IGI 2: Covert Strike

Feb 4, 2003

Two years ago, Innerloop and Eidos entered the stealth shooter market with a game that not only had the distinction of one of the lamest names in gaming history, but also a slew of AI and gameplay problems. Project IGI: I'm Going In had all the makings of a decent sneaker with interesting level design and some tricky little gadgets, so it was nice to see Codemasters pick up IGI 2: Covert Strike and drop the stupid name along with many of the terrible issues that the first in the series had. While the series hasn't reached perfect proportions yet, the mix of action, stealth and planning involved can be incredibly fun. If it wasn't for some AI issues, lack of detail in some areas, and a couple of levels I can only describe as un-fun, I would heartily recommend this to everyone. IGI 2 is a good game, even if the obscenity scale in my house hit red more than a few times as I managed to offend even myself with my cursing.

IGI is an organization created to make sure that the western world is protected. From whatever angle may come, whether that be from other nations or independent terrorists. Missions are completed covertly when possible, with force when necessary. David Jones is an IGI agent. One adept at killing quietly and completing very tricky assignments efficiently with as little mess as can be helped. At the beginning of IGI 2, you find yourself infiltrating a mountain base in order to recover EMP technology that could be extraordinarily bad in the wrong hands. As the game progresses, you'll realize things are quite a bit trickier than originally thought. Time for some good old fashioned killing for vengeance and a little bit of fun.

The mix of action and stealth in IGI is a pretty good one. You can mark it somewhere in between Splinter Cell and an action shooter. While it's possible to complete most levels by running through shooting everything that you see, it's insanely difficult. Enemy AI are incredible shots (marking my first AI complaint) and can hit you from a few hundred feet with an Uzi. So in order to get through most of the missions, you'll need to resort to stealth and planning. This is how the game was designed to be played and it works well in most cases.

You'll begin missions with a quick cutscene outlining why you're in the area and what you'll be doing. After that, you're dropped into place with your wits a couple of handy dandy toys to help you on your way. The first and foremost of these is the GPS map, a welcome return from Project IGI. With this satellite positioning map, you can zoom in, out, down, up, over, and around pretty much anywhere outside. Not only will it show you building, terrain, and cover positions, but also any cameras and enemies. You can zoom in up close to each enemy and camera to get a picture of what direction they're looking to plan your advancement through a level. Watching patrol patterns, picking out the weak points and choosing where you need to either make a move towards a kill or move past guards is pretty fun. The one thing you have to be careful about when using this system is that it is a satellite meaning you can not see inside of buildings or under cover. Enemies will temporarily blink out of view when walking under tree canopies or awnings, so be careful what you do.

In order to combat this, there is an extra peak function that allows you to peek around and over obstacles like walls and boxes while remaining hidden. Simply hit Q and move the mouse around and you've got your view of the surroundings.

Once you make your target, killing them off needs to be as silent as possible. The quietest and cleanest way to do away with an enemy is to sneak up behind an enemy and use the action button. A quick yank and snap goes the neck with barely a grunt. Next comes the knife which takes less time and also is nearly silent. Then you have the silenced guns that can be used for quick takedowns, but if guards are nearby, there's a chance they'll hear the commotion and come running. Sniping enemies is also a fun and frolicky way to get things done. Watching a group of enemies on patrol suddenly stop drop to a knee and raise their weapons as one of their comrades' falls to the ground is fun. The poor bastards never have a chance if you have a silencer on your snipe. Otherwise, you had better clean them out fast because the sound will clue the rest of the baddies to your location and the amazingly accurate fire will soon be giving you an unwanted makeover.

The one thing that I really am sad wasn't put into the game was a move body function. The Hitman series has it. The Thief series has it. Splinter Cell has it. Crap, even the non-sneaky Red Faction has it. Leaving bodies where enemies can find them is bad business for covert ops it seems to me. How hard would it have been? Thief was release five years ago, it should have been in there. Next time please.

So if all else fails, an alarm goes off, someone finds a body, you go into a berserker rage, it's time to break out the big guns, which you can find in the hands of most enemies, or even your own at the beginning of a level. I tried not to use these weapons because of the noise, but occasionally, there is no help for it and to get out of a jam, you're going to have to make with the bang stick. This means all enemies in the vicinity, including those in the guard houses that you would like to stay in the guard houses, will come pouring to the commotion looking for some action. They'll run around until one of them finds you and then it's on. As I said before, the AI is an incredibly good shot, but this doesn't mean that they're the smartest blokes in the world.

Unfortunately, most of your gunfight problems can be solved by holing up in a corner by a doorway and waiting for all of the idiots to walk into your line of sight. They don't bother being careful, they just run through the door one at a time to their deaths. These sad little monkeys don't have a chance. Eventually you'll run out of enemies in the area, even if you do take a couple of shots in the meantime. (If you'll take a moment to re-read that last sentence you'll notice that it says "you'll run out of enemies". Congrats people, you no longer have to face the infinite string of baddies pouring out of the clown car.)

This little lemming-like trick only really works in levels with a lot of basic buildings however, there are more than a few that are tougher to deal with because you're outside, or because there are multiple entry points into nearly every room. These are the levels that you really don't want to use excessive force if you can avoid it. Having enemies warned by gunfire, or worse a pulled alarm, will ruin your chances and even cause a mission failure in some cases.

Picking the right path through these levels can be pretty tough. You'll need to shoot the cameras in certain areas, kill only certain guards, and avoid the rest, which can get really tricky when there are a lot of enemies in a level. Most levels will have multiple objectives to help you along however. For example, you'll be able to turn off security cameras and sentry guns completely, or for short periods of time by hacking into computer consoles. Chances are, you'll still have to make your way by patrols and cameras to get to the system, but the challenge will be feasible at least.

One thing is certain though; everything is much more feasible with the new saving system. Yay! Saves! If two years ago you heard mighty cussing and screaming, that was me yelling at IGI for being too damn hard and not having any saves. The loud pop you heard was the vein in my forehead. The crash was me throwing my computer out the window. Now, depending on the difficulty you set the game, you'll have a certain number of saves to use. This gives those that need the help a chance and those that want the challenge, the chance to pull off a flawless run through a level (which will be very hard to pull off in some cases I think). Saves are done in your map computer, so it's a little tricky to find at first, but it works nicely within the game once you figure it out.

Levels themselves, besides being designed creatively with clear challenges in mind (with a couple of notable exceptions that pissed me off like a mission where you have to make it across a border), are pretty impressive in some cases. Levels can be huge in scope. Not just the immediate playing field, but the view as well. You can see forever into the distance in the outdoor levels immediately making things look that much more real. Some of the landscapes are amazing and just beg you to pull up a dead guard to share the moment.

Textures on most objects are well done as well. Weapons are especially well done and look great. The people don't always look very good though. Faces can be blah and animations choppy and robotic. Shadows cast from characters also have problems in looks and connection. Weird shadow glitches showing enemy shadows through walls and yours disconnected on the ground a fifty feet away is plain bizarre. This is no Splinter Cell when it comes to the graphics, but it holds its own and does the job nicely for such a grand scale.

Of course, that gigantic scale also means that things are likely to slow down a bit unless you have the system to run it. My rig at home is pretty middle range these days, 1.4Ghz, GeForce3, 512MB RAM, and it ran everything at nearly the highest settings on everything very well. But played on a comparable computer with only 256MB RAM, it ran quite a bit slower on the same settings.

Sound is pretty simple, but important. Hearing your enemies approach means you can hide before spotted. You can hear enemies being alerted by your footsteps so that you can slow your movement as well. There's unintrusive music because of the need to hear anything and everything going on. Working in a more natural environment lends to a depth of immersion.

Multiplayer is also a big addition to the IGI mix this time around. Those fans of the original clamoring for the addition are going to really like what they see. It's a mix between Counter-Strike and Global Operations in that multiple objectives must be completed by one of the sides with the other defending. Players get the opportunity to buy whatever weapons they want before being plopped into the game and will get more money for killing and completing those objectives.

While I wish there were more maps to play on, the six that are available are a good mix from the different environments found in the single player game. It will definitely add some more good gaming time to your purchase.