Covert Ops on Facebook! Deep Cover Assignments and Espionage!

My first impression of this game was that it was just another "Pont and Click" (PnC) flash game on face book. You know the type, Health, Energy, Stamina, but boy was I ever surprised by this game.

The PnC genre is littered across Facebook (mafia wars type games) and usually become very tedious and boring waiting for energy and stamina refills. This game is no exception to that rule. The "energy" in this game is called "cover" and as usual takes forever to regenerate.

While this game is pretty much like the other PnC games on Facebook, it does have a few surprises. The first of these came in the form of the "Special Missions". Most, if not all, of the Facebook PnC games have some sort of mission system where you click a tab to complete a mission and it takes a certain amount of your energy or stamina to complete. This game has a few special mission that set it apart from the other games in this genre.

Code Crack - this is a "Word Scramble" mini-game. In this game you must use a special spy glass to chack a keyboard for fingerprints and then unscramble the letters to form words. Each word you decode gives you one letter towards the main password. Each wrong guess shortens the time you have to complete the final password.

Escape - A side scrolling game that has you jumping from roof to roof to escape a menacing helicopter that shoots at you. Each time you fall off the roof you lose some health. If you make it to the end with any health left you win.

Seek and Find - This game involves an office unit and a flashlight beam. You must find 4 of 6 items listed in the dark to complete each task. Wrong clicks lose you time, right clicks are rewarded by crossing them off the list.

Bomb Defusal - this is a Memory (or match-it) type game. You must click the hidden items on the left bomb and match it with the same ones on the right bomb. If you click the wrong two pictures it will flip them back over and you will lose some time. Once all the pictures are matched the mission ends and you receive your rewards.

Group Missions - As you progress you will find additional members for your team. These members can be sent on missions alone or in groups. The down side is when the mission is over, if you do not extract your operatives quick enough, you will lose the bonuses.

After the tutorial you will be given your first "base". This "base" will be very limited. Actually it is one room. This is the next benefit to this game that sets it apart from other PnC games. The base is setup to expand and be customized. You can add a bathroom, bedroom, and all the furniture you can afford. This part of the game is not PnC! This part of the game reminds me more of Farmville or Café World in that everything is interactive and drag and drop (DnD). You buy your furniture, appliances, etc.., and drag them to the floor area you wish to drop them on.

Normally in PnC games you will upgrade a few stats and buy mostly useless items. This game allows you to do that with your stats, Every level also brings you 2 stat points that you can upgrade, but the upgraded items are actually useful. When you find the proper items to upgrade you weapons you do just that, upgrade the weapon. And you don't have to just upgrade as they see fit, rather you can save the parts to upgrade other weapons instead of the lower ones.

This game is rather unique in that it does have some features that make it somewhat fun to play. The down side is that these missions, puzzles, and mini-games are few and far between. For the most part you will just find yourself clicking "Do Mission" and not much else. It is a nice attempt from Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) for their first Facebook game. I hope to see improvements and future games from this developer.