Project I.G.I.: I'm Going In – the game of patience

(Originally posted on Monday, 10 August 2020)

Project I.G.I.: I'm Going In is a great game mostly because it requires PATIENCE. You can't run around without thinking, even on the easy difficulty setting! This game makes you fear for your life, mostly because you can't save your game during a particular mission. When you are killed you have to restart the mission from the beginning. Some players hate it, but it's actually very realistic. You can't reload a saved game in the real life, can you?

Please notice that this game is FREE! It isn't available in any online shop, but it can be downloaded for free from some Internet sites. Well worth a try! The game is old and somewhat flawed, but still very fun! By the way, the sounds in this games are fantastic! And in most missions you can go mountain climbing instead of doing your job! AWESOME!

The story is about a soldier operating behind enemy lines in order to track down a stolen nuclear warhead, but to achieve this goal you have to do many shady things, so it's not quite “noble”. However I don't know any other game with such great combat mechanics that requires patience and thought-out strategy. This is why I play this game anyway, but I role-play it as sabotage missions behind enemy lines during a “classic” war.

The difficulty of the game rises gradually (almost from mission to mission), which is a fantastic game design! The first 2 missions give you a false sense of security and the real fun starts with the 3rd mission. Towards the end of the game (in the last 3 missions) there are new enemies (Spetsnaz soldiers) who are clearly better – they are very alert and their seeing is much better. The last mission is VERY hard. Overall I had to replay it on the easy difficulty setting around 10 times, so if you are new to this great game then you should also play on the easy difficulty setting. I repeat – even if the first missions seems too easy to you, you should still play on the easy difficulty setting. Did I mention that a new player should play this game on the easy difficulty setting?

The close distance combat is perfect:
1. You can peek around a corner to look around (you SHOULD do it very often).
2. When you peek around a corner an enemy can't see you, BUT you can't use a weapon then.
3. When you move around a corner (with your weapon ready) you have to shoot instantly or the enemy will shoot you first (enemies have very good reflexes).
4. Reloading your weapons takes significant amount of time, which forces you to hide while doing so and/or plan ahead and time your actions.
5. Weapons recoil is very strong, so when you shoot in long bursts you can lose your aim almost completely.
6. You have to use mostly weapons taken from your dead enemies because you can't carry too much ammo for ANY weapon.
7. You, as well as your enemies, can shoot through wooden walls, wooden floors and wooden boxes.

General behaviour of your enemies is varied:
1. Sometimes they charge at you (you can use it to your advantage if you planned for it).
2. Sometimes they run to a particular spot, probably when they know somebody is attacking them, but they don't know from where.
3. Sometimes they stand still waiting for you to make a move, usually around a corner.
4. Rarely they wait behind cover, which is very bad for you.
5. Sometimes they fall down to the ground to avoid your bullets – they are easy targets than, just don't fool yourself that they are dead.
6. Sometimes they shoot while lying on the ground (after falling down to avoid your bullets), but only if you are in front of them (I got killed this way in the last level).
7. Rarely they throw grenades, but they are not good at it, so I don't use grenades myself.

Fun little things:
1. The map can be zoomed in and out as if you had visuals from a satellite.
2. On the map you CANNOT see enemies hidden inside buildings or under outdoor roofs, which again points at visuals from a satellite.
3. On the map you can see the security cameras AND their “detect area” (you have to zoom in at least once and click on a particular camera).
4. The map is unavailable in 2 missions, because you lose your computer in a helicopter crash and you have to find another one.
5. You can “slide” down the ladders or down various cables stretched between buildings, watch towers or other high structures.
6. Sometimes you can move horizontally using various cables stretched between buildings.
7. Your binoculars highlight enemies, but mostly those who are relatively close by (you have to zoom in to notice more enemies who are farther away).
8. Although the game is an FPS (first person shooter) you can look around in the third-person mode during some time-consuming activities, for example during climbing ladders, sliding down the cables, hacking computers or picking locks.
9. The goals in all the missions are varied and they change on the fly, according to the story unfolding during a particular mission – the game is never repetitive and the story is very interesting.
10. The level design is fantastic and varied, even though the graphics are dated – I loved especially the missions in snowy terrain (there are 4 of them, including 2 when snow is actually falling down beautifully).
11. In most of the missions you can climb high hills overlooking a particular compound and plan your actions at your leisure.
12. The game maps seem to be infinite – I climbed many mountains in various missions and there were always more in the distance.

Well, as I said the game is somewhat flawed, but within acceptable limits – the good sides still overwhelm the bad sides. As in any other game you can “fix” most of the in-game flaws, including AI problems, by your own actions/strategy.

What irritated me the most is the fact that enemies seem to be deaf and/or the weapons seem to be too quiet. Well, if you fire a “loud” weapon close to an enemy he will usually come running to see what's happening and he will be alerted, BUT the distance of hearing is laughably short. I think that the sounds of the machine guns should be easily hearable on the other side of any compound, which should make all enemies alert, even without an alarm sounding.

The same goes with the distance of seeing – in many places I can see an enemy without any problems (without binoculars), but he can't seem me. What's worse the distance of seeing for the security cameras is much shorter. It's actually WAAAY to short – it's so short that it feels more than laughable.

The third annoying thing is the fact that nobody is checking if the patrolling soldiers are on duty or AWOL (absent without leave). Sometimes you can snipe a dozen of enemies and nobody really cares that they are not where they are supposed to be.

For the reasons above I decided to set off the alarm on purpose to make the game more realistic, BUT in some of the missions it shouldn't be done too early. When the alarm is sounded the enemies are more alerted, especially the reinforcements that come from some of the buildings, especially from the barracks. It's makes the game much harder, but it balances the “weak AI”. Generally the alarm is sounded when you kill somebody in a “detect area” of a camera or destroy a camera in a “detect area” of another camera. The enemies can also set the alarm off by pressing an alarm button, for example when they see you destroy a camera (the same buttons can be used by you to turn the alarm off later). In some missions the alarm also “activates” tanks, so it's better to find a rocket launcher first and only then to set the alarm off.

In some missions the sounding alarm makes some enemies (especially in the barracks) respawn, but it's not as bad as it sounds, especially when you realise this fact. I repeat: in SOME missions (not all of them), SOME enemies respawn (not all of them) and ONLY when the alarm is still on. The best strategy in such missions is to: set the alarm off on purpose (at a place that is convenient to you), then destroy all the cameras, then turn the alarm off and only then kill the reinforcements. It's like a whole new goal during your mission.

When the alarm is set off by your enemies and you are close to the barracks and/or in a generally awkward position then you are likely to be killed even on the easy difficulty setting. In most missions it's very hard to avoid the alarm sounding without repeating a particular mission numerous times, which gets annoying since you can't save the game during a particular mission. This is another reason to set the alarm off on purpose. Thanks to this strategy I was able to finally beat the mission 5 (Radar Base) – playing this mission “normally” I was not able to avoid the alarm sounding and the reinforcements coming form the main building were too strong and too numerous. Thankfully these reinforcements don't respawn, but you can't kill them in advance – you can't enter one of the rooms inside the main building, because it's locked from the inside.

After watching numerous gameplay movies of this game on Youtube I realised that they lack two great aspects of the game – peeking around corners and using your satellite map for strategy. I hate meta-gaming, so I decided to show you a “proper” (realistic) way of playing this game. Well, it's not quite realistic because you are able to clear whole military compounds all by yourself. Here are full playlists:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCy_fdc7QfYEg0UEadT2R4uQ/playlists?disable_polymer=1

My tips are given in descriptions of all the movies, so you have to be on the Youtube site to read them, but here are examples of gameplay: