If you watch one movie this year that features both former CIA director William Colby and Polygon co-founder Justin McElroy, make sure it’s Polygon’s documentary on Spycraft: The Great Game.
A relic of the 1990s, Spycraft: The Great Game is an FMV point-and-click adventure that places you in the shoes of a CIA recruit thrust into a plot of international intrigue in the shadow of the Cold War. Activision spent millions of dollars on the development of Spycraft, which received critical acclaim upon its launch in 1996, but is now largely forgotten. However, if you’d like to experience this game for yourself, it’s technically playable today and available from both GOG and Steam for just $5.99. A small price to pay to experience a piece of history.
While the gameplay is largely a combination of puzzles taking the form of paperwork and cipher analysis, the narrative is delivered via a series of cutscenes featuring 40 principal actors, including former CIA director William Colby and former KGB Major General Oleg Kalugin, who collaborated on the game’s development.
As with any good spook story, the Spycraft story only gets stranger the deeper you dig. In fact, we spent roughly three and a half years interviewing the developers and actors who took part in this wild title along with historians, museum curators, and FMV aficionado Justin McElroy. If you’d like to see what we’ve uncovered, you should definitely watch our documentary, which is available in its entirety, for free, on Youtube.
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