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Project IGI

The PC market has witnessed a increase in the number of strategic action games, started by Rainbow Six and now with Hidden and Dangerous out, and with C&C: Renegade and Rogue Spear on the horizon, does the PC need any more? Well whether it needs them or not, it will get them, however Project I.G.I. (Working title) looks like it could set itself apart from the crowd.

The first thing about this game is the size of the playing area, when we were being shown this game one of the first questions was "Can you actually go there?" pointing to a mountain range seemingly miles away. "Yes" was the reply, I for one was pretty impressed, the distance you can see is amazing, even more so by the fact that you can go anywhere, literally, the area for each of the four levels is 10,000,000 square km, which is er, pretty bloody massive!

But what am I doing in this vast playing area? You may ask, well you are Jones, ex SAS and working for the British Government on deniable operations around the world. To start with you just have to rescue a guy from prison, but then you get drawn into a world of terrorism that could threaten the world, and you've got to stop them. Simple days work eh? Well not quite, but still.

One of the best things about IGI, apart from the amazing landscapes, is the way you can achieve the mission goals. You can do it any way you want. Say you have to infiltrate a base, you can either go in all guns blazing, or sneak in, or disable the security devices, or take out cameras as you go, or steal a vehicle, or many other things. Basically how you do the missions is up to you, fantastic. To immerse you fully in the game world IGI boasts an impressive physics engine that realistically models weapons and ballistics, which is mighty impressive. Good AI comes as standard, and you will really have to think before you, well do anything.

This game was early in development when we saw it at ECTS, but it was still very impressive, and has a lot of potential, the fractaly generated landscape means that you can see for miles, literally. The way the mission structure and AI work mean that you can complete the missions in any way you see fit, and the story line will only draw you in deeper. All in all you should keep tabs on this one which should be out in Q2, 2000.

Mark Simons