I.G.I. 2: Covert Strike

This game at this time(V1.3) is not very stable, in other words the main menu resolution is always at 640x480, after selecting a mission the game starts and switches to your set resolution. Also if you die, you have to restart the whole mission, and since the restart button glitches the game out, you have to go all the way back to the 640x480 main menu to start the mission again. The game is supposedly about stealth, but it is plain horrible, every mission has a preset path that you never should differ from if you want to stay alive on the harder difficulties, if you get spotted by a camera: an alarm will sound for the rest of the mission or until you die. The enemy AI in this game is horrible and only provide a challenge if they swarm you or start lobbing grenades like crazy, they presumably have no limit to their grenades as i've had an alarm going on and had 4 grenades with me inside the kill zone from only two enemies throwing them, they all explode if one explodes, giving an alerted enemy basically the ability to carpet-bomb your location, and even if you die the enemy keeps lobbing them infinitely. If the enemy hasn't seen you when you enter a new area, but sounded the alarm in the previous one: they just run around yelling something in russian and you cannot get by stealthy, also the enemy weapons hitscan(meaning that if they fire their weapons will 100% hit you because bullets have no travel time in this game, while your crosshair is large and shots register inside a random spot inside the crosshairs, shooting down cameras with weapons that have no zoom capabilities is very tedious, requiring multiple shots normally(You alert nearby enemies if you miss, normally 3-5 shots is require to take out a camera). I only enjoyed some moments because i had this game on an old XP computer when I was just getting into gaming, and saw this on GOG for dirt cheap(2,5 euro). I kind of wish that I should've kept this game in my memories rather than playing it in 2018.

This was the 3rd online shooter I ever played. Unreal Tournament, and CS 1.6 were the others. This was unlike them, and the Multiplayer Demo on Woodlands map was incredible. I played the demo with my clan all through the later years in highschool and the fun bullet penetration/stealth mechanics were ahead of their time. I came back to it for nostalgia, and can only really suggest it for those curious. Escape From Tarkov has been the closest style of gameplay I have found since IGI-2. Thank you GoG for selling this title! Multiplayer is amazing in this, the Single player campaign is great too, but secondary to the MP.

This game wasnt good at 2003 and even worth now. It is long and painfull journey with no satisfaction in the end.

It's really hard to overstate how much I.G.I. 2 gets wrong as a stealth shooter. GoG describes it as a great first person shooter with 'a touch of stealth' but the high focus on silenced weapons, guard paths, alarms and mission achievements for not being spotted clearly mark this as a stealth game, and one that under that measure, barely functions. It's two biggest problems are opponent AI and the shooting mechanics. You can't aim down the sight of any weapons except sniper rifles, and even while prone, your silenced weapons have low accuracy except at very close range. Aiming is further hampered by the mouse ballistics, which are clumsy and imprecise. This is irritating because you really can't afford to be inaccurate- a missed shot, even hitting the chest and not the head, will alert nearby guards, who converge on your position and make passing unnoticed even more difficult. There are an absurd number of enemies in some levels- 20 or more- so this necessitates reloading each time you miss that perfect headshot... made more frustating because I.G.I. 2 only permits the player to quicksave 3 times per level. The level design works to make this even more irritating. Many enemies are hidden indoors and cannot be spotted until they have been encountered at least once (necessitating a quickload), robbing the game of the potential fun provided by the tactical map. Key objectives often are hidden in areas inaccesible without setting off alarms or being spotted by guards, regardless of how accurate or careful you are- so unless you can exploit the game's AI, it will devolve into a more traditional 'kill everyone' shooter, and a mediocre one at that. Every element in I.G.I. 2 works in concert against the fundamental principles of it's genre. It's hard to stealth games right, but this one stands out for getting it so extremely wrong.

This game..... I played through Project I.G.I. (I still own a copy) and hooray there is a second game.... which is garbage. this game should be renamed: YOU vs. AIMBOTS I know.... this isnt Call of Duty... this is no Ego Shooter.... But it isnt a good game after all and thats the problem. i played almost all stealth and tactics shooters of the last 25 years and i know how such games have to be played. this game is just frustrating trial and error trash. thanks but no thanks. a game that can be skipped.