Shadow Watch

"Since the early days of rocketry, humanity has known that Earth is a very difficult place from which to escape. To explore the universe, we need a permanent home above Earth, a place beyond gravity from which to launch our journeys outward. The first serious attempt at a multilateral permanent station failed when the chaos spreading through Russia grew so great that the United States could no longer pretend that the station was the work of both nations.

Now, years later, an international consortium of science agencies concluded that a space station could be built efficiently and well by a group effort of member nations. However, the scientists knew that a joint project would always be subject to the whims of politics if left in the international arena. Therefore, they looked for a multinational, neural organization with space experience and a drive to finish the work on its own. They selected a corporation. They selected us.

It has been a good solution. Under the auspices of the corporation, scientists from Europe interact freely with scientists from South America. Poland works hand in hand with China. Politics interferes at the local level, but the effects are dampened by the corporation. It seemed as though humanity could set aside its differences and work towards a common goal for the good of all.

You are the guardian of that goal. As chief of the corporation's security team, you must be ready to act in any corner of the world, at any moment. Our operatives are highly skilled, and you are authorized to use them in any capacity to safeguard the creation of the space station. You will be operating beyond the ability of the corporation to aid you, and certainly without the permission of local national authorities. You must investigate any disturbances thoroughly, and solve the issue with a minimum amount of force. We believe that a number of hostile forces may choose to target the corporation or the station in pursuit of their own goals. They must be stopped, by any means necessary.

Good luck."

Shadow Watch is a 2000 Microsoft Windows video game by Red Storm Entertainment. It is a turn-based tactics game in which the player fights a conspiracy to halt construction of an international space station. It is based on the Tom Clancy's Power Plays novel "Shadow Watch".

The player's team consists of six operatives, each of which has a specialist skill. These abilities can be upgraded and characters learn moves after enough experience points are earned.

Missions are somewhat randomised, and often the story mode will branch out into several paths. Most missions involve killing all of the enemies, but other missions include stealing a package, retrieving a hostage, defending a location. Missions typically have a difficulty and alarm rating, some missions will automatically fail if the alarm is sounded.

In a mission, characters have a certain number of action points (APs). Most actions (shooting weapons, opening doors) cost 1 AP, whereas some moves can consume more. Characters can get injured, and a severe injury will automatically fail the mission.

Plot
Due to political collapse in Russia following the end of the Yeltsin era, the original International Space Station (ISS) program suffered serious setbacks. Now, the project has been revived through the joint efforts of NASA, the European Space Agency, the Brazilian Space Agency, the Chinese Space Agency and Russia. The world is eagerly awaiting the results of this collaboration and the potential technological and humanitarian advances that can be expected.

Unfortunately, not everyone shares this vision of future cooperation among the international players. That someone is trying to sabotage the entire project of the collective Corporation. Serious trouble spots have emerged in ISS development locations and facilities in Rio de Janeiro, Hong Kong and Baikonur. Your job is to lead a party of six highly trained specialists to these hotspots and take care of business -- do whatever it takes to squelch the terrorism and eliminate the threat to the ISS project.

Shadow Watch continues the intrigue created by Tom Clancy and Martin Greenberg in their New York Times best-selling book series Power Plays.

Characters

 * Ian Archer
 * Bartholomew Berinsky
 * Lily Yu
 * Rafael de Ariano
 * Maya Knight
 * Gennady Roschinko

Gameplay
The game offers both single missions and unique campaigns. Campaigns consist of three subplots of five missions each, followed by a final mission. All three previously mentioned locales will play a part in each campaign but the order in which they appear is completely random. Because of the randomness and plot branching techniques within the game, there is a potential of 162 possible campaigns. Based upon in-game action (e.g., talking with contacts (there are more than 200,000 words of contact dialogue), subplots offer between 120 to 200 different ways of completion.

Eight different mission types are available in Shadow Watch: defend, assault, raze, kidnap, rescue, raid, theft and surveillance. The same six characters are used in all missions and campaigns with each utilized for specific purposes. More than 50 skills can be learned and improved during gameplay with experience levels carrying over from mission to mission. The operatives in the game include Archer, the English combat commander, Lily, an Asian martial arts expert, and Bear, a Canadian skilled fighter. Rounding out the team is Maya, an American sniper, Gennady, a Russian electronics expert, and Rafael, demolitions expert from Rio.

Action in Shadow Watch is from a top-down isometric perspective and the game supports both point-and-click and keyboard command control. Victory conditions for each mission or campaign vary but must be met fully in order to complete the action. There are three levels of difficulty available, easy, normal and hard, and each has very specific parameters in terms of gameplay. Mission failure is guaranteed if any one of the six characters is killed, an alarm is set off during a surveillance or theft mission or if a hostage is killed during a kidnap or rescue mission.

System Requirements

 * System: Pentium-133 or equivalent
 * RAM: 32 MB
 * Video Memory: 2 0
 * Hard Drive Space: 100 MB