Carter, due to his 'unconventional' reporting style, follows leads that normal reporters would find daunting to say the least. Carter responds to a tip about a secret meeting in Lenin's tomb and finds himself the victim of a frame job. He spends the remainder of the game running for his life in a desperate attempt to clear his name and expose the plot.

The character of Carter, while afraid of a fair fight, seems to have a skill set that would make a high level CIA operative proud. He is able to make complex spy gear from simple everyday items, and use the gear to upgrade his bag of tricks. And tricks are what survival is all about in this game. Many times, however, the trick that seems obvious to the player is not the same trick the level designer had in mind, leaving the player doomed to repeat a level ad infinitum until the tactic is discovered.

The graphics for the game are well done. The nature of the game makes the locations you visit the underbelly of the real world - old museums, monuments, prisons, and so forth. This means the designers could use the game engine to advantage and not have to recreate any famous locations. The X-ray camera mode is very fun to use to see through walls, as well as enemies. Expect to get the normal gloomy, miserable, and depressing looking views of the USSR that the Cold War showed Americans, and much of the west still believes to be accurate. The sound, including heavy Russian accents, add well to the atmosphere of the game. My favorite part of the game was actually the retro theme music.

Gameplay involves mostly sneaking. Be careful or you will find yourself walking around in the shadows behind people in real life. The object or your sneaking is avoiding enemies or surprising them from behind with a knockout blow. For some strange reason, you can only engage in close combat if you are not detected--and you may not knock out anyone out from their front. Your sneaking abilities do not improve, but you as a player will get a better feel for how it works as you go along. There are not many aids to your sneaking, but there are several combat upgrades that you get over time. For example, the beginning of the game requires you to not kill your enemies; so you begin with non-lethal rubber bullets as one of your first upgrades.

If sneaking games are your thing, then you should enjoy this game. I only found it interesting for a little while. After a few bugs and unclear instructions (or ambiguous mission goals) I finally gave up on the game.