Code-Name: Iceman

aka: Code Name: Iceman, Code-Name: Iceman - a 3-D Animated Adventure Game, Codename: Iceman
Moby ID: 436
DOS Specs
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Description official description

In the beginning of the 21st century, Earth is experiencing a global oil shortage. Surprisingly, Tunisia remains one of the few countries still in possession of large quantities of high-quality oil. USA and Soviet governments race each other in their attempts to purchase as much oil as possible. Finally, the Soviets take a step further and kidnap the US ambassador, hoping to provoke an international incident. Naval Officer Johnny Westland is sent to Tunisia with the order of rescuing the ambassador and preventing further escalation of the conflict.

Code-Name: Iceman is primarily an adventure game similar to Sierra's other works in that genre. The player navigates the protagonist in eight different directions from third-person view, and types text commands to interact with the environment. The command "Look" may be typed separately and lead to different text descriptions depending on where on screen the protagonist is positioned. The game is similar to Police Quest series in that it relies on realistic procedures, in this case military instructions, first aid, etc. The player may reach dead ends and resort to restoring an earlier save if some of these procedures are not followed properly. In addition, a considerable portion of the game consists of submarine simulation, requiring the player to navigate a submarine and fight enemy craft.

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Credits (DOS version)

25 People (24 developers, 1 thanks) · View all

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 66% (based on 20 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.3 out of 5 (based on 61 ratings with 9 reviews)

Police Quest meets Military Quest? Pretty fun game, somewhat of a let down.

The Good
This game was sort of a change of pace from the usual police quest's in that all of the sudden you graduated from the Police force to military intelligence. Changes of pace are often a very good thing but don't always live up to its predecessors. The main thing I liked about this game was that it wasn't a Police Quest or any other kind of quest. It was a new kind of character in a new kind of scenario and sometimes thats all that is required in a game to be deserved to be checked out and given a try. Graphics and Sound were pretty good for the day too...

The Bad
The storyline just wasn't that interesting to me. I thought it was kind of blah... but that is just personal thing. One thing I thought was ridiculous was the little arcade kind of sequences you must to do move on through the game like playing boss dice or controlling that submarine. I felt like throwing the game away when I had to stop, refer to the manual (as sierra always does as copy protection) and learn how to play boss-dice before I could get on with the real game. Just one more annoyance from Sierra because of copy-protection. Copy-protection is fine! But just don't let it interfere with game play for example... King's Quest 3 and its spells. This is probably one of the only sierra adventure games I did not finish due to the fact that it was just kinda boring to me.

The Bottom Line
A decent breath of fresh air for classic Sierra adventure games... not all that exciting and probably will leave you bored after awhile. None the less, still worth a try from the creator of the amazing Police Quest series. Definitely worth a try!

DOS · by OlSkool_Gamer (88) · 2004

So Jim Walls was also a submarine captain as well, eh?

The Good
It was coming to the end of the Eighties, and with two Police Quests under his belt, Sierra employee Jim Walls decided to step away from the gritty world of Sonny Bonds to focus on the real-life duties of a Navy officer. The officer, in this case, is Commander John Westland, who gets interrupted by his superior while on vacation in Tahiti to take on a secret mission involving oil reserves in Tunisia and the possibility of the president being assassinated if the U.S. government doesn't comply with the terrorist's demands.

You start on a nice Tahitian beach and eventually have to chat up a babe who happens to be an agent that you'll rendezvous with later. During that time, it is nice that the game uses elements that is influenced by the Leisure Suit Larry games. You see Tahitian women walking along the beach, and looking at them gives you a LSL-style close up. Also, that dance scene is taken right out of the first game.

The majority of the game takes place in the submarine, the USS Blackhawk, where you have to sit at its controls and do things such as bringing down enemy ships, navigating around icebergs, and such. There are many ways that you can die when you finally get behind the controls of the submarine. I remember when I changed the heading and depth when the hatch is still open. More points are awarded for correct procedure. Time is crucial, and if you don't do all the things by the time the game is ready to move on, then you will become stranded or killed.

The graphics are adequate for the time, and the submarine is laid out nicely. (I haven't been inside a real sub, so I'm guessing the layout is based on a real one.) One thing I really like about this game is watching the Russian destroyer on the horizon during a beautiful sunset.

Since around 1988, sound card support was introduced in most of Sierra's game. When it comes to Code-Name: Iceman, Adlib sound is okay, but quite poor compared to what the MT-32 was capable of. With the device, you can hear additional sound effects other sound cards aren't able to produce such as the waves at the resort, and the submarine's sonar just sounds real. Music is also enhanced. I quite enjoyed listening to the music when you arrive at Dulles Airport, as well as what you hear at The Pentagon.

Copy Protection plays a key role as far as Iceman is concerned, and anyone who tries to play the game without reading the manual will have trouble. You have to perform CPR on a girl very early in the game by reading the correct procedure outlined in the manual, but the major thing is decoding secret messages, which is so complex that you have to refer to a code book you pick up early on. It' great that if you happen to decode them incorrectly, you will get a parody of Little Miss Muffet or Little Boy Blue.

The only puzzles are figuring out what each object does and how to use them. The game uses the mouse for moving your character around the screen, and the keyboard to enter commands at the parser. Unlike most of Sierra games, you need to be specific in what you type.

The Bad
I found the first of the submarine battles too difficult, and the battles are a hit-and-miss basis. There is no way you can avoid missing your target, except to keep doing a S&R (save and restore) procedure and hope that you can hit it. There is no way you can avoid the torpedoes the enemy launches, except to use decoys (and even they can miss). Before the sub battles is a game of Boss Dice you are forced to play. Waste of time.

The Bottom Line
So, what audience would Code-Name: Ice-Man appeal to? Well, it appeals to anyone who enjoys James Bond movies, since both the game and the movies share similar elements. It is also for anyone who has a lot of skill and patience. Anyone else, like me, should steer well clear of it. If it was not for the sub battles, I would have completed this by now. Thank god there wasn't another Navy Quest.

DOS · by Katakis | カタキス (43092) · 2013

Interesting, varied, but also terribly hard

The Good
The idea of mixing a basically pure adventure game with arcade sequences is nothing new. The addition of a simulator is already something novel and interesting. I have to admit it, while I also state that I always disliked simulator games and that steering the submarine in "Codename: Iceman" did nothing to change my mind - I didn't like these sequences, but I appreciate the idea. As for the types of puzzles, there is also lots of variety - everything from flirting with a girl (who soon turns out to be an agent too), through repairing machines, decoding messages (it's hard to figure out exactly how it works and the system involves copy protection, but after some time it actually got quite fun) to finding and freeing the hostage.
I liked the graphics, but I generally like good-quality EGA graphics, sometimes even better than duller VGA graphics and definitely much more than 95% of 3D graphics. A modest palette of juicy colors with clever use of shading works fine in different settings from a tropical island to sub machinery.

The Bad
However, despite these advantages the game also has two big flaws: a very high difficulty level and crazily excessive use of copy protection measures. In "The Colonel's Bequest" it was enough to find the correct fingerprint in the manual and while this wasn't integrated into gameplay at all, at least you didn't have to worry about copy protection afterwards. In "Codename: Iceman" copy protection is employed several times: first you have to check out the first aid procedure and basically retype it in the game (luckily it's a SCI game which pauses when you type), then use the manual to look up passwords for decoding messages (three times!) and check out how to turn on some devices such as the sonar. Plus, it's better to familiarize oneself with the rules of the "Boss Dice" game in order to make sense of it.
After about 1/3 of the game has passed, terribly hard sequences pretty much bang you on the head one after another. Boss Dice is a game of luck and you can only restore it twice (at least there is another, albeit more complicated, solution to the puzzles which involve the objects won: a bottle of rum and a magnetic device). The two battles are also very hard and luck-based. Later you have to follow another ship to get into the Mediterranean safely - getting and staying under her is hard, but first signalling her correctly is enough of a pain. In the coded message you are told to signal the ship with a single "ping", but when using the sonar you get two kinds of little sounds: a "click" when turning the sonar on and off and a small "beep" later. How am I supposed to know beforehand that yes, I have to turn the sonar on and immediately off, without waiting for the "beep"? It's easy to think it's the "ping" you have to signal... At the end there is another action sequence that you luckily can bypass: escape from the terrorists. What I found really annoying is that the game reacted very slowly to everything I pressed - timing it right is next to impossible. You have to speed up to be able to escape, but the van actually reacts only when you already ahould be slowing down before another curve...
The simulator sequences may actually be harder for modern players than they were when the game was made - at least on laptops, which don't have a separate numeric keypad. It involved constantly turning Num Lock on and off - "on" to speed up (numeric "+"), "off" to be able to type things like "close hatch" or "depth attained", "on" again to adjust speed...
At the end yet another detail - saying "I didn't like it" would be nitpicking, I'd rather describe it as a funny lack of realism. Some cabins on the sub look like hotel rooms. Well, I've never been aboard a submarine, but from what I've read it seems pretty clear submarines don't look like this. The pressure they have to withstand is so immense they must have as little surface as possible. Often they don't even have beds for all the crew - one shift is sleeping while the other works. Again - I wouldn't say it's really a disadvantage - the rooms look nice enough (even though the "hotel"-like cabins are actually rather boring, some other screens like the machine room or weapon room are much better), but it's a bit curious in a game so much acclaimed for its realism.

The Bottom Line
Anyway, I would say the game is worth trying out. Despite its flaws it remains interesting. But be prepared for a hard and frustrating game. Myself - I'm happy to keep a screenshot collection in my emulator, but I doubt if I'll ever play the whole game again.

DOS · by Nowhere Girl (8680) · 2012

[ View all 9 player reviews ]

Trivia

Cancelled sequel

A sequel was mentioned as forthcoming in Sierra's news magazine, but it was never released.

Comic

There was a comic based on the game published in Sierra's magazine. A page of it can be seen at SierraPlanet.

Information also contributed by Giygas 8

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Eurythmic.

Amiga added by POMAH. Windows added by Cavalary. Atari ST added by tbuteler.

Additional contributors: MAT, Jeanne, jean-louis, Martin Smith, formercontrib, Patrick Bregger.

Game added November 15, 1999. Last modified August 21, 2023.