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When the Soviet Union disassembled and the Cold War ended, America's Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and video game developers sought out new enemies to battle. Russian mobsters, Colombian drug lords, Iraqis and other assorted non-nuclear threats filled the void left behind by the Soviets. Add a few years and a glut of covert ops style games, stir, and you get CIA Operative: Solo Missions.

The game has the look and feel of such genre stalwarts as Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six and Max Payne, but is far less complicated with fewer tasks, enemies, and locales to search during missions. Solo Missions is essentially a "lite" version of other black bag games, and that's okay. Gamers who don't want to plunk down major cash for the others should have a reasonably good return for their investment.

Although the game fails to measure up point by point with similar games in the genre, and especially due to its clunky gun interface, it's still enjoyable. Whether the hero is using a pistol, machine gun, or sniper rifle, aiming is done with a red dot from a laser scope, which unfortunately doesn't always work, especially in the case of the machine gun. Perfectly dot-aimed shots miss the enemy with disappointing regularity.

Another drawback is the incredibly easy nature of the game. Your character can absorb an inordinate number of bullets, and the enemies typically take a break between shots. Additionally, mission objectives are usually as simple as shooting a particular enemy, dropping a bomb in a certain room, or retrieving an item from a warehouse. The simplicity of the tasks invokes little or no challenge and lowers the enjoyment factor.

Sound plays a bigger part in CIA Operative: Solo Missions than do the graphics, which is fortunate due to the weak nature of the latter. The backgrounds are unrealistic, bland, and unimaginative, despite the use of Open GL technology. The protagonist receives warnings, orders, and other information from his contacts via an earpiece rather than in text form, thus listening carefully is important. If you miss information or an instruction, you'll have to reload the mission or risk failure.

Despite faults like easy gameplay and poor graphics, CIA Operative: Solo Missions is a cheap alternative to many higher priced first-person mission style shooters. However, gamers looking for a more immersive environment and tougher challenges can do better elsewhere.