With IGI 2: Covert Strike hotly-tipped as a major PC action title for 2002, Codemasters' online forum for the game is buzzing with the subject of the all-new multiplayer game mode. The game's designers have listened closely to the opinions on the forum and today Codemasters confirm key elements of the game's multiplayer structure.

IGI2: Covert Strike will deliver a full team-oriented multiplayer mode, with squads of up to eight players on both sides. Gameplay pits IGI operatives against terrorist groups from around the globe. The varied multi-objective based gameplay will include hacking data satellites to launching space shuttles, bombing oil refineries and escorting convoys. Reconnaissance elements provide for a new style of FPS multiplayer gaming, blending stealth and surveillance with action and gunplay.

The game will contain a series of multiplayer maps utilizing an advanced version of Innerloop's proprietary engine, which delivers excellent indoor locations and expansive outdoor environments. Throughout the locations, surveillance cameras can spot players and relay locations - sneaking past these will not always be easy. Teams will strive to establish control over vital elements such as remote sentry guns and electronic doors and shutters in order to reign supreme.

Each player will have access to a cash reserve. However, buying a new weapon from the game's arsenal of 30 realistic arms isn't the only way to spend the cash. Players will have the option to purchase a specialist kit and pay to re-enter the game if killed. The cost for players to buy themselves back into the game decreases over time to zero. This presents players with the tactical choice of spending all their cash on a quick re-entry and buying little hardware, or waiting for the time to expire and rejoining play tooled up - but that could be too late. Once the cash has been paid, the location where a player opts to be respawned adds a further tactical element.

IGI 2: Covert Strike is currently in development at Innerloop Studios AS, the Oslo-based team that created the original, and is scheduled to be published by Codemasters in September on PC CD-ROM.