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Project BAI: Bad AI

Bad AI makes the sneaking somewhat easier, but it's still tedious. It's slow going and requires a lot of trial and error with a limited number of saves for each mission. If you're seen, IGI2 apparently toggles a global state in which all guards know your exact location. If, however, you slip away quickly enough, they'll half-heartedly run a few new routes to try to flush you out. They'll also mindlessly repeat the same sound bite in attempt to annoy you so much that you give yourself up. As the game progresses, the annoying sound bites change from Russian to Arabic to Chinese, which at least allows them to say "What was that?" or "Where'd that guy go?" or whatever it is they're saying with some international panache.

Bringing more bad guys

How brown was my valley

Reverse engineering a bridge

What gives these guards a fighting chance, and what makes this a stealth game instead of a shooter, is the AI's uncanny aim. IGI 2’s bad guys graduated summa cum laude from The Red Storm School of Sniping for Rainbow Six and Ghost Recon Terrorists, whereby they can score a headshot from 500 meters, with an Uzi, before you ever see them. Since there are no health kits (I found a Medical Syringe in only one of the game’s 19 levels), you’re not going to get very far if you play IGI 2 as a shooter. However, if you manage to set up an effective killing zone, you can lure most of the guards to their deaths, since they don't seem to think anything of a pile of dead bodies. Whether it's a heated gun battle or a routine patrol, they don't react to a heap of bleeding bodies stacked up like so much laundry. Project NTC: Nevermind the Corpses.

Project PGN: Plastic Giraffe Neck.

In addition to bad AI, there are a few helpful tools to keep you out of the enemy line of sight. You can look around and over obstacles by holding down the peek button and moving your mouse. Unlike other peeking interfaces that model carefully leaning to one side, IGI2 seems to model popping your head off, sticking it onto a long pole, and then thrusting the pole around a corner. Unfortunately, you can't rotate this view, so you have to pull the pole back in to twist your head, and then stick it back out to look in a new direction. It's not at all like peeking. It's more like an awkward freaky periscope. You're a superhero with a plastic giraffe neck that doesn't swivel.

A bridge just far enough

A little chemical plant in the woods

Rumble in the kitchen

There's also a nifty thermal scope that lets you see through walls. Since you can shoot through many surfaces depending on the caliber of bullet you're firing, you can hide in a small shed and shoot guards through the walls when they come to investigate. You can call up a map view by opening your laptop, which gives you a real time overhead view, complete with the location and facing of all the guards. Since this is supposedly a satellite view, it only works on outdoor areas, but it lets you watch patrol patterns from a distance. Project IWC: Isn't Wireless Cool?