Project I.G.I. (PC Game / First Impressions)

Project "I am Going In" (IGI) is yet another first person shooter (FPS)... but with a difference. IGI's difference is that you CAN NOT save during a mission, even if it consists of many episodes. At best, this means that if you get shot dead, you'll need to retry your current episode; at worst, if you quit and exit the game, the next time you play it, you'll need to redo everything you did before, until the moment you were switched off...

I think that IGI's option is welcome. The FPS genre has been trying everything to thrill you more, and there will be a time, when not even "better than real life" graphics and sound, can shake you, as you can always "reload" your last save. It is time to smash the player's shoulders a bit; it is time for the player to pay a slightly higher price, than it is used to, for his / her mistakes. And NOT allowing mid-mission saves is a simple way to achieve that.

Knowing that IF you mess up, you must restart, is a very effective measure to build up suspense. If you let yourself absorb into IGI's world, then you'll be peeking at every corner, sweating at the sound of footsteps, and fearing for your life, as the health bar shrinks. This enforced sensation of "everything is at risk" works great, but it certainly doesn't please some players.

IGI levels are set on much wider areas, than most FPSs. It strongly remembers the original Delta Force titles, but with good looking 3D accelerated polygons, instead of with blocky voxels. I would say that IGI is what Delta Force Land Warrior (links to 061200) should have been.

IGI is hard on both the machine and the player. You'll need a monster PC to enjoy it on its graphical best, and you might need to learn how to play cautiously. If you got used to the relative invincibility that some Quake and Unreal based titles sell, then you're in for a shocking surprise - a single bullet can knock you out, for good, if fired from a short distance and aimed at the head. Just imagine yourself deeply concentrated into the game, for the last 30 minutes, and it *suddenly* all ends, without you even knowing where the killer was... It is this kind of frustration that contributes for the magical "just one more try" state-of-mind, that will drive you to sensations, perhaps forgotten.

One impressive feature of IGI, is the rain. It never rained so beautifully, in FPSs, before. Acoustics are also up to the high graphical quality - sounds aren't just for background and foreground events: they have the strongest positional information, and are totally effective on showing sources.

If I am to point something less good, then I point the episode separators: they have very little graphical detail; for example, people's hands look like shovels...

Overall, I am enjoying IGI, but I prefer No One Lives Forever (links to 211200). Still, these are just my first impressions...