Spycraft, the new-world espionage thriller set at the end of the cold war, looks to redefine gaming standards set by software houses to date. It has the best user interface I've seen in a long time, and the excessively credible guidance of William Colby, former director of the CIA, and Oleg Kalugin, former major general of the KGB.
In Spycraft, you become Agent Thorn. Thrust into the world of international espionage, you take on a New World Order consisting of drug-traffickers, nuclear arsenals, deep set double-agents and traitors who will sell out their country for sex and money.
Depicted at the end of the cold war, the lines between ally and enemy have been severely blurred, setting the stage for the two world superpowers to collaborate.

In a new trend that Activision seem quite set in, Spycraft is for Windows 95 only. Even from the install you can tell that Spycraft is a very serious game, as you are prompted with a window that informs you that there are scenes in the game that some could find distressing and offensive. Of note was the option to turn off the "torture scenes". On the topic of disturbing scenes, although not abundant, there is at least one scene where the Russian President is assassinated with a shot to the head. The accompanying video graphically shows his execution.

Acting is improving in computer games, and the actors in Spycraft are convincing, enjoyable to watch and do a remarkable job considering that all of the full motion video is presented to you in the first person. By simply referring to you as Thorn, whether you're a man or woman, the first person perspective still works. The experience was easy and comfortable to fit into, even to role play with. Sitting in meetings, when you are being addressed, so convincing was this, that whilst being given my orders I found myself nodding my head.

The user interface in Spycraft is a giant leap in the right direction for computer games, easily one of the best in the market. Simple to use, it is very graphical and revolves around a point & click affair. A lot of games these days rely on pull-down menus, or moving the mouse to an area of the screen and selecting an icon. In Spycraft, you have a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) instead.
The PDA is full screen and in a brilliant stroke of game design, is based around a common Web browser. As per your normal browser, the PDA has a toolbar consisting of: Close (PDA), Home, Back, Forward, and Help.
Directly beneath is where all the information is displayed. This happy solution to common gaming problems lets you play with: The Comlink button for receiving email, sound recordings and video mail (all encrypted of course), the Datalink button, to access all the files you require in your investigative journey, Newslink, which contains the fictional messages and news updates that the player will receive periodically and Weblink, which allows you to interact with other Spycraft players on the Internet.

All information in the game is accessed via the PDA, email regularly comes in with vital clues, or congratulations on an arrest. Video communications come in from superior officers and your colleagues out in the field, sent as digitally recorded messages you can play back. Often messages have "hypertext links" eg. If a colleague mails you with a lead, their name will be printed in a different colour. Clicking on the name will automatically bring up the relevant information from the Datalink section. It's possible to sit back and "surf" all the information inside Spycraft as you would peruse the World Wide Web.