Project IGI 2: Covert Strike - PC Games

Taking place over three linked campaigns, the individual missions progress in depth and skill to ease you slowly into the game. It has huge levels and plenty of bad guys that you'll have fight; you'll soon have your work cut out.

Graphics have progressed from those on the original, but not really in leaps and bounds and not in line with the rest of the games in this genre. Sounds however, now play a major role in how you play. Make too much noise and the bad guys come running, guns blazing.

What is new and most welcome is a multiplayer element, something that was sorely missed in the first game. The game supports up to 16 players online, but the advantage over the usual range of multiplayer games is the introduction of a cash system. If you want a weapon you'll have to pay for it and the more times you die the less cash you'll have available. This is a great tactical idea and makes you really think about respawning rather than, as usual, jumping back in and getting killed.

On its own, this game offers plenty to the stealth fan. Yet with the games market now well supplied with stealth titles you can't help but think that while the original was ahead of its time, this game is a just a tiny bit late for the party.

Yes, the levels are large and yes, the AI is very impressive--guards can hear you coming a mile off if you are charging around like a bull in a china shop--but it doesn't bring anything new to the genre. Unfortunately, in a genre that has been dominated by games such as Splinter Cell and Metal Gear Solid, anything new can't just be good, it has to be very impressive. Unfortunately Project IGI 2 is good but not special. –-Jason Denwood