A long time ago, in a distant galaxy, Master Yoda taught Luke Skywalker to use the Force (it’s a pity, it’s a pity that IGI 2 has nothing to do with them, but not to be lost to such a promoted beginning). Both were calm and focused. Both were sure that in the end everything would end with a happy ending, the Dark Force would definitely be tied in a knot, and Private Ryan would certainly be rescued.
But they did not know that in some fifty years the namesake of the rescued private, a certain Chris Ryan, would become an excellent student in combat and political training at the SAS, a hero of the Persian Gulf campaign and a military consultant at Inner loop Studios. The first fruit of this alliance called Project IGI: I’m Going In was released at the very end of 2000 and came out as a pancake … that is, lumpy. With a general surplus of shooters of military-patriotic themes, IGI could not offer anything fundamentally new, except perhaps for attempts to compensate for congenital lameness and more severe mutilations of AI with the magic ability of enemies to teleport from God knows where right behind the back of the protagonist.
They always come back
Something happened? Nothing special. The notorious protagonist, David Jones, is still cool and determined to defend the interests of the Stars and Stripes; his platonic love Anya, as before, is brutally fair-haired and full of bosom; the villains are still so disgusting that it seems, give them free rein, and they will finish David Jones in the most painful and humiliating way for him. And several sets of high-quality and discreet underwear will be sewn from the star-striped flag. And Anya will certainly not be treated like a gentleman. But (and this pleases) the gameplay has matured, matured and no longer resembles a moronic dumb, now and then pulling the player’s pants and babbling: “Daddy, daddy, I want to bite.”
If you remember, in the first part, your humble was not satisfied mainly with the desire of the developers to squeeze the player into the Procrustean bed of the stealth shooter by all available means, including a steam hammer and an asphalt roller. Against this background, the second episode of the adventures of David Jones has an undeniable advantage: you want to play this game secretly. I would like to pore over a computer map, memorizing patrol routes and calculating the best route. I would like to grab onto the binoculars and infrared glasses one by one and wrinkle my forehead with concentration. I would like to emerge out of thin air right in front of the reckless sentry’s nose and beat him in the teeth with the handle of a pistol. I would like to slide behind the enemies, experiencing a strange pleasure that you give them life … and could slash with a knife, by the way.
Where do the eagles fly
The main thing is not to think about the white monkey. I mean Splinter Cell. Forget her, cadet, if you really plan on having fun. Agree, there is a certain atmosphere here. Five minutes ago you were safe (doubtful security, if you think about it, because the wall of the helicopter is so thin and unreliable), and now you lie with your nose in the ground, alone against dozens of cunning, dangerous and well-armed enemies, and the only thing that binds you with the mainland, – a satellite that transmits information to your computer card. I recommend that especially stubborn skeptics take a couple of Alistair McLean’s novels about army special forces before playing IGI 2. Tested on humans: After The Guns of Navarino or Where Eagles Dare, adventure is great. A pistol with a silencer, a map and a “visibility indicator” (just don’t think about the white monkey) – these are the real friends of man.
Crawling, crawling – and the enemies do not see. And the accuracy of the fire is higher – from room to room, turn off the surveillance cameras, hack into the computer, put a “bug” in the transmitter, point the bomber at the target … And legs, feet, legs.
See how awesome enemies behave in open spaces! How they run in zigzags, how they fall, without ceasing to shoot, how busily they throw grenades at the victim! The question is: where do all these skills go when Jones lures glorious Russian, Libyan, or Chinese guys into a tiny little room? Stern figures in camouflage, one after another.
appear on the threshold and … in the same order fall on the floor – the lead killer bees know no mercy. Hello, cowboys! Didn’t anyone tell you that before breaking into the room, it would not hurt to disinfect it with a couple of grenades or at least a “lamp”? No? Doesn’t this pile of corpses give you smart thoughts? Again, no? Well, excuse me, then you have to talk to my deputy for public relations, Mr. Thirty-Eight about this. Mister Thirty-Eighth, what can you say on this issue?
More polygons, good and different
Spoil, spoil the bastards of the impression of the game. And not only by behavior. Please understand me correctly, I am a graphically unpretentious person and still willingly play the first Quake, but I cannot believe that half of the Libyan police wear glasses in the same horn-rimmed frame even after a dose of scopolamine. Again, there is an obsessive impression that the developers have achieved only high-quality modeling of the notorious Large Open Spaces. And they are really Big and Open (who would argue): and the paws of the fir trees tremble in weight, and the birds chirp naturally, but … you run under the roof, and the right angles begin to scratch the retina very painfully, which here, let’s be honest with each other, many. Too much.
Think not bad, this is not a call for the immediate dispatch of IGI 2 artists to the uranium mines (the guys who drew weapons should generally have been presented for the Lenin Prize), but the wooden door in reality looks much less like a banal parallelepiped than they thought. And if our good old acquaintance Jacob Priory (sorry, I probably gave out a terrible plot secret) believes that a limousine worthy of a gentleman should look just like that, then it urgently needs to be subscribed to a couple of decent car magazines. Or at least let Hot Pursuit 2 play.
