Customer Reviews

Project IGI: I'm Going In

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(20)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

'Project IGI' is a cross between 'Goldeneye', 'Metal Gear Solid' and 'Delta Force'. As an ex-SAS, ex joyrider called David Llewelyn Jones (despite the name, he doesn't appear to be Welsh) you run around a series of modern battlefields, infiltrating installations, avoiding cameras and shooting things. In very nice 3D, with some huge landscapes that you can explore, if you feel like it. Like 'Delta Force', it's weighted towards action, and although a few well-placed shots finish off the bad guys, you are slightly less mortal. Nonetheless, you can be stealthy, and quite often it's much easier to avoid tripping the alarms (which you can turn off - best of all, you can just shoot the cameras). The graphics are attractive, if a little sparce. As in the song by The Who, you can see for miles and miles and miles and miles and miles and miles and miles, and some of the detail is superb - your weapons look and sound authentic, the explosions and ricocheting bullets are alarming, and you can't hide behind impenetrable cardboard boxes, because they aren't. After a while you notice that the graphics are sometimes quite spartan, and although the textures are high-quality, the interiors are often extremely bland. As with 'Delta Force', the bad guys seem to have built their bases from mass-produced kits, as individual buildings are copied and pasted verbatim from mission to mission, with only the furniture moved around to differentiate. There's some excellent modern James Bond-esque music, and the game itself is often extremely good fun - like 'Delta Force', but done well. But not that well. The plot tries for a James Bond ambience, but even with only 14 missions our hero seems to spend a lot of time escaping, being caught, and escaping again. The voice acting is very bad, too - our hero sounds like an enthusiastic primary school teacher, whilst his lovely assistant Anya has a California valley-girl accent that seems more Playboy bunny than government employee. I kept expecting her to use the word doofus, but she doesn't. Meanwhile, the supposedly Eastern European guards shout 'Hey you' and 'Stop' in English. The morality seems a bit iffy, too - you're basically a hired killer, and the bad guys aren't really bad guys, they're just guards in foreign, but non-hostile, military bases. It's as if you were a French soldier set down in Scotland, shooting down Scottish security guards. And yet, these are minor things. There are three major points that bedevil it - you can't save during a mission, at all; the missions are highly linear and scripted, in such a way that you absolutely have to play the mission several times over before you can complete it; and it's just not big enough. The decision not to include the ability to save a game is a brave one, shared with 'Aliens vs Predator'. The idea is to increase the tension by not allowing you to chicken out and hit F6 to quicksave, as with most other first-person shooters since 'Doom' (it's hard to remember nowadays, but until 'Doom' action games rarely let you save). It doesn't really work in 'Project IGI' - the size of some of the later missions, coupled with the fact that death is sometimes instant and unexpected, make it highly irritating. 'AvP' was eventually patched so that you could save a maximum of three times during a mission - a much better system. And the scripting is highly annoying. This is one of those games where you can explore an area and find it free of baddies but, if you press a switch, talk to somebody, or step over an invisible boundary, suddenly a truck-full of soldiers materialises from thin air. You can never really predict or guard against this, and quite often the missions become memory tests. One mission in which you have to escort a Russian businessman is particularly frustrating, and more than once I felt like burning the CD and posting it back to Eidos with a nasty letter. In general, the bits where you have to escort people (thankfully, only twice does this horrible game element appear) are dreadful - you have no way of knowing where they are, and they usually just stand there, waiting to be shot. And worst of all, it's too small. It has no fewer missions than 'Hidden and Dangerous', but a handful of them are extremely easy, and you'll finish them in no time. There is absolutely no replay value, either - the linear missions mean that once you've completed them, there's nothing to see if you play them again. And there's no multiplayer option at all. Fourteen missions and that's your lot. You'll play it for two or three days, get annoyed during the final, immensely frustrating, mission, and never play it ever again.

or like the AI they weren't...

The other reviewers describe the good points quite well. But it will always come back to this: THERE IS NO SAVEGAME, not even a checkpoint after a completed object. This must have been requested by the QA department and whoever decided not to listen should be fired.

This game is not what it says it is. From the start you'll be disappointed. The lack of a save game feature and the fact that the enemy "respawns" from nowhere right behind you is bad enough. There is nothing like playing for 40 minutes and as your just about to complete the level, you get shot in the back by one of these magically appearing enemies with it's "cheap kills" or even more likley the game crashes. Since there is no way to save a game you have to start over. The enemy A.I. is terrible. Two guards standing together and only one guard reacts to your presence. This happens with your first encounter and continues through out the game.

The worst part is the replay value. No multiplayer and no mission editor. You add that to the 14 missions that themselves have little to be excited over since they use the same buildings and basic lay-out and you have one boring game. You played one level you played them all. This is one to get when it hits the bargain rack or better yet pass it up all together.

This is a great game. Your assigned many different tasks like sneaking into high-tech military bases and stealing something, or hacking a computer. There is a big element of strategy to the game, it's your choice how you want to get through the game. You're only allowed to save the game after each level (this way you don't play cheap and save every 15 seconds), AI only respawns if you've triggered an alarm (so don't), sometimes AI is a little slow, but this is a very small drawback. If you like sniping, and stealthy type games, this is very much one. If you just want to blow someone's torso to the moon go get Unreal Tournament.

While others may feel that since the game is not released it is to early to write a review, I have played the demo and in my experience the demo is a pretty good indicator of a game.

While I usually find Eidios games to fall short of quality games due to the UI, this game was different. It is solid. The game engine runs better than most 3d shooter games. The best way to describe this game is a James Bond version of Thief or Thief II. You sneak around performing tasks such as stealing a truck etc. The weapons are very realistic, the graphics are great and the game is fun.

I would highly recommend giving the demo a try. My only gripe would be the lack of multiplayer. A game called Venom which will be released next year or later looks a lot like this game but with co-op multiplayer. So prep up with IGI and get ready for Venom

Having read all the reviews I could before buying this game, I was expecting a slightly above average First-Person Shooter. And while this game is not perfect (I would have given it 4.5 stars but it is not allowed here), its few flaws are more than made up for in its atmosphere and tension. The weapons sound effects are unsurpassed; I really felt like I was shooting real guns here. Each mission is totally absorbing and very difficult. And when I say difficult, I mean it feels like what it must be like in real life. If you get hit two or three times, you are dead, just like in real life. This places stress on the player and causes you to be very very careful. Just running and gunning is not recommended. You must be sneaky. The AI is not very smart however. If you shoot somebody, his friends will not seem to notice that he is dead, nor will they seem to hear your gunshots. I however had no problem in overlooking this glitch. The missions are huge and each one will require several hours to get through successfully, mostly because there is no in-mission save-game feature. If you are killed, the mission must be started over. And while many have objected to the lack of save-game, I found it added to the stress of the situation, where you feel as though you have a lot at stake. Besides, I didn't ever mind playing the same mission several times, as each time I had to start over, I tried something new, approached from different directions, with different weapons, etc.

One bothersome thing I noticed was that when you start a mission, you are very lightly armed. I can't believe on a mission involving so many hostiles, you wouldn't go in more heavily armed. But this too adds to the tension and was probably done to balance gameplay. Also, you can pick up other weapons along the way. Med-Packs are also very rare here, so try not to get shot much!

I read a lot of reviews saying how unfair it was that enemy soldiers re-spawned; that after you had cleared an area and left it, more soldiers would re-spawn there, eventually resulting in you spending all your ammo and dying. I almost didn't buy the game for this reason alone. But I have not yet noticed this happening at all. Maybe it's because I'm playing it on 'easy' setting, I don't know. But take it from me, even on 'easy' setting, this game is not easy.

The graphics are superb, and as I said before, the levels are huge. And not only are the mission areas huge, but if you want, you can wander outside the areas for many many miles. If you see a mountain in the distance, it's not just a background; you can actually go there, although I doubt there's much to do once you get there.

I also read that this game requires a monster gaming machine to run, but I've just got an old PII 450 with a 16mb NVidia TNT1 graphics card and 256 mb system memory, and it runs flawlessly and smoothly.

All in all, a tense, sweat-inducing game with a you-are-there feel, greatly aided by wonderful ambient sounds and weather effects. Another thing; when it's raining, your distance of view is realistically diminished--it really feels like you're in a rainstorm. Overall, just a great game that has been unfairly overlooked by many people who I'm sure would enjoy it if they only gave it a chance. Be patient at first, and take the time to set up your controls to your liking, and read the manual a little so you understand how the binoculars and sniper scope work, and I'm sure you'll have a great time!

'Project IGI' is a cross between 'Goldeneye', 'Metal Gear Solid' and 'Delta Force'. As an ex-SAS, ex joyrider called David Llewelyn Jones (despite the name, he doesn't appear to be Welsh) you run around a series of modern battlefields, infiltrating installations, avoiding cameras and shooting things. In very nice 3D, with some huge landscapes that you can explore, if you feel like it. Like 'Delta Force', it's weighted towards action, and although a few well-placed shots finish off the bad guys, you are slightly less mortal. Nonetheless, you can be stealthy, and quite often it's much easier to avoid tripping the alarms (which you can turn off - best of all, you can just shoot the cameras). The graphics are attractive, if a little sparce. As in the song by The Who, you can see for miles and miles and miles and miles and miles and miles and miles, and some of the detail is superb - your weapons look and sound authentic, the explosions and ricocheting bullets are alarming, and you can't hide behind impenetrable cardboard boxes, because they aren't. After a while you notice that the graphics are sometimes quite spartan, and although the textures are high-quality, the interiors are often extremely bland. As with 'Delta Force', the bad guys seem to have built their bases from mass-produced kits, as individual buildings are copied and pasted verbatim from mission to mission, with only the furniture moved around to differentiate. There's some excellent modern James Bond-esque music, and the game itself is often extremely good fun - like 'Delta Force', but done well. But not that well. The plot tries for a James Bond ambience, but even with only 14 missions our hero seems to spend a lot of time escaping, being caught, and escaping again. The voice acting is very bad, too - our hero sounds like an enthusiastic primary school teacher, whilst his lovely assistant Anya has a California valley-girl accent that seems more Playboy bunny than government employee. I kept expecting her to use the word doofus, but she doesn't. Meanwhile, the supposedly Eastern European guards shout 'Hey you' and 'Stop' in English. The morality seems a bit iffy, too - you're basically a hired killer, and the bad guys aren't really bad guys, they're just guards in foreign, but non-hostile, military bases. It's as if you were a French soldier set down in Scotland, shooting down Scottish security guards. And yet, these are minor things. There are three major points that bedevil it - you can't save during a mission, at all; the missions are highly linear and scripted, in such a way that you absolutely have to play the mission several times over before you can complete it; and it's just not big enough. The decision not to include the ability to save a game is a brave one, shared with 'Aliens vs Predator'. The idea is to increase the tension by not allowing you to chicken out and hit F6 to quicksave, as with most other first-person shooters since 'Doom' (it's hard to remember nowadays, but until 'Doom' action games rarely let you save). It doesn't really work in 'Project IGI' - the size of some of the later missions, coupled with the fact that death is sometimes instant and unexpected, make it highly irritating. 'AvP' was eventually patched so that you could save a maximum of three times during a mission - a much better system. And the scripting is highly annoying. This is one of those games where you can explore an area and find it free of baddies but, if you press a switch, talk to somebody, or step over an invisible boundary, suddenly a truck-full of soldiers materialises from thin air. You can never really predict or guard against this, and quite often the missions become memory tests. One mission in which you have to escort a Russian businessman is particularly frustrating, and more than once I felt like burning the CD and posting it back to Eidos with a nasty letter. In general, the bits where you have to escort people (thankfully, only twice does this horrible game element appear) are dreadful - you have no way of knowing where they are, and they usually just stand there, waiting to be shot. And worst of all, it's too small. It has no fewer missions than 'Hidden and Dangerous', but a handful of them are extremely easy, and you'll finish them in no time. There is absolutely no replay value, either - the linear missions mean that once you've completed them, there's nothing to see if you play them again. And there's no multiplayer option at all. Fourteen missions and that's your lot. You'll play it for two or three days, get annoyed during the final, immensely frustrating, mission, and never play it ever again.

I recently bought this game and I am still trying to beat it. The missions are really cool, and there are tasks ranging from putting C-4 on the back of SA-13 mobile sam systems to disarming nukes to shooting up tanks with your LAW-80.

The missions are long and fun and even a bit challenging.

I would recommend this to anyone who is into the FPS genre. However if you are new to the FPS genre I recommend Rainbow Six.

Project IGI is a a great game. The graphics are flawless, and the gun's sound very realistic, though the main charactors voice sounds stupid. The only problem is the fact that no matter how many guys you kill, if you triger an alarm, new gaurds will keep coming untill you deactivate it. This isnt as big of a problem as it seems, becuase if you use steath and even skills, instead of running and gunning, you can kill every guy and destroy the camera's leaving no risk of alarm. Perhaps the other reviewers found it to hard to play this game with any amount of skill? This game is a great buy and is a fun fps with a certain amount of skill required. If you want a shoot-em-up, however, look else where [...]

The basic idea behind the game sounds fun. You're an SAS officer, sent off on a number of missions to save the world. It's a standard FPS shooter, made a bit more exiting by the 3D landscape engine which allows the action to take place across large outdoor environments.

The emphasis is on "real-world" fighting - where taking a couple of shots will kill you, and so you spend most of the time creeping around hoping not to be discovered.

There are plenty of gadgets to play with too. The Satelite camera allows you to view the action around you from above, and zoom in on activity in outdoor areas. When you use the camera, the map is shown full-screen and the action caries on around you in "real-time". If you're not careful you can get killed while looking at the map.

This "real-world" emphasis can be great (try games like SWAT3), but the game designers need to finely balance "reality" with "fun". Unfortunately this is where Project IGI shoots itself in the foot (as it were).

I couldnt even get past the first level on "normal" difficulty. I'm not that bad at games (I've completed Half-life, Star Trek Elite Force etc.), but try as I might I couldnt get through the first mission. I'd get 5 minutes into the level and get shot by a sniper - there's no save game feature, so you have to go back to the start of the level. A boring 5 minutes spent working through the part of the level I'd already completed, shoot the sniper... and then got shot by someone else. Guess what ? Another 5 minutes going back over the exact same level again!

After I'd played through the same part of the same level 10 times I just got bored and went to play something more fun instead.

As far as the rest of the game goes, other than the outdoor maps, there is very little special about the graphics - they're pretty much Quake2 engine standard (sub Half-Life). All that running around, climbing ladders etc. is pretty passe these days (how old is Tomb Raider ?), and there is really nothing new that this game does.

I originally bought the game because PCGamer UK gave it a good review. As it stands, without a save game feature, I wouldnt recommend it to anyone. If Eidos get around to patching the game (there's no sign of it yet), and adding the ability to save your progress within a mission I might start playing it again. As it stands, I'll stick with SWAT3 Elite Edition... "The element is behind you!" or Counterstrike.

Pro: 1. The satelite camera is quite cool. 2. Outdoor environments make a change from usual FPS.

Con 1. You cant save your game. 2. Too easy on "easy". 3. Impossible on any difficulty setting above "easy" (partly because there is no save game option). 4. No multiplayer. 5. Dodgy voice acting.