having solid proof on hands. So hiding behind the furniture, using knockout gas (and planting gas grenades as traps, for that matter) and DressingAsTheEnemy is the only way to win on higher levels.

** Driving is never voluntarily needed. You never ''need'' to stake out a house and follow someone via driving, and can plant a tracer for the same effect, using electronics skill. Driving can also be used to make an arrest, but breaking in is usually better overall. However, if you set off an alarm, you may end up needing the skill to evade hitmen chasing after you.

* CaperCrew: It requires the Player Character to uncover criminal plans -- that is, who participates and what exactly they are supposed to do -- and upon collecting full incriminating information either arrest them or blackmail into cooperation. Roles other than Mastermind vary depending on which of 13 basic plots is used -- there are Inside Contact, Middleman, Courier, Driver, Mercenary, Kidnapper, Researcher, Alarm Specialist, Thief, Assassin and so on.

* VideoGameCrueltyPotential: You can break into MI6 (British intelligence) and Mossad (Israeli intelligence) offices just to mess with the guards for no reason. There are legitimate reasons to break in (to arrest an inside contact or find info about hideouts), but you are never punished for causing trouble for a CIA 'ally' if you just mess around.