Dan Geeks Out: Video Game Review #347: Cloak & Dagger

Cloak & Dagger

Arcade

Nostalgia Factor:

Cloak & Dagger is a game I had never heard of before, based on a movie I had never heard of before. I'm not sure what prompted me to pick this game up and play it and review it as part of my Mop Up Duty review tour, yet pick it and play it I did. The whole purpose of this little project of mine is to expand my horizons and check out some games I had never heard of before, so I just went with it.

Would this game (that I had absolutely no info or experience to go on) be any good, or would it turn out to be a poor choice? Read on for my full thoughts.

Story:

Cloak & Dagger is loosely based on the 1984 film of the same name. In this game, you play as a secret agent whose mission is to infiltrate an enemy base, retrieve a set of stolen plans, and escape the base while it blows up behind you. Like I said, I haven't seen (or even heard of) the movie, but reading a Wikipedia summary of the movie it seemingly has nothing to do with the game at all. So I feel pretty safe saying that this game is loosely based on the film.

Gameplay:

The presentation of this game is a little unorthodox. I'll admit, when I first started playing this game I had no idea what I was looking at and no idea what I was supposed to be doing. It takes place from an overhead perspective. Mainly, you start out on the left side of the screen and you have to figure out how to make it all the way to the right. Using your gun, you can shoot enemies and obstacles, clearing the way for you to make a break to the right side. Be careful, however, as you die with one hit. Enemy projectiles are constantly flying your way, and if you so much as touch an explosive barrel it is lights out for you. Making things complicated are moving walkways that can mess with your sense of direction, as well as bottomless pits that will kill you if you fall into them. You have to hurry, as well, because each level has a bomb in the center of it. If you take too long, the bomb will explode, its explosion radius lethal to you if it touches you. On my playthrough I had a ton of close calls where the bomb would explode, and I'd race into the elevator on the right just in the nick of time to avoid the explosion.

Once you complete a stage, a short cutscene shows your character riding an elevator down one floor deeper into the facility. The stolen plans are on the 33rd level. Or would that be the negative 33rd level? Whatever. I don't really care. Once you reach level 33 and collect the secret plans, you then have to ride the elevator up all the way back to the surface. The trip up is a lot more difficult than the trip down, however, as most of the stages are filled with narrow walkways and bottomless pits that will kill you instantly if you fall into them. The game does give you the option to hold the up button while on the elevator to skip some stages, which is nice. I think the game would have been way too long and tiring if you had to play through so many stages on your way up.

Graphics:

The game doesn't look fantastic, but you have to remember that this came out in 1984 - 38 years from the date of this review. Your character, as well as all the various enemies and stage obstacles, just look like little colorful shapes moving around on the screen. The colors for the game are a bit garish as well, making things hard to look at sometimes.

Where Cloak & Dagger stands out visually are the little cutscenes in-between stages where your character is riding on the elevator. I like the little touches, like when you narrowly escape a bomb your character's hat will be smoking like it was singed, and the line separating the closed elevator door will turn red because of the heat from the other side. All kinds of funny animations flavor these elevator rides, and I have to say that it adds a ton of personality to the game. In a couple of years when I will have forgotten everything about this game, the one thing I WILL remember are the funny little elevator scenes.

Sound:

There's not a whole lot that stands out about this game's sound. I guess one notable thing is that there is STAGE MUSIC, which is something that's been lacking from some of these early 80s games I've been playing recently. Other than that, the game's sound effects are your pretty standard loud beeps and bloops that were so popular in this era of gaming.

Overall:

Considering I had absolutely no expectations coming into this game, I came away from it pleasantly surprised. I was a little put off at first by the game's visual style, but once I got used to it I discovered that this was a perfectly playable and fun game. What sets it apart from the other early 80s games I have reviewed lately? There's stage music. There's clear, defined level progression. There are cutscenes (if you can call them that) between stages. And most importantly: it has an ending! That's right, this is a game that can actually be beaten as opposed to just playing for a high score. Aside from Dragon's Lair, this is the first game I've played from this era that can actually be beaten.

It may sound like I'm heaping praise onto this game, but let's not get too ahead of ourselves here. It's one of the best games I've played on my little review tour, sure, but that really isn't saying much. Compared to other games I've played and reviewed in the past, such as Ocarina of Time, The Last of Us, Horizon: Zero Dawn, etc - this game is absolute rubbish. I didn't grow up with this game, so I have no sentimental or nostalgic feelings attached to it. I would have missed absolutely nothing if I had just skipped over this game and played something else instead. Am I glad I played this game? Yeah. Did I have fun with it? I did. But will I ever play it again? Probably not.

Because I had a relatively good time with this game, I'm going to give it a C+. It's not a strictly average game, since I did enjoy it a bit more than that. But I don't think it is anywhere near good enough to score in the B range. So it will have to settle for a score of slightly above average. People who grew up with this game probably think that's too low. People who grew up playing modern games probably think that's too high. But for me - it's perfect.

THE GRADE:

C+

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1984: