textfiles/games/REVIEWS/iceman.rev

 CODENAME: ICEMAN

 After successfully combining adventure and fantasy role-playing genres in
HERO'S QUEST, Sierra has tapped yet another popular genre -- the vehicle
simulator -- for its latest adventure. Your task in CODENAME: ICEMAN is to pilot
a submarine through enemy waters while on a covert rescue mission.
Unfortunately, because of lapses in logic and a restrictive game design,
CODENAME: ICEMAN ends up dead in the water. (This review is based on the IBM-PC
version; Amiga version notes follow.)

 You play the role of Johnny Westland, a handsome, multi-talented submarine
officer -- the U.S. Navy's answer to James Bond. You begin the game on vacation
in Tahiti, but you're soon called back to Washington by the top brass. An
international crisis has broken out: The American ambassador in Tunisia has been
kidnapped by terrorists. To make matters worse, increasing international
tensions have led to a Russian blockade of the Bering Straits. It's up to you to
navigate the new high-tech nuclear submarine (the "U.S.S. Black Hawk") from
Pearl Harbor to Tunisia, and from there, lead a covert operation to free the
ambassador.

 Getting to Tunisia, though, is pretty tricky. To begin with, you have to make
it through the Bering Straits and past the Soviet blockade. To do this, you'll
have to use your silent running technology which allows you to evade detection
by the enemy. You'll also have to use your torpedoes and Harpoon missiles: This
cold war turns hot.

 There are also more mundane matters to deal with, such as learning how to pilot
the "Black Hawk," maintaining the sub, and dodging icebergs. And once you reach
Tunisia, things don't get any easier: You still have to figure out a way to
spring the ambassador from the heavily-guarded compound where he is being held.
That's a tough job for any hero.

 Unfortunately, it's a job that the game itself makes tougher. ICEMAN is a very
hard game to play. It's hard not just because the puzzles are tough: It's hard
because the game is set up in such a way as to frustrate even veteran
adventurers. The game suffers from a limited vocabulary and an extremely linear
structure that often make it more of a trial than a challenge.

 One of the main games you play in ICEMAN is "guess the parser," which is not my
favorite pastime. Other gamers and I have had a great deal of trouble doing
things that ought to have been simple, such as ordering someone a drink, looking
on top of a refrigerator, and taking a butter dish. The game only accepts one
particular phrasing of the command for each of these actions. These problems are
compounded because you sometimes have to use technical submarine terms in the
commands. One especially frustrating sequence involves using the word "ping" as
a verb, something that would not occur to most players. To make matters worse,
there are several more natural alternatives to this command that do _not_ work,
and "ping" is not listed as a possible verb in the manual.

 Along with the parser problems are oddities in the plot and the graphics. The
submarine is supposed to be only 25 feet wide, but many of the rooms in the sub
are much wider. There is also a subplot in which the CIA sends coded messages to
the submarine even though no one on board is supposed to be able to decode them.
Inconsistencies like this spoil the realism of the game.

 The other main source of frustration is the game design. ICEMAN has been set up
so that you _must_ do certain things at certain times, or else you cannot
continue the game. In some circumstances this makes sense, but in ICEMAN there
are too times when you have to get the timing just right, and when the timing
has nothing to do with logic. If you happen to buy a newspaper at the wrong
time, you'll probably miss a major subplot. If you don't say the right thing to
the submarine captain at exactly the right time, you'll miss out on some
important information. (And that's your only chance; even though you can talk to
the captain later, he won't answer.)

 If you don't respond exactly the way the designer wants you to while piloting
the sub, you're booted out of the game for being too slow...even though you're
supposed to be in total command of the sub. At one point, if you don't make a
quick change in costume, you lose the game, which is odd since the costume
change has no real effect on the rest of the plot. This strict linear structure,
combined with the lack of good motivation for many of the puzzles, will leave
many adventure gamers more annoyed than entertained.

 Simulator fans will probably feel the same way. Unlike most simulators, there's
little freedom to maneuver in ICEMAN. You have actual control of the sub for
only a few very constrained sequences: One involves getting by a destroyer;
another, dodging an enemy sub; a third, precision navigation; and the fourth is
an arcade sequence in which you dodge icebergs. Except for a few training runs
at the beginning, that's it. You cannot explore the seas, or search for new
enemy targets. The sub simulator is best thought of as being another puzzle in
the adventure game: It doesn't stand on its own. Those who are thinking of
buying ICEMAN with the idea that they will be purchasing a product like 688
ATTACK SUB with an adventure game added on, should be forewarned.

 On the plus side, ICEMAN features the usual excellent Sierra EGA graphics and
animation. The game supports a wide variety of sound cards, and requires 512K of
memory to run. The game box comes with both 5-1/4" and 3-1/2" disks included.
Manual-based copy protection is used; the disks are not copy-protected.

 In addition to the less than logical puzzles described above, there are also
many that are nicely done. Many puzzles have multiple solutions, so missing
something (which is very easy to do) is not always fatal. The sub simulator is
fun to play with, although you're not given much opportunity to do so.

 Still, ICEMAN is more trouble than it's worth. Hard-core Sierra fans will want
to play ICEMAN; real diehards might even consider the logic lapses and
guess-the-parser problems a challenge. To me, though, ICEMAN failed in its basic
purpose. Games are supposed to be relaxing, but ICEMAN is the only adventure
game that has literally given me a headache. I'd recommend waiting for the next
Sierra adventure to come along; you'll save some money on aspirin.

 AMIGA VERSION NOTES

 This has to be one of the toughest Sierra games ever, in ways I don't always
find pleasant. While THE COLONEL'S BEQUEST takes a great step in the direction
of providing the player with a relatively non-directive (yet organized) gaming
environment to explore, CODENAME: ICEMAN does just the opposite, and refuses to
let the player do anything except what must be done next. There are fans of both
kinds of adventure design, and clearly the success of CODENAME: ICEMAN proves
there's an audience for linearity. The rules (included in the manual) for
resuscitating someone who has stopped breathing can easily be taken as a
metaphor for the way the whole game is structured: Take the correct Step B after
performing Step A, or instantaneous death may occur.

 Once that reality is acknowledged by the player, though, the game is another
fascinating variant on the genre Sierra has managed to corner for the past few
years. The Amiga version looks great and plays without a hitch, though
floppy-based players will find the disk swaps a bit excessive. As is the case
with everything Sierra has released this year for the Amiga, hard disk
installation is simple and, I'd say, a real prerequisite for enjoying the game
uninterrupted.

 The game comes on five copyable disks, and will play on A1000s, A500s, and
A2000s. Copy protection involves following the rules for cardiopulmonary
resuscitation included in the manual (in order to get past one point in the
game), and using the included brown-purple code messages in the manual (in
conjunction with the code book discovered in the gameworld during play). In both
cases, copy protection is nicely integrated into the design of the game itself.

 The graphics are "new-standard," meaning they're as good as those in any of the
recent Sierra releases for the Amiga (since SPACE QUEST III). I'm a big fan of
the graphics for CONQUESTS OF CAMELOT in particular, and those in CODENAME:
ICEMAN seem somewhat less attractive by comparison, but they get the job done.
Animation sometimes seems slower in CODENAME: ICEMAN than in other Sierra games,
however. Certain points in the design may require some patience. Otherwise, the
game looks, sounds and plays identically to its IBM incarnation.

 Though I've made a point of not reading _any_ of the hints that have been
posted in The Gamers' Forum for CODENAME: ICEMAN on a regular basis since the
game's release, I didn't always run into the same kinds of problems others have
mentioned. I think a certain familiarity with naval terms and situations
garnered from playing such games as RED STORM RISING helped. I would suggest
some experience with other tactical sub simulations as an optional prerequisite
to playing CODENAME: ICEMAN. It not only helps fill in the background, but gives
the player more of a sense of the nature of the situation present in the game.
While the sub simulation is nothing like those in full simulation designs, it is
close enough to function well as a component in the process of the story.

 All in all, CODENAME: ICEMAN will give you what you're looking for if you want
a tough, gritty, spy-style naval adventure story, and can take the moments of
teeth-gnashing frustration. Sierra has done well with this conversion, as with
its others, and Amiga fans of this type of game will be more than pleased with
the spate of recent releases for their machine.

 CODENAME: ICEMAN is published and distributed by Sierra On-Line.

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