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Soldier Of Fortune
<p><P>Soldier Of Fortune<br><br>Like the life of real mercenary John Mullins, whom this game is both advised by and based upon, Soldier Of Forune puts plenty of emphasis on some shock horror tactics. The level of gore and dismemberment has been highly profiled and is every bit as graphics as promised. As the blood clears, however, there's still a solid game beneath the veneer of this crazed killer. Much to the enjoyment of we at TVG. <br> <br>Just how long can the Quake 2 engine keep going? Soldier Of Fortune shows there's still life in the old dog of war yet. Raven have made some serious modifications of course, and this is evident in the superlative texturing, smooth animations and specific location damage. And there's a new control system that allows the player to lean around corners-- a technique employed by your enemies as well. Many of the best new engine features have been made possible by Raven's GHOUL rendering system. The two features that are of most interest are the 26-location damage areas on the human models and the per-polygon collision physics.<br> <br>To you and me that means you can shoot off arms, legs, hands and feet even sending a terrorist's weapon flying from his hand with a well-aimed shot. The death and pain animations that accompany such actions are disturbingly realistic, with victims hopping around, clutching shattered limbs, or trying to hold in spilling guts. Head shots leave gross exit wounds at the back of the skull and blood spatters realistically onto the surrounding architecture, pools on the floor and seeps into the snow. <br> <br>The corporal detail is not just there to satisfy the gore-hungry, but adds considerable tactical depth to the game. Ammunition doesn't lie around arcade-style and is a precious commodity. This means that head shots and disarmament are economic tactics in attack, and body armour is essential in defence to prevent the realistic possibility of a one-shot death. The ability to tool up before a mission is a nice feature that adds a taste of RPG to the shooter genre, but as you quickly pick up weapons from your dead enemies, it's not as significant as it initially seems. <br> <br>The AI of the terrorist opponents is a little patchy. At times it is very impressive with soldiers leaping down from higher levels, rolling sideways to dodge your fire, running to activate alarms and reacting to them. Groups on patrol will split up, a couple coming at you fast, while a couple hang back and cover. All the animations that go with these AI activities have been artist-scripted and are not at the unrealistic mercy of a numbers engine, so when the AI is on form, it really looks great and presents extremely challenging opponents.<br> <br>However, there are still some horrible glitches. In one instance, two guards stand together, smoking and talking. If you take one of them out with a sniper shot to the head, the other nonchantly finished his cigarette, blathering on the dead body as if nothing had happened. Occasionally you also come across an individual who is staring or aiming straight into a wall. Despite this the new texture detail is wonderful, but it's a little inappropriate to be admiring scratches in the rust, or crenellations in the plaster when John Mullins is coming at you with a flame-thrower. <br> <br>The levels take you to a wide variety of locations, as Mullins attempts to rescue some rogue nuclear warheads from an international terrorist gang. They include New York subways, Siberian underground bases, Iraqi palaces, Sudanese railways and German castles. Such diversity means that you will never suffer from 'corridor syndrome' and the amazing vibration in textures of both buildings and enemies never tires your eyes. Less exciting are the frequently linear missions.<br> <br>While it's not fun getting lost for long in this sort of game, the balance is too uneven in Soldier Of Fortune and it's usually pretty obvious where you're meant to go next. Environments are very interactive, however, adding features such as pipelines, destructible walls and some great land and air vehicles including an entire level on a moving train. Soldier Of Fortune represents some excellent tweaking of the first-person shooter genre but its chief legacy will be in upping the blood stakes. <br></P> <br /> <P><a href="mailto:bribrad@eircom.net">Noel Brady</a></P> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <p> <p> <br /> <br /> <br />
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Game Information
Available On:
PC, PS2, PS2, DC
| Release Date: | Players: |
|---|---|
| Out Now | 1 |
| Publisher: | Genre: |
| Crave Entertainment | Action |
| Developer: | PEGi Rating: |
| Raven Software |
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