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[Thecard]

Floor 13 + Covert Action + Evil Genius + the better parts of Republic: The Revolution

It's not what you're planning to do, but I'll just say that this is my ideal spy game.
Fuck that, my ideal game in general.

[PanH]

Nobody has really explored a game about being the head of an agency in a non-sci fi setting- such as assigning agents to missions, recruiting new agents, and managing a budget.

Yes, and that idea could even be expanded over more "illegal" matters, with organizing some operations. I mean, an organization with sleepers, a network of spy to get information, is similar. You put one of your sleeper in a corporation, wait for information, use them, with other sources, bribe some guys. Then, sell the information (more spy agency), or you use it.

[ConscriptFive]

The car chases in Covert Action were the weakest part. The other minigames were excellent including the codebreaking mechanism and hacking. The best part of the game was the random mission generation. Essentially every mission was the same, but the random flavor was excellent.

Yeah, it wasn't so much about the minigames, but that each one was an alternate means to solve the overall mission.  Examples, you could sneak into a safehouse to photograph intel, or you could place wiretaps.  You could use the follow a courier's car to the next safehouse, or emplace a tracker.  You could try to shake the car following you, or stand and try to win the shootout.  The crypto minigame was very useful, but not mandatory, as it let you read all the intel from wiretaps and break-ins.

Also, you were expected to lose every now and then to see all of the game (something I don't think modern gamers can really stomach anymore.)  Each mission was actual part of a multistage terrorist plot, which you could never see if you insisted on playing easy mode to get flawless wins.  Also, if you got captured, you were provided options to trade yourself for a terrorist you arrested or wait for an opportunity to escape.

Though as other have pointed out, this is all kinda moot as I don't think you could really do Covert Action in a platformer format/shooter.  I remember reading a retrospective from Sid Meier regretting that he made the shooter aspect of Cover Action too overpowered (which it was).

Speaking of games no one else has mentioned yet, it's a lost Cold War relic, but "Central Intelligence" was conceptually about you creating a US-backed insurgency in Latin America.  You recruit guerillas who conduct terrorism *guerrilla warfare* to forment a revolution.  It was particularly unnerving experience, as seeming all violence, including against civilian soft targets, generated support by making the government look weak.  It was also always safer to overkill a target than to let it get away.  Trying to assassinate an officer on his lunch break at a crowded movie theater with a pistol was a less effective choice than planting dynamite in said crowded movie theater.  Ultimately your grand strategy broke down into deciding what individual civilians were expendable as innocent bystanders *collateral damage* or not.  At least the rest of that theater audience died senselessly *heroically* to end communism *bring freedom* because Oliver North *The People* demanded it.

It was board-game-like with murky mechanics, and very dry presentation, but I've never seen anyone else attempt that kind of subject matter, especially with such cold calculation and lack of irony.  Then again, I don't think you could touch that concept post 9/11 anymore.

[ukulele]

maybe mix the actual game play with some sort of time mangement game, You start you agency with limited funds that you can spend on intel/spys/gadgets/new bases as the game progresses, a mission failure can go from a spy getting killed to a whole branch of your organization being discovered and you can make desicions based on that, maybe send a rescue party for the spy or deny his existence and let him die? maybe try to get that part of your organization be dismantled and lose it while maintaining the rest runing silently, i dont know and im a little drunk. I dont have much ideas for the gameplay itself.

[Neonivek]

I'm a bit like Neonivek, to me, the ideal spy game would be with a network of spies, a network of information.

Yeah for some strange reason all "Spy" stuff always feel more Action Hero with gadgets.

[PanH]

I'm a bit like Neonivek, to me, the ideal spy game would be with a network of spies, a network of information.

Yeah for some strange reason all "Spy" stuff always feel more Action Hero with gadgets.

Yea, Hollywood and such. All the secret agents, with actions are more shown, while I consider it as the most uninteresting (and unrealistic), part. I want to be the brain that oversees an organization.

[Robsoie]

I wish there were more games like Covert Action, was replaying it a week ago , for the nth time and still had lot of fun.
Most other spy games are not that replayable, but Covert Action still is even nowadays.

[Anvilfolk]

Covert Action!!!

[Ringmaster]

Much support for Covert Action, one of the best spy games I've ever played.

Since people are suggesting there be a 'network' of spies, then emulating the Jagged Alliance or original X-Com games may help in this regard.

Depending on whether you want it to be 'sandbox' style or to have a linear story, you could possibly employ some kind of random/procedural generation to create quests/missions (again, think Covert Action).

[sluissa]

The ideal spy game is 75% sitting at a desk reading/writing the most boring documents and translating the some guys grocery list from farsi, or listening the north korean navy men sing drinking songs over shortwave radio. The rest of your time is spent in meetings with pencil pushing middle management within the agency.

Come on, at least give us the benefit of watching a few cut scenes of Navy Seals taking all the credit for all the hard pencil pushing spy work.

Edit: I will say that Covert Action has long been my favorite Spy game. A lot of it is to do with the random element. But the gameplay where you only start off with a few vague clues and have to gather more and more evidence to be able to bring down a plot before it actually takes place... and the fact that you can occasionally delay that plot to give yourself more time by doing certain things...

Hell... on the harder difficulties it tends to start you out with something like. "There's something going on in the middle east. The PLO might be involved. Oh, and someone bought a briefcase in Budapest." And just from that you're expected to piece together a whole plot and bring down as many members as possible.

[ndkid]

People have covered a lot of what I'd say here, but one thing I haven't seen mentioned: I think incomplete and conflicting data, while frustrating to some players, is an important part of the spy milieu. Every piece of intelligence you get should beg questions like: was this planted? Has this source been turned?

Paranoia should just be a way of life.

[hemmingjay]

I would also like to add that side scrolling steath games are currently very well represented in the indie game market. Would you consider other modes of development?

[alfie275]

Side scrolling Subversion.

[Robsoie]

*semi offtopic
On the side scrolling stealth genre there was the freeware Trilby : the Art of Theft that was -very- good.
*semi offtopic

[Anvilfolk]

Yeah, Trilby was great! I usually hate platformers, but remember enjoying that thoroughly.