I enjoyed this game, never having played it back in the day. The driving mini game leaves a bit to be desired, as does the wiretap one. I liked the cryptology part (the first time I solved a message I did a little fist pump), and the breaking into buildings is fun too, although it gets to be a bit repetitive after a while. Overall, a fun game, and worth playing: you can't ever go wrong with a MicroProse game. I'd like to see this updated someday with modern sounds & graphics.

Surely one of the most original games - and once again it's from Sid Meier and Microprose! No surprise then, that the game before this was Railroad Tycoon - another completely original idea!

I won't repeat what has been said so eloquently about the game features, but rather than makes this game so great.

First and foremost, Microprose games could be deep and sophisticated, in part, because of their ability to produce excellent, informative, fun and well written manuals. They were invariably over 100 pages and almost always gave information about the subject matter as well as the game itself. The manual for this game, for example, had little pearls of wisdom from your boss and your assistant. Also, Microprose were very up front with their design decisions, and always had copious Designer Notes in every manual. The notes for Covert Action were all the more interesting because the game was about terrorism and international crime!

Only today I saw a let's play for this game on You Tube where the premise was that many countries were having severe economic crises and that a terrorist group had decided to commit economic terrorism to make it worse. Well, if that isn't right out of today's 2010 headlines, I don't know what is! It is for this reason I am surprised Covert action has not been updated like Railroad Tycoon and Pirates. The only reason I can think of, is unlike the former titles, Covert Action is less 'politically correct'!

The game itself, just like other Microprose strategy titles, like Decision in the Desert, Crusade in Europe and Conflict in Vietnam, all for the Commodore 64 and released in the early days of Microprose, show a depth of knowledge and research about the subject matter that few if any other company bothers with. It is this method of going into great depth on a subject and then having someone like Sid Meier able to pull out the key parts that would be suitable for a game that makes Microprose such a great company of it's day and Covert Action one of it's better titles just because it dealt with 'today' rather than the 19th century (Railroad Tycoon), the 16th Century (Pirates) or the 14th century (Darklands). Witting a game for the now is very different, as we feel we know the subject matter from the news, etc. For those that play this classic game, I think they will be surprised how relevant it is even today, and how it seems to still pull out headlines from today's media! This is a sign of great research and excellent game design!

For being 'relevant' for over 20 years, and for still being able to teach people today what is required of spy's as much as in 1990, I can give this game no less than 9 out of 10. it's easy to do fantasy, it's very difficult to do 'documentary' this is the best example of game design for covering even today's world with intelligence and skill and then producing a game that teaches you something while you have fun!

Covert Action casts you in the role of an intelligence officer, with the duty of foiling the plans of rival organizations. You do so by gathering evidence and information pertaining to the operation, tracking operatives and, eventually arresting them.

Each mission by the enemy plays out while you determine the plan's goal, the implements to be used and who is involved. You do this through the main menu system and through the use of three minigames; Wire-Tapping, Driving and Break-In. The only one that is not fun is the driving, though this can be completely avoided through the use of car tracking, which plays out exactly the same as wire-tapping.

The break-in minigame is chiefly used in the arrest of suspects and plays out in a top-down view. The only flaw that I can see, garnered during a recent playthrough, is that the rooms in each location are randomized. The first room of one of the buildings was blocked completely by its architecture and arrest of the operative was impossible.

The music is lacking. Above all this it's a fun game that does exactly what it sets out to do.

Though this game has rather primitive top-down graphics and bleep-bleep sounds, it's possibly the best spy game ever designed, and if it was ever competently updated I'd rate it an 8 or 9 rather than a 7 out of 10. The reason why is that the designers did not lose sight of what espionage and counterespionage is primarily about, whic is to say _information_. This means that the game focuses not on the exciting but often-repetitive combat sequences, but rather on _finding out what the terrorists are doing_, so that you can stop it.

You are an elite CIA agent tasked with stopping terrorist conspiracies. Each strategic turn (1 month) the game generates a random terrorist conspiracy, on one of three regional maps (Europe, Mideast and Latin America). The conspiracy comes complete with terrorist leaders belonging to various organizations spread out through several cities on the regional map and a plan of action.

You have to follow the few clues that you are given, find the terrorist hideouts, watch them, bug their phone lines, tail their cars, crack their coded messages, and in the end break in and arrest their leaders, thus preventing the commission of dastardly crimes. Every few months, you will uncover a terrorist "mastermind" -- the leader of a whole terrorist organization -- and have the chance to shut down his evil schemes for good.

Your main resource is time. Pick your plan of attack wisely, and you will knock out one after another terrorist agent before he can strike against the West. Pick it poorly, and you will watch helplessly as dire deeds unfold, unimpeded by your actions. While doing well in tactical combat is important, a keen _operational_ sense is vital. There is a real sense of something at stake here, and a real sense of accomplishment when you take the terrorists down.

Classic Microprose, even though Sid Meier thought it was a failure. Man, I _wish_ more companies would have "failures" like THIS!