It's always interesting to note the strengthening of sub-genres in PC gaming circles, and increasingly with First Person Shooters there's been a line drawn between fun and realism. Traditional FPS games like Quake and Unreal Tournament consist of pure arcade-style blasting action, whereas more realistic games such as Medal of Honor or Counter-Strike feature real weapons, stealth tactics and deathmatch rules such as "you're dead - you stay dead". We can all recall the futility of trying to explain that rule to the other kids in class after you'd imaginary machine-gunned them to death at close range on a lunch break.



IGI 2 falls into this latter category and is what us learned games reviewing types have begun to call a "stealth-'em-up" - with the proviso that it doesn't go the whole hog with realism and it maintains a fun, Rambo-style aspect at times. Don't push me, indeed.

IGI is an acronym for the Institute for Geopolitical Intelligence, a covert operations unit to which you belong. Predictably, your missions involve snooping around enemy compounds and laboratories in order to steal microchips, documents and snow-shakers. Well, you need to take something back as souvenirs for the family.