Covert Action
Sid Meier's spy game mixing a mystery with action missions.
Where Covert Action comes up1 episode or test
- 1Work the mysteryPlayer pieces together what is going on
- 2Start action missionAbout ten minutes of intense action
- 3Mystery fadesLong segment pushes the other genre out
- 4Player loses the plotNo idea what was going on
From Sid Meier on Covert Action
What was said about Covert Action
Long action missions made Covert Action players forget the mystery. Covert Action's missions ran about ten minutes of intense action. Players lost track of the mystery and had no idea what was going on.
Sid Meier found that long, intense, disconnected segments pushed the other genre out of the player's mind. The source quotes the problem as "you had no idea of what was going on in the world". The lesson drawn is to keep genre segments short and have each one feed into the other, as XCOM does with base upgrades that change tactical battles and battlefield decisions that feed back into the base.
How To Combine Video Game Genres
Missions lasted about ten minutes of intense action, and players forgot the mystery and had no idea what was going on.
Long action missions made Covert Action players forget the mystery. Covert Action's missions ran about ten minutes of intense action. Players lost track of the mystery and had no idea what was going on.
Sid Meier found that long, intense, disconnected segments pushed the other genre out of the player's mind. The source quotes the problem as "you had no idea of what was going on in the world". The lesson drawn is to keep genre segments short and have each one feed into the other, as XCOM does with base upgrades that change tactical battles and battlefield decisions that feed back into the base.
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