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IGI 2: Covert Strike, Multiplayer Demo

by Joe "Impaler" Highman

Article Type: Review
Article Date: January 20, 2003

Product Info

Product Name: I.G.I. 2: Covert Strike
Category: First-Person Tactical Shooter
Developer: Innerloop Studios
Distributor: Codemasters
Release Date: February 2003
Minimum Spec: TBA
Files & Links: Click Here

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Deadlines? We Don’t Need No Stinking Deadlines!

Some eight months have elapsed since Innerloop Studios own Ole Marius Kohmann answered a series of questions regarding the development of IGI 2: Covert Strike (IGI2), the upcoming sequel to the incredibly popular Project: I.G.I. first-person espionage shooter. During that April 2002 interview COMBATSIM.COM patrons learned of a projected June 2002 release date. In an industry where deadlines are seldom met, the fact that mid-January is only now seeing a 90 percent completed demo version should come as little surprise.

However, Codemasters has long held a reputation for delaying the release of a title for as long as it takes to get it right. When you install a program with the Codemasters name on it, you can rest assured that the beta testing has already been done! Combine this solidity of product along with exceptional gameplay and it's no wonder why the Codemasters team cranks out quality games that endure.

Wheeeeeeeeee!

Codemasters and Innerloop Studios recently published a multiplayer public beta version of IGI2 for free download. Click here for more details on how and where to get the title.



Cast of Characters

As the name would suggest, the multiplayer side of IGI2 features gameplay for up to 16 players per server, either via a LAN or the Internet. Server setup options and commands can force automatic balancing of teams’ strength, but this is optional to the host. The players either man a team of IGI Operatives or as the Conspiracy Forces. As advertised, each player can choose varied skins of characters from the first installment, Project IGI. You get a choice of one of three body styles, then one of three camouflage patterns. For some reason, most of the IGI Operatives are a sickly baby blue or sky-blue color, making them stand out like dismembered thumbs against the deep green hillsides. Unless you enjoy being spotted by every gun-wielding maniac on the map, I’d recommend the selection of a darker uniform combination.

It's like playing Barbie with guns

Veterans of small arms battlefield games like this series will immediately recognize most of the weaponry available in the single player mode. On the subject of destructive hardware, Ole Marius Kohmann said there would be “Five types of pistol, 6 sub-machine guns, 3 shotguns, 5 assault rifles, 3 sniper rifles, 2 RPG’s, grenades, flashbangs, and proximity charges.” So many choices, so few melons to burst.

Pistols include the Glock 17 with a silencer, the Makarov, and the ever popular .50 caliber Desert Eagle hand-cannon. The world leader Heckler & Koch MP5A3 heads the sub-machine gun family, while a smorgasbord of assault rifles, such as the Steyr Aug, the AK-47 Kalashnikov and the M-16 A2, adorn the forces at war. The aiming-impaired player may also select automatic shotguns, like the Jackhammer, or fully automatic rifles such as the FN Minimi.

Loaded for Bear, or Moose, or Buffalo, or Dinosaur.

Given this array of choices, how does IGI2 ensure that the hills are alive with the sound of machine gun fire? Innerloop borrows a nugget from EA’s team-based espionage/counter-espionage blockbuster, Global Operations. In this title, like that one, players are given a monetary reward for completing objectives and for destroying the enemy. This money can then be used to purchase any of the aforementioned equipment, to purchase additional primary or secondary ammunition, or to bypass the respawn delay and get right back into the hunt. The more respawn delay bypassed, the greater the fee. Of course, there are those among the teams who are destitute, and rather than build up a nest egg of cash for their armament needs, they find it easier to simply locate a teammate with a good piece, shoot him in the back of his unsuspecting head, and walk away one sniper rifle richer for the crime.

Another item borrowed from Global Operations is the anti-spawn-camper system. Wander too close to an opponents respawn area and face the immediate wrath of an invisible yet highly lethal sentry gun. Few happenings are more disheartening than to find yourself cut down and seeing that message broadcast to anyone within earshot.



Home, Home on the Range

This multiplayer version includes one map, Timberland, which is absolutely immense. Three objective areas are spread among the landscape, a mountainous section of the map, densely wooded and featuring a shimmering lake among its features. I highly recommend, as in all titles, that you load up a solo test game before entering the fray if only to explore this sprawling environment.

Come on in, the water's fine

You owe it to yourself and to Innerloop’s graphics rendering engine to take a moment to simply stand back and admire the beauty of the vistas before you. While the engine was developed to support Joint Strike Fighter, Innerloop admits to spending time developing the engine further and further with each publication and it appears that they are close to perfecting it. The objects in the environment feel as if they legitimately belong there, and not as if some software programmer placed it there from a library of code.

The natural light conditions, and the lack thereof in shade, are phenomenal. Walk among the trees, and find yourself in the relative obscurity of the shade. Stand in the open, basking yourself in glorious sunlight, and expect full well that rifle fire will try to ruin your whole day. The only things that are missing are the dust particles illuminated by rays of god-light through the trees.

OSHA would NOT approve

In this opening map, there is a pair of conveyor belts around the industrial center of the third objective. Any veteran of Half-Life will know this, but allow me to educate those of you who may have missed it. Just as the light at the end of the tunnel is most often an oncoming train, conveyor belts in an industrial area normally lead to a ton of virtual pain. IGI2 is no exception, both belts ending in large, angry rock grinders.

If You Can’t Say Anything Nice…

If landscapes were enough to guarantee the success of a title, then IGI2 would be a shoo-in. However, the multiplayer side of the house has some difficulties that I believe will end up being speed bumps along its ride to commercial longevity.

Oddly, the sheer size of the maps may be counter-productive for multiplayer action, and especially on servers that only support 8 players per side. The area is just too large to be traversed quickly, and spending two to three minutes running to an area only to be cut down when you get there quickly becomes disheartening. Two devices are used to limit this disgruntlement. First, on this three-objective map, the second or third objectives cannot be completed before the one prior. Thus, your forces do not need to be divided and can instead concentrate on a single objective. Likewise, should you be on defense, you will not have to spread yourself out along the entire map defending multiple objectives. Finding a server that is using a time limit coupled with staunch defense at each objective can stall most assaults and allow the eventual victory by the home team.

Your trusty PDA

A second device used to overcome the distance between starting points and the current objective is the placement of several alternate respawn points near each objective. Should you find yourself unfortunate enough to be felled by cyber-lead poisoning, a cross-country sprint is not necessarily in your future.

Sadly, despite precautions against spawn-camping, there are those players, mostly snipers, who use the great nooks and valleys of the land to their advantage to rain havoc on players as they emerge from their respawn tents. While that is certainly their prerogative, it's hard to turn the other cheek and forgive them for their unsportsmanlike conduct. Fortunately, there is a weapon in the war against snipers.

While deceased and staying away from the light, a menu system appears that allows you to purchase new equipment or to jump right back into the action. You can also take advantage of this downtime to not only save a few bucks but to toggle among player chase cameras, including the miscreant who aerated your cranium. Most virtual snipers do not know the mantra “Do not linger where you have killed,” and so approaching them from another angle and finding them still concentrating on their scopes is not impossible. Few things are as satisfying as standing behind the varmint and taking careful aim on HIS cranium. I think the technical term is “busting a cap”, but I could be off on my lingo.

How to ruin someone's afternoon

Another item of concern during review is the animation of enemy players, and specifically, with the speed at which they move. Quite simply, the players move with a super-human quickness, making changes in direction that would make Barry Sanders wince and bursting away with a flurry that would make a cheetah envious. Finding a suitable target is difficult enough in this sizable section of Mother Earth but actually eliminating that target can be not unlike trying to catch flies with chopsticks. The characters move with lightning speed, and unless you are highly skilled or lucky, chances for making a kill with a deflection shot at range are slim at best. The alacrity of one's foes is probably the reason that most soldiers equip themselves with those weapons with the highest rates of fire and the largest magazines of ammunition.

Cessation Of Hostilities

What do you get when you mix a small number of players into a very large area, endow them with mercurial swiftness and outfit them with rapid-fire weapons? Sadly, you get a strategy-devoid, communications-light frag-fest, if of course, you can find anyone with which to scrap. While there are certainly those to whom this appeals, it does not meet the expectations of today’s thoughtful combat simulation enthusiast. I predict that IGI2 will have a very loyal contingent that will swear it’s the greatest multiplayer game of all time, but not among gamers who need more strategic meat on the bones of their software selections. Perhaps the single-player mode will give us more to chew on.




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