There are good reasons why the Cold War (the period between the end of WWII and the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991) is such a compelling genre for stories and games. The massive distrust between America and Russia combined with a fear of all-out war, plus the rapidly advancing but still largely analog stealth and surveillance technology made it a unique time in world history, both thrilling and terrifying.
Covert, designed by Kane Klenko and published by Renegade Game Studios, does a good job of evoking the cold war with what on first glance seems to be a disparate group of game mechanics. The goal of the game is to collect sets of cards representing spy gear like listening devices, travel documents and hidden escape kits, and then turn those cards in for points, but as usual there's a bit more to it than that. The sets players are going for are determined by mission cards that will sometimes also include the need to have a pawn in a particular spot on the board.
Movement around the board is also one of the principal ways of gaining more cards, either by having a pawn in a certain part of the board when it's time to draw cards, or by following other players around and collecting clue tokens that they leave behind as the move from city to city on a board representing Europe during the Cold War.
But that's not even the most interesting part of the game. Player actions are determined by a dice placement system where at the start of each round, each player rolls 5 dice and uses them to determine what of 6 possible actions they'll be able to do that turn. The first player to choose a particular action can do so freely by placing a die showing any number on that part of the board, but the next player who wants to be able to do the same action has to place a die that comes either before or after the dice that are always there. For example, if your opponent plays a 2 on the "draw a card" action, you have to play either a 1 or a 3 in order to also do that action.
If the numbers just aren't cooperating and there's nowhere on the board you can play, you can spend a die to draw a random token that gives you a one-time special ability, such as being able to switch the number on a die or play two in a row. You can also just end your turn early, which guarantees that you'll get to go first on the next turn.
On top of all that, there's a code-breaking phase consisting of two rows of random numbers, and a deck of equipment cards with 3-digit codes on them. If you can manipulate the numbers so that any 3 of them match the code on your card, you can either use that card as part of a set of equipment (the main way of scoring points), or cash it in for bonus points at the end of the game.
Covert is be complex without being complicated, and it manages to make all of its different abstract game mechanics work together well, and also feel like they're intrinsic to the theme. When I play this game I really feel like I'm getting a sense of what it must have been like for those Cold War spymasters, managing tons of moving parts, manipulating events to work out in their favor, and taking advantage of situations they might not have control over.
Rating: 4 (out of 5) A very entertaining game that combines theme and mechanics well.
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