Casual Friday: Spy Games, Spy Gear

I don't know how GameTap pulled it off, but the company is now offering this fantastic sci-fi spy game for free. In this role-playing, first-person shooter, you're a cybernetic superagent trying to uncover a globe-spanning conspiracy. A couple years ago, you'd have paid top dollar for this game and been happy.

Even if it's more about computers and back doors as opposed to beautiful spies on foreign shores, hacking is synonymous with spying. And while I'd love to point to Activision's classic game of the same name, I'll settle for this quirky little flash-based version.

This tiny download is really a series of devious puzzles. In fact, the first time you start playing it, you'll think that the game is broken. Or that the program just isn't working. Trust me on this--it is. And it's a lot of fun.

In a nutshell, a secret agent stick figure needs to infiltrate the enemy base and lay waste to anyone that tries to stop him. And, really, who doesn't want to see a stick figure punch, kick, and shoot his way through hordes of hostile minions?

Before Id Software took shooters into 3D, Wolfenstein was a very tense action stealth game. And technically, this was the very first spy game that I loved and played as a kid on my Apple II. In it, you're infiltrating a Nazi headquarters, posing as a guard and trying to plant a bomb to take out Hitler.

Speaking of which, this column will self-destruct in 5 seconds... 3... 2....