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Project FPS: First Person Sneaker

"I'm going in" is a line that should be spoken in any action movie. The hero says it, then he does it, then the bullets and bodies fly, and then the world gets saved. The Norwegian developers at Innerloop know this, although they explain that IGI really stands for the Institute for Geotactical Intelligence. Right. 2000's Project IGI: I'm Going In and now IGI 2: Covert Strike are attempts to model the action movie set pieces that follow after the hero says, "I'm going in". Unfortunately, the results are as clunky and forgettable as a fifth-rate action movie.

Oddly enough, IGI 2: Covert Strike tries to emphasize stealth over action; there's more "coverting" than "striking". The tag line should have been 'Be Vewy Vewy Qwiet', but BVVQ doesn't have the snappy brevity of IGI. As you play, a 'stealth meter' shows how visible or audible you are. If you crouch and move slowly, the meter is low. If you stand up and run, the meter rises. The idea is to keep the meter low and steer clear of enemies as you sneak around and accomplish your objectives. If you make it through the entire mission without being spotted, you're rewarded with a special ranking. That won’t be happening often.

Have a nice trip

Body heat

Taking the 166 train

The biggest problem is that it's not intuitive. There's not much consistency in terms of when you're visible and when you're not. Games like Thief and Splinter Cell use light and darkness as clear indicators of where you can hide. No One Lives Forever 2 built hiding spots into the levels and designated them with an icon. But in IGI2, stealth is an under-the-hood equation that sometimes makes no sense. For instance, you can make it across a field surrounded by bad guys, all looking in your direction, during broad daylight, if you crawl along on your belly. You can't even do that in Tenchu, a supernatural sneaking game where you're a quasi-invisible ninja.

Project HTD: Hold the door!

An incident at the end of the first level makes it clear what kind of sneaking game this is going to be. After you've crept through the front gate of a mining installation, bellied across a field or two, opened a few noisy garage doors, and ridden a giant conveyer belt, you then have to go down a huge freight elevator shaft. The shaft is closed off by the sort of enormous blast doors they put in the Death Star to keep laser bolts from bouncing around too much. What's more, there’s a room full of soldiers nearby and two guards standing in front of the doors, although their backs are conveniently turned. How to get down there?

Snow men

A cozy cabin

I'm dreaming of a white gunfight

Since I had a spare save slot left over, I saved the game to try opening the doors from my hiding place. Depending on how the guards reacted, I could just reload and try another approach. But they didn't react at all. The enormous two-ton doors screeched open over the course of about thirty seconds and these guys didn't even turn around. I stepped on the elevator, which was big enough to pass F-15s onto the deck of an aircraft carrier, and I started riding the rumbling platform down. They still didn't turn around. Okay, so it's going to be that kind of a sneaking game. Project ITE: Ignore the Elevator.