Project I.G.I. on PC CD-ROM (Revisited)

The ‘IGI’ in Project IGIstands for “I’m going in”, but this, likeThief 2: The Metal Ageis more of a first-person ‘sneaker’ and not a full-on shooter.

You are Jones, a 35-year-old soldier sent in to do the necessary dirty deeds,rescue a guy named Josef Priboi and take out the trash. Imagine running aroundan army base, dodging bullets from all and sundry while tactically planningyour movements around in order to kill without trace and achieve yourobjectives.

I’ve had another look at this game since my review brought about a bitof discussion on the DVDUK mailing list (subscribe atyahoogroups.com)as I was originally incapable of controlling both a keyboard AND a mouse forthis type of game. It’s not completely without faults though.

Originally, I was really looking forward to this game, since, in my own sadisticway – strictly when playing computer games only, I must add – there’s nothingquite like lining up your sniper rifle, aiming at the back of an enemy soldier’shead and letting off a few shiny rounds of fire, watch his brains splatteragainst the wall and nick his supplies. You’ll also be able to hack intocomputers, blow up tanks and more… so what’s gone wrong?

There’s certainly no problem with the graphics. I only got to see the openinglevel for reasons that will become clear shortly, but the sparseness of anarmy base was perfectly represented and began to give an immersive feel asI set out to kick bad-guy butt!

The crisp, sharp graphics make it run like the wind on the right systemwith high resolution, but I prefer to pipe it through to the TV and the 16MbVoodoo 3 3000 AGP allows up to 800×600 resolution – not as good as that shownon a monitor, but it still looks brilliant on a 32″ widescreen set.

A hum in the background, the call-out of the enemy, the sniper fire bangingoff the speakers – it all sounds both realistic and fantastic, just everythingI expected.

Although far from perfect, I’ve learned to control myself a bit better thesedays. It’s still rather annoying that there isn’t the option to rotate yourcharacter with the keyboard. You have to use the mouse while manoeuvering himin four straight directions with the cursor keys. I’m still occasionallyhaving to swap hands over between the two movement methods to do certaintasks, but I’m learning to be ambidextrous, including for the moment whenyou have to press ‘activate’ to climb a ladder, rather than simplyjumping onto it, before using up/down to make your move.

Adding to that, it’s no longer particularly disconcerting when the view-pointchanges from first-person perspective to the third-person, since when climbingor descending I now move the mouse around to check whether I’m going to beshot at.

Finally in the complaints dept., it is still a big problem as there is ano save game option. If you die during a level (well, not IF, but WHEN), thenit’s back to square one! And some of these levels are long and hard (oo-er,missus!) However, having downloaded a couple of cheats frompcgameworld.com),one patch allows access to every level from their respective starts – so youstill can’t save *within* a level but it’s something atleast – and the other, an “IGI Trainer” gives you infinite health and ammo.Ok, so I’m cheating, but it’s a bloody hard game and I can’t be arsed goingthrough the whole thing again on EVERY level when I’m getting near the endand a big tank blows a hole in my rear end!

Calming down a little since last time, when I next have a bash atfirst-person-shooter/sneakers like Quake III, Soldier of Fortune andThief 2: The Metal Age,or any of their respecting sequels as and when they appear, I will try amouse-keyboard combo, but I still maintain that the game’s designers shouldprovide the requested alternative controls that they always have done untilnow.

As I’m giving Project IGI more of a chance, it’s a good bit of fun, butnot as violent as Soldier of Fortune – since you can’t dismember abody – and it’s far too repetitive. Also, as was pointed out to me on theaforementioned DVDUK mailing list, some of the guards are very intelligent,such as those who *do* move out of the way when you’re firing,while others are just plain stupid – they stand there waiting for you tosquare up to them on the front before smacking you on the nose with thebutt of their rifle – when a simple batch of bullets would’ve sufficed.

On other occasions, when two enemy soldiers are standing next to each otherand you dispatch of one, why doesn’t his colleague even attempt to react?

To read the original review, clickHERE.

GRAPHICS
SOUND EFFECTS AND MUSIC
PLAYABILITY
ORIGINALITY
ENJOYMENT



OVERALL

Original scores : GRAPHICS
SOUND EFFECTS AND MUSIC
PLAYABILITY
ORIGINALITY
ENJOYMENT

0

OVERALL

If you’re after some more info on Eidos Interactive’s games, you can checkout their official Website atwww.eidosinteractive.com

Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 2001.

This game was played on a PC with the following spec:
Intel PIII 600Mhz, 128Mb RAM (133 Mhz), Voodoo 3 3000 AGP, SoundblasterLive! 1024.