History Videogame / CovertAction

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This game shows examples of the following Tropes:

A game by SidMeier, who, these days, regrets it a bit, as it contains two reasonably good but very very different games in it. In Sid's words, the shift between the two works against the overall experience - by the time you finish a particular task in one of the two games, you've forgotten what you were trying to do in the other.

Half of it is reminiscent of a complicated, adult 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.

* TooDumbToLive: DaChief shows symptoms of this sometimes.
-->'''The Chief''': ''Good work stopping that kidnapping, Max. They were attempting to kidnap the noted chemist Dr. Pasture, who just created a new mescaline-based drug that he said has the side effects of [[FantasticDrug intense euphoria and a craving for more of the drug.]] No idea why they wanted to kidnap him. Your guess is as good as mine.''

* IdiosyncraticDifficultyLevels: Local Disturbance, National Threat, Regional Conflict, Global Crisis. Technically, everything takes place within a region, with the names just showing how difficult it is to solve the case (e.g. harder to crack stuff, etc.)

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 they are 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. As Max Remington, the player will solve these cases and foil international terrorist plots before they happen. --Or, fail horribly.

* StalkingMission: The driving minigame requires you to follow a vehicle - over time, the target becomes suspicious of the two following cars and tries to break pursuit by accelerating and randomly turning.

** Cryptography skill is of dubious usefulness. It ''does'' reveal some very crucial info about the sender and recipient, 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.
** 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 driven up the alert level, you may end up needing the skill to evade hitmen chasing after you.
** Electronics doesn't give you more or less time to figure out the puzzle, it just makes the puzzle pieces a little more complex. The game is easy even at the hardest difficulty.

* GoodBadBugs: There's a mini-game where enemy agents will break in to a building to rescue an enemy operative you arrested. You must defeat all of them or they free the operative. However, there's a chance the room you must protect with the operative inside will contain the passage which is the only exit to the outside. Since the game is nice enough not to spawn enemies in the same room as you, this means the enemies have no place to spawn. The game pauses for a few seconds and then declares that you successfully prevented the escape attempt, which makes the game easier since they won't try again. (Easier, that is, unless you wanted to intentionally lose...)

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

* GuideDangIt: Figuring out how to reach some of the organization hideouts is rather tricky, as in some cases you'll have to do wiretaps and breakins on organizations that are not associates or allies to slowly work your way towards the organization you need to get to. Reading activity and relations reports sometimes allows you to "procure" useful information even before getting to the plane.

* VideoGameCrueltyPotential: You can break into MI6 (British intelligence) and Mossad (Israeli intelligence) offices just to murder 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 doing so.

** 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. However, if you driven up the alert level, you may end up needing the skill to evade hitmen chasing after you.

* OneStatToRuleThemAll: By far, the Combat minigame will be the source of most of your clues, and is the ''only'' way to arrest or turn criminals. Even with the skill maxed, Combat on higher difficulties is unforgiving, especially when assaulting a Mastermind's hideout.

* DumpStat: You should never have a need for cryptography. The only reason you would need it is if both the sender and recipient of a coded message go into hiding, which means you screwed up. Even though the likelihood of an arrested agent involved in a coded message NOT cooperating increases on higher difficulties, most of the time, you won't need the decoded message in the first place.
** Driving almost comes close, as you never really need to stake out a house and follow someone via driving (you can instead plant a tracer on the car, using electronics). However, if you driven up the alert level, you may end up needing the skill to evade the hitmen.

* IdiosyncraticDifficultyLevels: Local Disturbance, Natioanl Threat, Regional Conflict, Global Crisis. Technically, everything takes place within a region, with the names just showing how difficult it is to solve the case (e.g. harder to crack stuff, etc.)

* PrideBeforeAFall: If you play on Local Disturbance, one of the criminals is always located in Washington, and is always part of an organization that created a relevant clue. It is a message sent directly by the mastermind, saying that he/she has heard that Max Remington is working on the case, but is not at all worried. Somehow, the CIA immediately knows that "a criminal mastermind" send that message [[GuiltByAssociation despite no other clues]].

* PrideBeforeAFall: If you play on Local Disturbance, one of the criminals is always located in Washington, and is always part of an organization that created a relevant clue. It is a message sent directly to the mastermind, saying that Max Remington working on the case is no cause for concern. Naturally, you determine that the recipient is the mastermind [[GuiltByAssociation by that single message]].

* HackingMinigame: Wiretapping follows the spirit of the trope, although with telephone lines rather than computer systems.

* LetsPlay: [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-1I6XQI8M8 Frankomatic]] and [[http://www.armageddonsphere.com/video.php?id=148 Jade Star]] of SomethingAwful are working their way through one.
** {{Kikoskia}} has done one as well; his was directly inspired by Frankomatic's.