Alekhine's Gun (video game)

Lore & Background

The game follows former SMERSH agent Semyon Strogov, designated as Agent 'Alekhine', who is turned into a CIA asset. The story primarily takes place during the 1960s Cold War, with flashback missions set in World War II. The plot revolves around historical events such as the Bay of Pigs Invasion and the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Strogov works with CIA officer Vincent Rambaldi to expose an anti-government conspiracy within the CIA aimed at triggering war between the United States and the Soviet Union. The narrative includes missions across Austria, Cuba, Florida, Germany, New York City, Norway, Sweden, and Switzerland.

Reader's Guide

Alekhine's Gun received negative reviews from critics. The game allows players to choose between straightforward shootouts or stealth-oriented gameplay using items such as poison, garrotes, and staged accidents. Each mission is non-linear, offering multiple ways to complete tasks, and can be replayed to improve performance. Players receive rankings such as 'Maniac' or 'Ghost' and are graded on 'Noise', 'Violence', 'Accuracy', and 'Professionalism'. Points earned can be used to buy or upgrade weapons and equipment. The game was originally announced in 2010 as Death to Spies 3: Ghost of Moscow by 1C Company and Haggard Games, but after 1C withdrew, Haggard continued development. Crowdfunding campaigns on Indiegogo (2013) and Kickstarter (2014) failed. Maximum Games became the new publisher and developer in June 2014, making it their first in-house game. The release was delayed from November 10, 2015, to February 9, 2016, and then to March 1, 2016.

Did You Know?

• The game was originally titled Death to Spies 3: Ghost of Moscow.
• The name 'Alekhine's Gun' is borrowed from a chess formation used by World Champion Alexander Alekhine against Aron Nimzowitsch.
• The game features eleven missions set in eight locations including Austria, Cuba, Florida, Germany, New York City, Norway, Sweden, and Switzerland.
• A pre-order edition for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One included a limited edition chess piece.

Origins, Naming, and Place in the Series

Alekhine's Gun arrived on March 1, 2016, as a third-person stealth action title developed and published by Maximum Games. It shipped simultaneously for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One, marking the third entry in the Death to Spies franchise. Before its final branding, the project carried the working title Death to Spies 3: Ghost of Moscow, a name that signaled its Cold War espionage focus more directly. The finished product instead draws its identity from the world of chess: the title references a formidable tactical formation that former World Champion Alexander Alekhine deployed against fellow grandmaster Aron Nimzowitsch. This borrowing gives the game an intellectual edge, suggesting that its missions reward strategic thinking as much as reflexes. The narrative spans two eras of conflict—World War II and the Cold War—giving the developers a broad canvas for espionage scenarios. As a Maximum Games original, the title sits within a smaller studio's catalog, distinguishing it from the sprawling open-world espionage games that dominated the mid-2010s market.

Mission Structure and Player Choice

The game presents eleven missions spread across Austria, Cuba, Florida, Germany, New York City, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, and Texas, each designed as a non-linear space where players can approach objectives in multiple ways. The protagonist, KGB Colonel Semyon Strogov—operating under the CIA-assigned codename "Alekhine"—can pursue a mission through direct firefights or through quieter, more calculated methods. The toolkit for stealth includes poison, garrotes, and the ability to stage deliberate "accidents" that either distract enemies or serve as silent eliminations. After completing a level, the player receives a style-based ranking ranging from "Maniac" to "Ghost," reflecting how loud or subtle their approach was. Performance is further broken down into four measurable axes: Noise, Violence, Accuracy, and Professionalism. Because every mission can be replayed and re-approached, players are encouraged to experiment with different tactics to improve their scores. Points earned during play can be spent on purchasing or upgrading weapons and equipment, creating a light progression loop that rewards repeated engagement with each map.

Strogov, Rambaldi, and the Conspiracy

The narrative centers on Semyon Strogov, a KGB operative whose history stretches back to 1943, when he infiltrated Bergenhus Castle in occupied Norway to stop Waffen-SS scientists developing a super-soldier serum. During that mission he freed a captive named Vincent Rambaldi, and the two men's paths have crossed ever since—through a Swiss hotel operation involving an Italian Abwehr contact, a joint OSS strike against Uranium Project scientists beneath Salzburg, and eventually a 1963 collaboration in New York. By October 1963, Strogov and KGB Lieutenant Vera Pavlova, posing as a married couple, are drawn into Rambaldi's investigation of a shadowy conspiracy within the CIA, one that enlists the Mafia to sabotage American military assets and provoke a war with the Soviet Union. Their investigation leads them through Chinatown's Red Dragon club, a biker gang stronghold in Texas, the Cataldo crime family in Miami, and a training camp off the Cuban coast. Vera's death at the hands of the betrayers leaves Strogov to finish the job alone, culminating in the deduction that Rambaldi's own partner, Andrew Pearson, is the traitor.

Historical Texture and Cold War World-Building

Alekhine's Gun weaves its fiction through recognizable historical moments, most prominently the Bay of Pigs Invasion and the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963. The game's primary setting is the 1960s Cold War, but flashback missions transport the player to the final years of World War II, where Strogov confronts Gestapo and Waffen-SS forces in Norway and Austria. The conspiracy at the heart of the plot—a rogue faction inside the CIA colluding with organized crime to destroy U.S. defense infrastructure and frame the Soviets—plays directly into the era's genuine paranoia about domestic sabotage and nuclear escalation. Missions are staged in geographically diverse locations, from a social club in New York's Chinatown to a biker gang headquarters in Texas, a hotel in neutral Switzerland, and a naval facility near Cuba. The Cuban military and a disgruntled Navy captain feature as secondary antagonists, while the Mafia operates as both a tool of the conspirators and a rival criminal force in Miami. This layering of real geopolitical tensions with fictional espionage gives the game a grounded, period-specific atmosphere.