Story
A terrorist group know as The Crying Lions takes control of the GULF complex, a military command center that controls a weapon of mass destruction. The Secretary of Defense responds to the threat by tasking the unfortunately named Special Covert Action Team (S.C.A.T.) to reclaim it. Winback was released as Operation: Winback in Australia and Europe.
Multiple Endings
The ending of the game depends entirely on the time it took the player to complete the game. A good and a bad ending result in either the success or failure of 'operation winback' and the survival of the main characters.
Characters
S.C.A.T.
- Jean-Luc Cougar
- Lisa Roberts
- Daniel Stewart
- Law Bruford
- Jake Hudson
- Mike Hawkins
- Thomas Smith
- Steven Legal
- Keith Birdy
- Matthew Brown
The Crying Lions
- Kenneth Coleman (leader)
- Bad Luck Lila
- Leon
- Ryan
- Sergeant Thunder
- Duke
- Gunt
- Banderas
- Jin
- Deathmask
- Cecile Newcastle
- The Traitor (a.k.a Daniel Stewart)
Influence
- Winback was the first game to incorporate the cover mechanic in a 3rd-person shooter and influenced games like Kill.Switch, Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty and Gears of War.
- As an homage to the game, Jean-Luc Cougar's dog tags can be collected while playing through the Plant level of MGS2:SoL on Easy. They are only available in the original version of the game, not MGS2: Substance.