No One Lives Forever
Best, most innovative single player action game since, or even including, Half-Life? It's true! I for one like the feeling of this game better than Half-Life, and a big part of the reason for that is that the settings are a lot more varied. Research facility gone all wrong may be nice, but you have to admit a tree or two, a snow covered mountain or a city would have spiced the Black Mesa setting up a bit. Enter No One Lives Forever, the 60's spy thriller first person shooter with locales all across the globe! Assuming the role of schuperspy (intentional spelling, play the game :-) Cate Archer you will stop the evil plans of the organization H.A.R.M. while wearing an assortment of garments in the highly discreete colour of orange. At least UNITY has an open dress-code even if they're not used to employing women.
Graphically, NOLF may feel quite a bit like Half-Life at times when you're walking around inside different buildings and laboratories, and the talk about the greatness of the Lithtech engine seems exaggerated. Ok, the light effects may be better and the models may have more polygons, but otherwise it doesn't seem all that much more exciting. Then, you're suddenly thrown into some mile-wide outdoor settings and a castle, both things which makes you think more of Unreal than anything else. There could well have been a few more of those, with appropriate vehicles to go, without getting any complaints from me ... As said above, the models have more polygons than in Half-Life or so, which is nice. Think they could have given some of them more texture detail though, considering how much some faces appear in close-up shots during in-game rendered cut scenes. The cut scenes are nice otherwise, progress the story and develop characters. Some even allows you to select dialogue questions/responses, always nice even if it doesn't impact the game or story too much.
Sound department really shines. Sound effects are good, but the voice acting is better! There's a lot of dialogue in NOLF and the actors really succeed in bringing it to life. All the characters, down to the lowliest henchman and bystander, feel fleshed out and living in a way not even the mighty H-game manages. Kit Harris as Archer herself is probably best of all, she's always believable no matter the situation and mood and has that great British English. Other characters may sound a bit over the top at times, but they all fit within the setting and style of the game. A lot of talk is stuff you may never hear if you always rush in guns blaring. It's stuff the baddies talk about when they've got nothing better to do. This is real gold! You'll hear conversations about everything from beer and genetic heritage (that's a long one!) to playing music and buying cars, and more ... I found myself reloading when I happened to interrupt those chats before they were finished, they're worth it. Brings a lot of life to the game to have people talking to eachother before you mow them down ... "What's in those crates anyway?" (...) "Well, that's unexpected ..." Way to go!
Right, on to the most important bit: gameplay! Of course, if this wasn't pretty decent I wouldn't have been all that raving in the beginning so I guess it's something of a giveaway that I like this aspect of the game ... There's a lot of shooting of course, this is an FPS after all, but there's also a lot more variation than I've seen in a long time. How about escaping sinking ships, diving down to said ships, falling from crashing airplanes (trying to catch up with someone who's got a parachute) and sneaking into research facilities. Yup, that's sneaking. Some missions require you to avoid detection completely, so get used to the thought! If enemies or cameras spot you, they'll try to sound the alarm and if you can't stop them it's back to the drawing board. That the enemy AI works so damn well doesn't make things easier. I think NOLF actually beats Half-Life with a margin in this aspect, at least the enemies feel even more alive here. They're great at taking cover, noticing dead comrades (and you) and doing everything else enemies in games like Soldier of Fortune fail miserably to do without a script telling them to. Oh, they also fall over ledges and tumble down stairways without scripting. Adds to the action film feeling and is further proof of the attention to detail in this game.
An assortment of cool gadgets and weapons also add to the variation. There are silenced sniper rifles, crossbows, guns, robotic poodles, cigarrette lighters doubling as lock welders and more to keep you happy. You get to pick the stuff you want before missions too, coming back with different stuff might give you access to new areas. There are also two vehicles for some really expansive levels, and both are great fun to drive.
As a final nice touch, all the text in NOLF has been localized, and the translations have been done properly too! Finally a game where I prefer Swedish "subtitles" to English ones! Even some textures have been translated (remember to look for the sign saying "mandatory FPS sewer"!).
I wrote that the problem with Soldier of Fortune was that no one put their heart and soul into it. No One Lives Forever has heart and soul, lots of soul and a lighter heart than some of these other FPS games. If I'm to complain I'll have to say that the end is way too happy, american and involves too many silly "boss" fights. They just didn't know where to stop, but who really cares when everything else is this wonderful?
