Rating: 
Summary: Disapointment and Fullfillment, all at once
Review: SOF2 is what soldier of fortune 1 SHOULD have been. All the unrealistic sci fi weapons are gone. Gone is the stupid Comic-book villain wanna be bad guys. And finally we have a selection of REAL weapons to choose from, complete with selective fire, alternate fire modes, and some other nice touches.SOF 2 definatley improves on the first. Based on the quake 3 engine, the graphics are pretty good, though not always great (by modern standards). There is an abundance of bland textures and less that perfect character models. Over all though, the graphics are pretty good, though in some places the detail is definatley lacking. The infamous GHOUL engine form the first game, which allows for dismemberment and all sorts of gruesome graphical effects is back and much improved. Bullets holes and even throwing knives will now show up anywhere on a model where it is shot (the first game only had pre ploted points on models so you might shoot someone somewhere and have the bullet hole show up 2 inches left of there - but no more). The gore is more detailed and grittier than ever. More precise damage effects are obvious - shoot someone in the face and you can blow of thier jaw, or rip part of thier skull off. Really nasty stuff. Occasionaly a grenade will leave behind a dark real pool of sausage meat looking stuff that actually gave me shivers. But somethings are missing here... there are no more intestines hanging from the belly like in the first, which I thought was the nastiest effect in the game. There is also no graphic deption of brains either. Though what was done is surely disturbing enough. You'll want to keep this one away from the kiddies. The weapons are fairly accurately modeled - much better than the first, but there isnt enough of them. Nothing like in Counter Strike or other games. Nor are there any varients of the main weapons, and the ad ons like laser sights are VERY few. The guns dont feel very different either. The game is still an action game and I suppose it plays the roll well - though more attention to realism here would have been good. Gameplay goes from great, to disapointing. The story tries to use some "half life" tricks, but it ultimatley fails. And many of the missions and levels are pretty poor. The character AI is also pretty sad, and not believable - also the gameplay is completely linear. The environments arent very interactive, and the game feels old by the time you're half way through it. Online multiplayer is good, but not great... I still prefer counterstrike. The random mission generator is a GREAT addition - atleast on paper. In practice it creats bland, unintriguing missions and maps, and creates the same ones over and over. THere is no real pressence of urban combat or interesting environments. and in general I feel disapointed. The game is fun, and a VAST improvement over the first, but gameplay needs tweaking and the developers should both focus on detail and realism (this game needs polishing) as well as get a little more creative. No doubt though, many SOF fans will be MORE than pleased with this game as it fixes the most obvious faliures of the first.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent Concept with Mediocre Results
Review: The original Soldier of Fortune game was groundbreaking in the way it rendered damage and the essence of its gameplay. It is one of the top ten most controversial games of all times (PC Gamer Dec 03) and rightly so because of that very concept of damage rendering. SoF-II builds upon that game with the GHOUL II system in which there are numerous hit zones and each of them inflicts a realistic amount of damage upon both the player and the opponent. Some critics will lambast the game because it might take several hits to take out an enemy but if you shoot a person in reality with an M-16 or similar small-arms and they're wearing a kevlar vest it would take numerous hits to get them to stop moving. Yet a single shot to the face in this game will take out all enemies. The graphics are also unbelievable as the world textures create a vivid panorama and backdrop for the action and it allows for the camoflauged enemies to actually blend in with the realistic cover in the jungle scenes and for shadows to give away enemies indoors. The sounds that accompany the game also help to create a world enriched with vibrancy that is lacking in many games on the market today (that is if you have a quality soundcard and set of speakers). The problems come with the actual gameplay itself in which the enemy AI can lob a grenade and hit your balls every time even if they're behind a wall throwing blind. It seems that without fail, if I'm crouching down the grenades will roll between my legs and blow John Mullins' family jewels into the wall behind him. Even on the normally dubbed "sissy mode" (for those hardcore FPS players that think 'easy' mode is for old people and kids) the AI poses a serious challenge (yet not impossible) to even the experienced player in the genre. For those new to the genre this game will be almost impossible to beat and might detract from the overall fun of the game. In a similar vein is the near-impossible Train Station level. It's the only level in which absolute stealth is required and it seems that I've found a bug in one of my saved games. Every single time I load the level from where I saved (after dropping off the Scientist in the train) I'm spotted by the guards and the alarm sounds. It takes 3-4 seconds, regardless of what I do, and I'm completely inside the train with nobody around me. That bug aside, one of the steps in the mission requires you to open a set of double doors and take out two guards who are walking around. The only way to actually know where the guards are is to 'listen' to their footsteps and for those that are hard of hearing or without adequate speakers it would go from fun and skill to dumb luck as to whether you opened the doors with both guards' backs turned. The game is based upon a solid concept and if the bugs were worked out it would be an astonishing game (still nowhere near the level of the soon-to-be-released Call of Duty) but because of it's faults it can't warrant more than 3 stars. Note: If I were a n00b to the FPS genre I'd surely rate this a 0 because I'd not likely be able to get past the first mission.
Rating: 
Summary: GET THIS GAME NOW!!!
Review: This game is probably the best in my library of PC games. Single player is fun, but I think the game is all about multiplayer. There are many maps, and you can get new maps from the internet; there are many game types including capture the flag, and classic deathmatch. This game is very fun - if you liked CounterStrike or any other game in its class, you will surely love SoF. There is a large variety of weapons, including grenades and the famous AK74. Overall, if you love FPS's, buy this game. And when will Soldier of Fortune 3 come out?
Rating:
Summary: Not Bad, but not amazing
Review: This game seems to mix the arcade world of FPS with a tactical simulator and at times, it seems they do a good job. But as others have said, sometimes the lack of attention to detail can really make it seem like an arcade game with no realism at all. Like: The M203 does not shoot far at all, pretty weak. No firing from the prone positoin? Pathetic. Bullet balistics...not very good. Also, the handguns have a very low rate of fire, no double taps in this game. Bang!........Bang! What, does Mr. Mullins have joint pain? Bummer. Makes using the handguns pretty pathetic, especially since the knock down power of the SOCOM .45 is not what it should be. I don't care where you get hit with a .45. You would go DOWN. The way to compensate for this slow rate of fire is to use the cheats and use a .45 (or .50) in each hand. Yeah, Resevoir Dogs was sweet, but I don't think I'd see a Green Beret trying to clear rooms with a gun in each hand. There are mods to create more realisic damage. Also, the hype about all the realistic damage is all centered around the gore content, not on the people reacting realisticly to their wounds. And the screams? Not very scary. I think they could have asked a few people who did actually kill people and listened to they scream, and ask them if SOF does a good rendition. I'm sure they would have said no. It sounds comic, which adds a whole element of cheese to the game. AI is fair, some will always complain about bad AI, but in this game it is not that bad, not amazing, but not terrible. I've seen far worse. The Delta Force games come to mind. Also, just like the arcade first person shooters, there is really no playing with large maps where you can use tactics that keep changing. It is just pretty much, walk, shoot. The weapon depiction is ok, nothing too incredible, but entertaining, except the handguns, as I said before. Weapons balistics are pretty weak too, no bullet drop, everything pretty much shoots the same, not like Operation Flashpoint (which is what you should get if you are really looking for a realistic combat simulator). Some complain about the graphics being poor, and perhaps I'm old fashioned or something, but they seem pretty amazing to me. Especially if you have a computer with a fast graphics card and something over a pentium III 733, you should be dialed in for the high end of this game. I played it on a 1.8 gig, and it was awesome. Where this game shines is in all out battles indoors, where the action is fierce and I don't get annoyed that I can't run through the woods with reckless abandon. Try that in this game when outside and you just run into little barriers that corral you back to where the game wants you to go. Fighting in a drug dealer's pad with a shotgun, silenced (actually probably more like suppressed, since if you are trying not to alert the bad guys and you fire it off, they hear you and alarms go off...even in the pouring rain on the deck of a ship with no one around) MP5 is damn cool, the rounds impacting wood, glass, brass going everywhere...not bad. And of course, it is to their credit that when you shoot people, they blead and there is gore. They are trying to depict the act of taking human life after all. Perhaps when they really get it down, players will realize that taking life is a horrible thing and nothing to idealize. Oh yeah. The story. Pathetically stupid. Some like it, but they probably read Tom Clancy and think that is authentic too.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best MP games
Review: This is a great game, but the single player isnt that good, the graphics are good, but there are better games out there. But the Multiplayer is great, IMO one of the best right now, is a very fast game with a lot of options, mods, and maps. The games is very addictive, if you are looking for a good MP game this is one of the best out there. But if you can find the original version is a lot cheapper and you can still download the gold patch free.
Rating:
Summary: Great game but could use a little polish
Review: This is very good game but the graphics engine is a little iffy with shawdows getting stuck inside of people sometimes. The grapchis are great however, you just have to crank them up (I heard some people complain that this game is ugly, not the case if you can just learn how to up your graphic settings. There are a great deal of fun weapons in this game as well as varied levels, although some of them are a tad annoying (one mission if you wonder too far from your squad you get shot from your team) The gore in this game does add a level of specialness with a geomod engine for bodies basically.
Suggested for any fps fan.
Rating:
Summary: A Lengthy and Awe-Inspiring Action Game!
Review: Yea, this game is gorey. Once you kill (many different ways to kill him/her) a terrorist, you can basically, at your leisure, just shoot the crap out these enemies. Once the limbs are eliminated, you will begin to see their lungs--no lie. It's that gorey. But it is great fun to watch!
Just like Soldier of Fortune 1, you will explore levels situated from dense Vietnamese jungles to a remote ship out on the Atlantic Ocean, from the Airport Terminal to Japanese urban streets. From mantions to massive mantions. Lots of variety. Also, for each level where you combat outdoors, it's either raining/snowing or just plain clear. In the beginning of one level where you enter the large virus-producing (discuss later) lab., it's like 50 degrees below zero, and terrorists aren't expecting you.
I love the music in this game. When on the main menu, you're greeted with orchestrated music, that sounds very suspenceful but critical music. You'll know what I mean when you hear it. Also, each level has slow-paced and fast-paced music. Each pace changes when the mood changes--what I mean is: fast, suspenceful music when you're in danger, and vice versa. I love the mantion level music, probably the best orchestrated music--kind of sounds like Medal of Honor, WWII type music.
Weapons range from a sidearm to the UZI, to an AK47, to an ultra-powerful shotgun. Grenades are awesome. Choose from either phosphorus (eye-blinding), stun (loud/bright) or flame (destroys objects and flames up stuff)grenades---and then you have your regular explosive grenades--NOT that the others DON'T explode also--they do explode.
The story is about John Mullins trying get face to face to Promethius and his connections with the illegally-operated labs that are producing a fatal virus that will kill everyone, which you will notice after the Vietnam level, where you're in a small city with sick people regurgitating.
Taylor, a partner of John Mullins, and Sam, John's advisor, are in the game. However, later in the game, after the ship in the ocean, when you fly back to the "the Shop" or headquarters in outskirts of NYC for a mission breifing, the 2-storey building partially explodes because of an "inside job". There's a fire, and must rescue Sam and bring him to the awaiting ambulance. I liked that part.
I have a GeForce FX 5200, 768 MB RAM while playing SOF2, and there are instances of slow-down, but not drastic but somewhat noticeable. However, that only occurs if there are many objects and buildings in the background, of course. You can also adjust the graphics settings to make it faster.
There are many reasons why you should get Soldier of Fortune 2. Excellent, driven plot; realistic graphics like eye-candy; sounds great on my computer; gameplay is excellent with unlimited gorey scenes; there are also great scenes of destruction, too.
Jeff
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