Covert Action is also one of my all time favorites (I bought an external numpad for my laptop to be able to play it decently). I can fully understand why people wouldn't like switching modes for so long so often, but that was part of the charm for me. You got to play detective, cryptographer, James Bond, and maybe could catch everyone in time. Shadows of Doubt scratches a bit of the itch for me, but ai really want a remaster of Covert Action.
I barely even want a remaster. I'd love the exact same game with a bit of new-style generative AI to mix up the coded messages and communiqués and such so they aren't as easy to spot. The dithered EGA/VGA art style already feels like it went all the way back around to Papers, Please-chic.
