Codename: ICEMAN

[Discoalucard]

www.hardcoregaming101.net/iceman/iceman.htm

I wrote this to spew hatred and vile, mostly. It was designed by the same guy who did Police Quest, and requires a lot of meticulous, "realistic" bullshit to pile through. It's supposed to be an all-encompassing "Spy Quest", where you get laid, rescue hostages, pilot submarines, plot courses, and decode messages, but each individual portion is executed pretty badly.

I remember buying this at BJ's Warehouse when I was young and getting monumentally frustrated by it - I don't think I ever got past the second sub scene. Reading around the internet, most people gave up somewhere along the line, whether it be the tedious amount of manual referencing you need to do, or the absurd save scumming to get past the sub battles. It's relentlessly hard, and while the game picks up at the end, there's still very little that's redeemable.

There's a few things I'm not sure of. Most of the internet seems to think that you need to win that stupid dice game so you can get the device to disable the enemy's magnetic field when you swim in. Another FAQ says you can swim through some underwater caves. Well, OK, but where are the caves?

[jorpho]

Nifty!

Most of the grammar worked out well enough this time, except for:
Johnny is sent him in to retrieve him
blow up some oil rigs, find disguises
to create a more rounded experience

And the link at the bottom says everything.com instead of everything2.com .

[ryochan]

I'd fail as soon as I had to figure out a map. I really have a bad sense of direction. Still, interesting write-up.

[Sac (a.k.a Icaras)]

You should make a mention of and put in a screenie of the cameo/plug for this game that occurs in the original(EGA) Quest for Glory 1.

If you go to the lake and stay there for a bit (1st visit only), a periscope will pop up out of the water. Right clicking on it will give some dialogue that plugs Codename: Iceman (This never happens again, I tried on my many playthroughs. Now I know the Quest for Glory games a chocca block full of other Sierra on-Line plus, but I think it's a worth a mention as fun trivia.)

The VGA version however plugs Eco Quest 1 by having it's dolphin leap outta the water instead, so you don't need ti mention it.

Anyway, having a breif look through the article, I find myself interested in trying this game. I was aware of it and that Jim Walls was a desinger, but that it plays likle a military version of Police Quest intrigues me.

[Weasel]

Gahh, this game looks even more aggravating than Daryl F. Gates' Police Quest 4: Open Season, which ditched any of the murder-mystery plot from the first three games in favor of MORE police procedure puzzles.

Makes me rather glad that the Police Quest series eventually branched out into SWAT - because SWAT 3 and 4 are among some of the finest tactical FPS games I've seen in a while (just shame about how difficult it is to run them decently on newer computers - freakin' SWAT 4 doesn't run multi-monitor at all, and takes about two minutes to load a level on my machine...)

[papersquadcontrol]

I read a Wikipedia article on Jim Walls saying that he committed suicide over the shame caused by Codename: ICEMAN's existence.

Of course seeing how he was and still is alive, I could safely conclude that as a bit of vandalism on someone's part. Funny in light of this article though.

[onoff456]

Apr 10, 2010 12:29:01 GMT -5 Discoalucard said:

I remember buying this at BJ's Warehouse when I was young and getting monumentally frustrated by it - I don't think I ever got past the second sub scene. Reading around the internet, most people gave up somewhere along the line, whether it be the tedious amount of manual referencing you need to do, or the absurd save scumming to get past the sub battles. It's relentlessly hard, and while the game picks up at the end, there's still very little that's redeemable.

I bought this too way back then. Took me a while but I beat it. Not sure if I can now. Back then I had gobs of free time and patience. As a kid I didn't mind repeating failed parts over and over. With no Internet and no more games I was pretty much stuck with it. Can't say I didn't enjoy it, but wasn't crazy about it either.

After finishing it I decided that would be the last Jim Walls game I would ever play.