The Plot: The protagonist is a CIA agent working cooperatively with the KGB to find and eliminate an assassin who has killed your CIA instructor and a Russian presidential candidate, Fyodor Dubanski. The next one on the assassin’s list is the President of the United States. Capturing the assassin takes on a greater urgency.

The puzzles are logically related to the plot of the game. The tight and logical plot is enhanced by both the extensive FMV and the puzzles. The linear nature of the plot does not detract from the enjoyment. Like entering a Tom Clancy novel and taking part.

Much of the game is used up by operating machinery, such as the personal data assistant, which allows you to receive messages, take notes on the progress, link to the world wide web, take news off the web, and retrieve data from various data banks and devices such as Mix and Match, The Security Model, Badman, and Sound Analysis. Data in the PDA has hyper-link text to follow. Other neat gadgets come straight out of M’s laboratory in a James Bond book, like the Kennedy Assassination Toolkit (KAT) that allows you to line up the trajectories from two or more bullets on a three dimensional map and then zoom into the location on a video to identify the shooter. The Image Analysis kit is used in the CIA training facility affectionately referred to as the farm.

The FMV is extensive, well scripted, and professionally acted, adding significantly to the experience. This Activision game engine is a winner and is also used in The Elk Moon Murder.

The music, that there is, is good, but there are many times where the speakers are silent, and good mood music here would have carried the tone and mood.

Internet: The online Spycraft Web site gives you the opportunity to visit with other spies and discus the game with them. Activision also posts news that relates to the game action to enhance the game experience. We can only hope that Activision will see fit to expand the game through online downloads of additional clues, plots, and mysteries.

Conslusion: The title says it all: "Spycraft: The Great Game."

Reviews:
Next Generation, volume 2, number 19, July, 1996, pg. 87, 4/5 (80%).
Mark Clarkson, Computer Gaming World, number 14, July, 1996, pg. 116-118, 4.5/5, (90%).
Glenn Broderick, Computer Player, volume 3, number 1, June, 1996, pg. 78-79. 9/10 (90%).

Strategy Guide References:
Zach Meston, Computer Player, August, 1996, volume 3, number 3, pages 76 - 80.
Martin Cirulis, www.cnet.com/Gamecenter/Reviews/