IGI 2: Covert Strike
International intrigue and extreme action in Russia, Libya and China's underworld.

Chasing military secrets across Eastern Europe through to the Orient, hacking security terminals, pistol whipping attackers, setting explosives - the IGI team are back and David Jones is about to be caught up in his most dangerous assignment to date.

IGI 2: Covert Strike brings the world of Project IGI back to PC screens as the acclaimed superb stealth-based first-person shooter returns, continuing the espionage theme of the original.

The missions of covert surveillance, stealth and blazing firepower continue the career of Jones, once a key SAS member, who now works as a freelance operative for a secret organisation code-named 'IGI'.

IGI 2: Covert Strike is set soon after the events in Project IGI. The Cold War has ended and the Soviet countries are attempting to rebuild their shattered nations. No longer faced with a nuclear stand off, Russia is able to move financial support from its military forces to its private research and production industries. World powers turn their attention to gaining information on each other's industrial secrets.

The game takes place over three linked campaigns, each packed with individual missions. Each mission expands the plot and is sequenced with impressive animated scenes that absorb the player in the game's carefully constructed narrative. The spiralling plot takes the action through Russia, across Libya and into China utilising locations including military airbases, harbours and secret government installations.

Jones' assignment has him plunging into Russia to locate and retrieve any evidence of the rumoured EMP (Electro Magnetic Pulse) chips - new technology which IGI suspect could be employed in weapons development.
It won't be an easy ride: an advanced Artificial Intelligence system will give Jones' many enemies the ability to work together as effective teams, using realistic combat tactics and electronic security systems to locate him, hunt him down and neutralise him. The AI will react in a co-ordinated manner with different characters performing different roles within the team you are opposed to.
At least Jones has resources to deal with the enemy - whether intelligence gathering, sniping a guard from a distant tower, or storming a courtyard with all guns blazing. IGI 2: Covert Strike will feature an outstanding array of realistically modelled weaponry in both single and multiplayer modes, from sidearms and machine pistols to assault rifles and rocket launchers. Surveillance and similar modern technology, including a GPS system and light intensified optics, will be featured throughout the locations.

The powertool of global special forces, the .50 Sniper Rifle, is one of agent David Jones' most effective weapons in IGI 2: Covert Strike, Codemasters' forthcoming PC stealth-based shooter.

Described as the ground-unit equivalent of bombing, this handheld semi-automatic .50 calibre rifle fires a slug weighing just 43 grams. Yet it can take out an Armoured Personnel Carrier at 1.5 kilometres and is more than capable of taking down an enemy agent at 1.8 kilometres.

Its performance and appearance are being realistically modelled for the game; however, players can take the rifle's capabilities one step further by using an in-game hi-tech accessory: the Thermo-Chemical imaging scope.

With the Thermo-Chemical imaging scope attached to the rifle, enemy agents can be identified and targeted even in areas packed with scenery and moving objects. The scope identifies body heat patterns and performs a chemical analysis of those heat patterns.

The body heat pattern is chemically analysed for human body temperature, filtering out any non-human heat patterns so that only human body heat is shown on the display [see image for example]. This is particularly useful when tracking an enemy agent - the rifle's bullets can punch through concrete from 1.5 kilometres away.

With more details on the featured weaponry, including pistols, assault rifles, submachine guns, and rocket launchers still to be revealed, players can be sure that IGI 2: Covert Strike will equip its agents with some tasty firepower.

The implementation of a new "save" system for IGI 2: Covert Strike has been a heated talking point on the forum. Improving over the original game's, IGI 2's Save system will be a function of the map computer - a device which David Jones, the game's central character, uses to receive tactical support in the field from IGI HQ.

The map computer has the functionality for Jones to download and upload - to save and load - the current mission status and position. Doing this in the field will take time and drains battery energy from the map computer, so players will have to save tactically.

Artificial Intelligence for the game's enemy agents has been significantly reworked and the original game's continual enemy respawning has been eliminated. Soldiers are more alert and react accordingly to a wide range of game situations, such as hearing an alarm siren or detecting destroyed security cameras as well as other dead soldiers.

Enemy soldiers of different ranks and abilities react in their own style to alert situations. Some soldiers will prefer running for an alarm button and calling for back-up, than engaging Jones in combat.

Meanwhile, development work on IGI 2: Covert Strike's all-new multiplayer mode continues. IGI2: Covert Strike will deliver a full team-oriented multiplayer mode, with squads of eight players per side. With objective-based gameplay, it pits IGI operatives against terrorists from around the globe.