There was no squad. No moralizing cutscene about "extraction in ten minutes." No glowing waypoint telling you which door to kick down. There was just you, David Jones, a former SAS operative turned freelance spy, and a sprawling, hostile Eastern European landscape dotted with soldiers who could spot you from 200 meters away.
In 2000, before Rainbow Six became a household name and long before Call of Duty turned into a blockbuster movie, a small Danish studio named Innerloop Studios released a game that did something radical: it left you utterly alone.
Dust off your patience. Install the fan patch. Turn off the lights.
What makes I.G.I. unique is its refusal to hold your hand. You are given a map, a set of objectives, and a pistol. The rest is physics and panic. Project IGI im-going-in for Windows
The game famously features no quicksaves. You get a single save slot per mission. This isn't a bug; it’s a feature designed by masochists. It means that clearing a hangar full of guards, sneaking through a radar installation, and then getting headshot by a lone sniper in a watchtower sends you back to the mission start. It’s brutal. It’s unforgiving. And it creates tension that no modern checkpoint system can replicate. Most first-person shooters of the era were about corner-peeking and shotguns. I.G.I. was about range. The levels are enormous for the year 2000—rolling hills, sprawling military bases, forested valleys.
Project I.G.I.: I’m Going In is waiting. And it is not going to make it easy.
You learn to love the binoculars. You learn to listen for the crunch of boots on gravel. You learn that the AI, while clunky by today’s standards, is . Fire a single unsuppressed shot from a hilltop, and every guard in a 300-meter radius doesn’t just stand behind a box; they flank. They call reinforcements. They search in teams. There was no squad
8/10 (For the nostalgia crowd) Where to play: GOG.com, or the original CD with the "DgVoodoo 2" wrapper. Warning: Do not attempt the "Misleading Paths" mission without a cup of coffee and a spare keyboard.
But what it had was atmosphere . The lonely wind blowing through the trees of Siberia. The sudden crack of a sniper round hitting the wall beside you. The quiet hum of a radar dish against a blood-red sunset.
That game was Project I.G.I.: I’m Going In —a title that feels less like a marketing slogan and more like the last thing you hear before the mission goes sideways. In 2000, before Rainbow Six became a household
Innerloop Studios followed up with IGI 2: Covert Strike in 2003, but the series went dark. A sequel was announced in 2019 (tentatively titled I.G.I. Origins ), but it has since slipped into development hell. If you grew up on modern "hand-holding" shooters—where health regenerates behind chest-high walls and your AI buddy says "Nice shot, boss!"— Project I.G.I. will humble you. You will die. You will restart the mission. You will rage-quit at the missile base.
But if you persevere, you’ll discover a quiet masterpiece. A game about patience, positioning, and the terrifying realization that you are one bullet away from starting over.