Enter No One Lives Forever 2: A Spy in HARM's Way. This excellent shooter and sequel to an excellent shooter is the type that will save the genre. Here's why:
System requirements: You don't need a new PC to run this game, but this doesn't mean it looks like the original Doom. More on that later.
Gameplay: There are some puzzles, but they aren't annoying or counterintuitive. It is possible to get past some levels without killing anyone. Curiosity and inventiveness pay off here, but if you can't do that, you can usually just go in with guns blazing.
Something new: The game has some nice additions from the original NOLF. Most significant of these are skills. Completing primary and secondary objectives and finding intelligence items gives you points, which you can invest in 8 different skills that all have a significant impact on gameplay. Additionally, there are new and cool gadgets to play with. Many of them auto-activate when necessary, which disposes of the annoyance of having to switch over to use them. HARM also has some new hires and allies, including French mimes (no, I didn't make that up). Do you need any other reason to play?
Story: This is what really makes the game fun. The voice acting and cutscenes (all done with the game engine) are superb, and really draw you into the plot. As you might guess from the title, the usual suspects are up to no good once again. It's a tossup as to whether this is more of a James Bond or Austin Powers kind of script, but whatever it is, it's a good one.
AI: The NOLF AI is smartas good as any other game I've seen. They take cover behind objects, go prone, roll out of the way of grenades, and seek you out if you make noise. The AI characters also act like real people. If you pick one of them off with a silenced weapon, they'll be confused for a second and then load their guns and start looking around. If you can see them, they can see you, and given enough time they definitely will.
Replayability: Due to the detail of the levels, it's unlikely you'll find everything there is to find on one pass. Also, the AI behaves in a random enough fashion that every time you play an area the outcome could be very different (if you don't believe me, just try reloading a save). Also, you don't have enough skill points to advance to the max in every area. Playing again with a different set of skills is quite fun. For example, try going all-out stealth and health instead of firepower and attempt to sneak your way through places you blasted by earlier. It's arguably more exciting trying this!
Graphics and sound: This is the first game I've seen that models expressions believably. The Jupiter engine has the look and feel of something that would require a cutting-edge machine to run, but goes smoothly on an average computer. It is, quite simply, astonishing. There's a huge amount of interaction with the environment, and things have an almost movie-like appearance. The characters are especially a pleasure to see, due to the attention to detail. Ms. Archer in particular has had a gorgeous makeovershe is arguably the hottest woman in any game to date, even including live motion actresses. Oh, and by the way, the soundtrack is killer.
Multiplayer: The version of the game that shipped did not have significant multiplay support. This has been remedied. Updating to the latest version gives you deathmatch, team deathmatch, cooperative, and assault game modes. Additionally, there are plenty of maps out now. The only thing missing here is bots, which is a bit of a pity considering how good the AI is. I'm sure someone will think to add those later.
If this isn't enough to convince you, the setting is just plain cool. This is the 60's, folks, complete with President Johnson, neon colored clothing, retro-tech spygear, and even a bellicose American general. The characters that populate this world have true depth and, more often than not, are good for some great laughs. Lastly, this game is probably the best deal you'll ever see at such a low price. Don't miss outgrab NOLF 2 while you can.
Click Here For Most Helpful Customer Reviews >>
No One Lives Forever 2: A Spy in H.A.R.M.'s Way continues the story of British agent Cate Archer, and her quest to save mankind. She's like a female Austin Powers, set in the 60s but a bit more witty and intelligent.Cate Archer isn't Rambo. Her missions aren't about shooting everyone in sight. Instead, you lurk in the shadows, use your ultra-cool weapons like the Angry Kitty, and distract your enemies by throwing coins or hitting wind chimes.
The levels are very well done. The graphics are great and quite realistic, making you really feel like you're in different areas of the world in the 60s. The computer characters chat with each other and the ambient noise fits in well. The music is great!
There are all sorts of types of missions, with a wide selection of weapons to find and funny scenes to keep you entertained. The game really pulls you along and the ride is quite enjoyable. The characters are very well done and seem quite real. Add on to all of this a quite-fun on line game experience and you can easily play this for months. Highly recommended for any spy-game-fan!
Best Deals for No One Lives Forever 2: A Spy In H.A.R.M.'s Way
Having never played the first installment, I can't vouch for NOLF2's faithfulness as a sequel. Apparently some fans of the first NOLF were a bit disappointed. Regardless, I am now officially hooked on Cate Archer. "A Spy in H.A.R.M.'s Way" beautifully captures all the feel, textures, and sounds of 60's spy flicks with an absolutely delightful sense of humor.Yes, this is basically another first-person shooter with an entrance and exit to each level, fairly linear missions, and several "bosses" to defeat, but enough was going on in between to keep me very interested. I found the levels and missions were also varied enough between stealth, shoot-em-up, investigation, riding on a snowmobile, and downgright silliness, to keep things from getting dull.
The graphics are gorgeous and show excellent use of the lithtec jupiter engine. All the locales from snowy Siberia to the caves of HARM's secret underground headquarters (complete with artificial lava) are very well done. I especially enjoyed the retro 60's look in HARM's undersea lab and UNITY's headquarters.
The sounds and music are also outstanding. One level has Cate doing some investigating in a trailer park in Ohio with a full blown tornado in the background. While inside, the sounds of the
wind battering and rattling the house are quite unnerving. Once outside, total chaos reigns with sounds of debris striking off of and embedding itself in various surfaces while the wind roars in the background and trailers roll over. The music is top-notch and perfectly matches each locale and the 60's theme. The music also changes appropriately depending on the action.
As far as weapons go, you always start each mission with just a small array, but every level has plenty of weapons to find with a little looking. As is the case with the game in general, weapons range from the typical shoot-em-up ak47's and tommy guns, to spy gadgets like tranquilizer darts and stun guns, to the plain absurd like laughing gas grenades, explosive mechanical kitties, and my favorite hands-down the banana!
It's really the characters, though, that made the game for me. The voice acting is movie quality and all of the NPC's are done very well. And, unlike the Austin Powers series, there is no shameless mugging or gross humor here, which implies that the creators of this game know what real humor is namely grabbibg a tommy-gun and hopping on the back of a kiddie tricycle being peddaled by your burly Scottish sidekick (kilt and all) in pursuit of a 3 foot mime/arch-criminal on a unicycle through the back streets of an Indian city.
System specs: P4 1.9ghz, 512mb rambus, TI4600 Geforce4 128mb, Soundblaster live X-gamer. Performance was flawless.
Honest reviews on No One Lives Forever 2: A Spy In H.A.R.M.'s Way
If you had the opportunity to play the original No One Lives Forever, and you're thinking of purchasing the sequel, chances are you liked the original: A fun, campy, action-packed spoof of 1960's spy movies (James Bond in particular) and television shows.NOLF2 delivers another dose of the same in this first person shooter. The graphics are well-done with Lithtech's Jupiter engine. The levels are varied (the tricycle chase and the house-in-a-tornado battle were both different and hilarious), the conversations between the bad guys are as much the silly fun they were in the original and the action is well-paced. A new skills-based "lite" system adds interest to the game. Cate Archer, the character you play, is able to be made into a sneaky, silent spy or a full-bore gun goddess. Your choice!
The Artificial Intelligence is some of the most interesting that I've seen. The baddies don't just go off on timed pathfinding. They are programmed to be object based. In other words, they do something different all the time, based on objects in a room. And when there are many different objects in the room (cigarettes, chairs, desks, coffee cups, etc.) it can trigger a different action each time you load the game--extending its replayability.
So, with so much right, why only 4 stars? On its own, it's a brilliant game. However, compared to the original NOLF, it is missing something. It's taken me a long time to pinpoint what that is, but I believe it lacks the same soul as its predecessor. The cut scenes have been trimmed CONSIDERABLY, which has led to less character development than the original had. The game is also shorter. Plus, some of the stealth aspects were still less feasible because there is a place early in the game where the baddies respawn. It tends to push you from loitering in one place for too long, but that is an irritating way to move the game along.
Overall, I got the feeling that the developers did an excellent job listening to complaints about the original and addressing them. However, I believe they overcorrected in their solutions. Still, the game stands on its own. I have no doubt a third installment will be coming. My hope is that the end result will include the better storytelling aspects from the first, meshed with the improved design of the second.
No comments:
Post a Comment