IGI 2 is a stealth-focused FPS game that plays kind of like a middle ground between a first-person Splinter Cell and GoldenEye 64. The game consists of 19 missions that play like small stealth sandboxes. Early levels are simple and usually have one obvious optimal path. Later ones can be a lot more complex and are open to many different approaches. For example, different walkthroughs for the last level offer different approaches and there is no consensus on what is the optimal way to beat it. The game has three difficulty options: easy, normal and hard. Easy mode allows the player to role play as John Rambo and blast his way through the game ignoring the stealth entirely. Normal mode limits the number of mid level saves to 4, makes enemies smarter and the player more vulnerable. Hard mode disables mid level saves entirely and makes enemies more aggressive and collectively coordinated, forcing the player to be extra careful about not being noticed by enemies. The best thing about this style of difficulty balancing is enemies are just as vulnerable in every difficulty mode. You can always headshot or even stab your way out of a bad situation. Where IGI 2 gets weird and certainly unique is the way it applies stealth to scenarios where you have to kill a bunch of enemies. You see, there is no pacifist/non-violent route in IGI 2. It's not a game about going unnoticed, it's a game about killing unnoticed. This leads to several situations where you have to take actions that will make the enemies aware of your presence and that doesn't even count as breaking stealth - as long as they don't register your exact position. It's definitely a very different take on stealth and one that may in fact seem confusing at first. However, it quickly becomes clear that manipulating the enemy behavior is in fact part of the game. I had fun with this game and I recommend it to FPS fans that want something a little different.
