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© St. Petersburg Times, published April 21, 2003
I.G.I.-2: Covert Strike
Platform: Windows
Company: Codemasters
Price: $29.99
I.G.I.-2: Covert Strike is a first-person shooter with the following primary claim to fame: Chris Ryan, a British special forces soldier who became a hero during the 1991 Gulf War, lent his expertise as a consultant.
Did anyone listen to his input or did they just want his name for the box? It's as realistic as your average James Bond movie (in some cases, less so), although it is admittedly better than 007: Nightfire.
The bad guys are powered by some impressive artificial intelligence, which is a pretty good thing, generally. If you crouch in the woods in the dark, take aim from a distance and fire with a gun that has a muzzle flash, they will see you, lock on your position and return fire. That's great!
But, then, if you slide off behind a bush and crawl backward, presenting a minimal profile, ceasing fire, the bad guys still can put bullets in you. It's as if you're standing upright, running backward, waving your arms in broad daylight. That's terrible!
The game's AI is most impressive when you make the classic mistake of being caught on candid evil camera, setting off the security alarms throughout an enemy compound. All the guards come running, concentrating their lethal attention on the area where you might be hiding. If they see you, if they corner you, if you don't manage to shoot your way clear -- you're dead. That's great!
But, then, if you manage to hide long enough, the alarms will quit wailing and the guards will go back to acting as if nothing ever happened. That's terrible!
The graphics are all right, but occasional glitches mar the experience. For example, while crawling, you sometimes appear to move "under" the ground texturing. The sound is realistic, with the voices of hostiles and the noises of equipment coming from left, right, in front or behind you.
Covert Strike provides challenging single-player missions and a fun multiplayer environment. However, the single-player game hamstrings itself by design: You can save only so many times during a mission, which can be frustrating.
With games like Splinter Cell competing for attention with better results, Covert Strike should appeal only to die-hard first-person shooter fans.
Platform: Windows
Company: Digital Anvil
Price: $46.99
Freelancer is the long-awaited descendant of games such as Privateer, Elite and Wing Commander. The result is a mixed bag.
If you prefer to fly from star system to star system, hauling cargo for cash and fighting the occasional marauder, you can -- once you get past the introductory storyline.
If you want to get caught up in an engaging storyline, you can -- until that wraps up and you're turned loose in a free-form galaxy where all you really get to do is haul cargo, fight bad guys and upgrade ships.
The game features compelling graphics, a variety of missions and trade goods, and interesting locales. Sometimes, for example, you may find yourself flying through dense clouds of space dust, seeking pirates (and I found myself leaning closer to the screen, peering as if out of an actual cockpit window, looking for the hostile silhouette).
The flight interface is friendly to the coordination-challenged. Instead of a joystick, you use a mouse to guide where you go and what you aim at, which greatly simplifies the effort. That's good if, like me, you don't want to spend a lot of time learning to fly. It also lets you jump right into the game without worrying too much about extensive training missions. But it's bad if you are more of a purist when it comes to flying.
Freelancer also offers multiplayer capability, which can be fun, but already is done rather well in Earth & Beyond.
If you miss Privateer and Elite, Freelancer will be worthwhile once the price comes down.
-- WES PLATT, Times correspondent