Sunday 26 October 2014

Game 48: Operation Stealth – Introduction

Written by Ilmari

Since we are now having a team of reviewers, we might as well be playing two games at the same time – that worked quite well, when Trickster shared the podium with a guest blogger. We'll skip the Spellcasting 101 for now (don't worry, its time will become later) and let Joe Pranevich get his hand on Operation Stealth or James Bond: The Stealth Affair, as it is also called. Joe is currently busy firing up his Dosbox, so I'll do the introduction this time.


"The title still lacks something..."
"That's it! James Bond will sell anything."

When regular readers hear that we are about play a French game, they will probably ask: how awful this is going to be? The best French effort thus far, Future Wars, was stunningly beautiful, but its plot was derivative and game play required inhumane efforts. Operation Stealth was actually published by the same company as Future Wars, Delphine Software. Most of the developers of Future Wars were still involved with Operation Stealth: Paul Cuisset was involved in design and programming, Jean Baudlot was responsible for music and Marc Minier provided the effects. Notable addition to the developer group is the co-designer and programmer Philippe Chastel, who would go on developing the scenario for the next Delphine Software adventure game, Cruise for a Corpse. None of this raises any hopes for Operation Stealth, but we can hope that the developers have learned from the failings of the first game.

The game title reveals that this will be a game of espionage and manual goes into great lengths describing all the various gadgets belonging to the tool kit of an average agent. I'll let Joe Pranevich reveal more about the game in the next post, but I should probably tell that the game has actually been sold under two names. Here in Europe the game was sold as Operation Stealth and that's the name I am familiar with. Apparently Delphine Software thought that American adventure gamers would not be so enthusiastic to step into the role of John Glames, so they bought a licence for the name of James Bond, just for US markets. It seems that nothing else was changed in the game itself, except the name of the hero, which caused the embarrassing detail that James Bond, an agent of British intelligence service, MI6, is for some reason working in CIA.


We all know this man...
...but who on Earth is this guy? He does look familiar...
...oh yes, he is Felix Leiter!

With these words, I'll step down from the podium and give the stage to Joe Pranevich, who will now get to play the role of a suave man of the world with a license to kill. Will he be John Glames or James Bond? We shall see...

Note Regarding Spoilers and Companion Assist Points: There's a set of rules regarding spoilers and companion assist points. Please read it here before making any comments that could be considered a spoiler in any way. The short of it is that no CAPs will be given for hints or spoilers given in advance of the player requiring one. As this is an introduction post, it's an opportunity for readers to bet 10 CAPs (only if they already have them) that Joe Pranevich won't be able to solve a puzzle without putting in an official Request for Assistance: remember to use ROT13 for betting. If you get it right, you will be rewarded with 50 CAPs in return. It's also your chance to predict what the final rating will be for the game. Voters can predict whatever score they want, regardless of whether someone else has already chosen it. All correct (or nearest) votes will go into a draw.

32 comments:

  1. This game is like a perfect mix of the qualities of Future Wars and Les Manley. I'm going to guess the average of their scores, (30+43) / 2 = 36,5 which is 37 when rounded up.

    Furthermore, I'm going to bet that Joe Pranevich jba'g svaq gur ehoore onaq va gur frn jvgubhg uryc.

    Just like with the previous Delphine game, Yahtzee and his friend Gabriel did a fun let's play video of this one too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PuCYvM5xKpo

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    1. Oh, and there's this cool thing: Speech synthesis in the Amiga version!

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQLlviVF0dw

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  2. Despite the potential for a James Bond/Secret Agent adventure, from what I recall they kinda missed the mark here. I'm going to guess 39 for the score.

    Good luck!

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  3. The French really did a good job of graphics in this era. I'll say 40, because I feel from my position putting a review together for the first time that Joe will be stuck trying to find good things about the pixel hunting madness ahead.

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  4. I am going to be positive and say that this will be best French game ever thus far! Though that is not saying much: 44.

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  5. Have you guys thought of adding "s" the website's title, now that it's a group of writers? Best wishes by the way! I enjoy this blog.

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    1. Probably some genius already thought of it. Hmm... can't remember who... geniuses tend to be forgetful.

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    2. Mmmh my blurry memories of this are somewhat negative. I'll go with a nice round 40.

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    3. I kind of feel that adding the "s" would just mean a lot of fuss over a small detail - not to mention the possibility of being confused with adventuregamers.com, as Laukku said. Do people have strong opinions about this?

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    4. I say keep it as it is now. "The Adventure Gamer" in singular can always refer to the archetypal adventurer.

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    5. I resent being called that! I'm a stereotypical adventurer!

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  6. Oh, and I'm guessing 36. Because I don't enjoy JB. It was, to me, extremely cheesy. Even back then when everything else were also cheesy; like Adam West's Batman and William Shatner's Captain Kirk.

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  7. I'll go with 38, since it is one above Laukku who seems to have used logic. Also: Is it just me, or is it a bit less busy around here then normal? I wonder how many we lost during the hiatus and the ending announcement.

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  8. I'll go with 31 because this blog has given me an unnatural phobia of French adventure games.

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  9. This one is worse than Future Wars so... I'm going with 35!!

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  10. Best way to get the community back is with awesome content! I am very pleased with the way my posts and the Countdown posts are going, and I hope you will enjoy them too!

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    1. He who questions the depths to what an entertainment software may sink to shall behold what he hath dared queried upon.

      - http://advgamer.blogspot.jp/2012/08/game-22-psycho-final-rating.html

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  12. What would be an appropriate game to gift to whoever guesses the correct score? (or is the CAPs reward enough?)

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    1. Obviously there's no obligation for anyone to gift a game - but if someone wanted to it would be great (though as an admin I'd disqualify myself from winning)

      If someone were to gift a game the most appropriate default would probably be how it's been done previously, which is for one of the next few games in the list so the winner could play along when we reach other games in the near future.

      To the best of my knowledge the next four games on the list aren't currently available for purchase, so the next few available games would be King's Quest V, Hugo II and Space Quest IV, all of which are available as trilogies on GOG.

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    2. I have several indie RPGs to give away. I'm not sure if it's valid here.

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  13. How about this for a special one-off contest? For those of you playing along at home, I want to know about all of the James Bond references that I'm missing. I've caught a few of them (one of the characters says "from Russia, with love", for example), but I suspect there are more both obvious and subtle.

    For each post that I do, you make a comment with James Bond references that have been in the segment that I played. (Try to avoid spoilers and try to keep the comments up to where I am.)

    At the end of the game, I will tally up all of the references and the person that found the most will receive a Dr. No DVD from Amazon, paid for by me. (Or if shipping is an obstacle, we work something out.)

    This is only our second-ever licensed property on the blog (the first being Indiana Jones) and we should celebrate that in some way! Besides, I want to learn more about James Bond along the way. (And perhaps I can include the information in my subsequent posts.)

    The first gameplay post for "Operation Stealth" will be this Saturday. If none of the moderators have an objection, I could include a louder announcement of this contest there.

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    1. This sounds like a great idea! I am sure we moderators have nothing against it.

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    2. Urgh... I'm gonna fail really badly at this since I'm no James Bond fan.

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  14. Unrelated post, GoG news: http://www.joystiq.com/2014/10/27/lucasarts-classics-reach-gog-com-on-october-28/

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    1. Actually - I'd say it's related...

      http://www.gog.com/news/release_the_secret_of_monkey_island_special_edition
      http://www.gog.com/news/release_indiana_jones_and_the_fate_of_atlantis
      http://www.gog.com/news/release_sam_max_hit_the_road

      Two of them have already been available digitally on Steam for a while but Sam and Max Hit the Road hasn't been available for years!

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  15. I finally caught up... Glad the blog has dedicated members to carry on, because I have been looking forward to predicting the score section of the blog... And my first guess will be 36....

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  16. Wait, this is game 48 and Countdown is game 46... What's game 47?

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    1. I was wondering if anyone had noticed that :)

      If you look on the top left you'll see it's Spellcasting 101, which Knurek's volunteered for but has been busy with work, while Joe and Aperama were both ready for action immediately.

      Spellcasting should be next on the list after Countdown or Operation Stealth is finished.

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  17. Yeah, I realized after I commented that Ilmari said we'd be skipping Spellcasting for now. I just thought initially that the numbers ought to reflect the order the games are actually played.

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    1. I considered renumbering the games, but since the numbers reflect now something else than just our playing order (that is, the presumed publishing dates), I thought we should keep the numbers as they were.

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