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No One Lives Forever 2: A Spy in H.A.R.M.'s Way

No One Lives Forever 2: A Spy in H.A.R.M.'s Way

List Price: $9.99
Your Price: $9.99
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Clever ideas brought down by boring "find the key" missions
Review: General/Summary: NOLF 2 improves upon many aspects of the original: more flexible, easier stealth missions; better gadgets; shorter cutscenes; and better graphics. It's production values are great, oozing with 60's style, from the great voice acting to the campy music. It's only downfall are the somewhat dry moments of gameplay, near the end of a mission.
Gameplay: The action, humor, and style of this game make it addictive and entertaining throughout its 15 hour length. Missions can be finished by either stealth or guns blazing, and unlike its predecessor, the sounding of alarms doesn't mean inevitable death; you can usually blast your way out of a massive enemy firefight intact. However, the "find the document/find the password/find the exit/find the briefcase/plant the third explosive" style of missions really bring the game down.

Some of the missions are downright genius in their scope; the Siberia mission is wellintended, spanning about 2 hours, and featuring vehicles to travel on. But there are times when it DRAGS. You may clear out an entire enemy force and then be slowed down for 15 minutes, searching every corner and filing cabinet for the item that moves the mission along. At times it feels like Resident Evil where you have to constantly click so you don't miss any critical items. The Calcutta missions in the game are also exciting at times, but brought down by monotonous "filler" missions like scrounging the area for posters.

When nearing the end of the game, in a submarine setting, it becomes maddening searching through corridors, checking every desk and piece of metal for a shred of paper with essential intelligence.

It's interesting enough to play through and enjoy, and laudable for some of it's clever missions (the escaping Ohio level with the tornado is a real looker), but the constant "find the item, move along" style of gameplay becomes very tedious.

Graphics: I never thought the Lithtech engine would look this good. The outdoor environments are some of the best I've ever seen in a game. Facial animations and expressions are amazing, with lip-synching technology that nearly works. Graphics and effects are strong throughout the game, and the textures, especially in the Calcutta levels, are extremely detailed.

It's framerates are decent, and it appears to be CPU bound with a Radeon 9700. I ran the game at 1280x960 with all the details up, with 2x AA and 16x anisotropic filtering at a constant 45-75 fps.

Sound: Unlike the recently released UT2003, the sound in this game is great. Voice acting is done very well, and the way the dialogue is delivered really adds to the humor. The music fits the 60s theme, as do the environmental sounds.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Quite good, but not outright "exceptional"
Review: I very much enjoyed the creativity of the original No One Lives Forever and had very high hopes for this sequel.

Very importantly, make sure your computer meets the technical requirements (e.g., video card capable of hardware transform & lighting--T&L--I've heard people without capabilities have big problems if they can even play). Graphics work is extremely smooth and well done. The sound work is a very rare, if not unique, 10 out of 10 for soundtrack, cues, etc. Outstanding. New features for hiding, increasing various skills levels, dragging away bodies, etc. have been seamlessly incorporated and are very easy to learn. Most levels can be accomplished by either stealth or brute force--the occasionally maddening stealth requirements of the original don't exist, save perhaps for one not-too-difficult courtyard one needs to sneak through. Cut scenes are more efficient and not as much of an interruption. I don't recall encountering any real bugs, perhaps a first for a game (!), save perhaps getting trapped once or twice by civilians in a corner in India from which I couldn't move.

On the downside:
There's new humorous gadgets, but it's quite easy to go through the entire game and never use them, even forgetting if they're being carried. Switching weapons/gadgets isn't always the easiest thing. Unique levels requiring things like skydiving, SCUBA diving, etc., don't appear. One swims for maybe ten seconds total, and the rest of the time is running around, primarily with weapons and some attention to stealth when needed. There's a snowmobile, but barring a couple of mandatory jumps across chasms, it can be ignored and things just run through if wanted. The game overall can seem pretty "standard" until about the last third (about the time the tricycle and the mimes kick in! Bravo!). Completing the game takes about 1/3 the time of the original. In making a streamlined and cohesive game, some of the unique and unpredictable creativity of the original appears to have been toned down.

Overall? This remains a very very good game, and is extremely well put-together, perhaps the "slickest" and most commercial-feeling overall of anything to date. For those more "experienced" who like things challenging and with some variety, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Jedi Outcast, and Serious Sam 2 are probably better bets. When it comes to game of the year (for which this MAY be a contender), games like Grand Theft Auto 3 and Mafia probably have more going for them (and we're still waiting on the new Tomb Raider). NOLF seems to be going a bit more "slickly" mainstream and losing a tad of its original "what the heck let's be creative and do something bizarre" edge. Still worthy of getting a movie made from its concepts though, as much as it's starting to feel more like a female Austin Powers rather than just being its own thing.

NOLF2 gets a strong recommendation, with a caveat that fans of the original may find that more work was put into graphics and sound than in creating and expanding creative concepts, and another caveat that "serious" gamers may find this a surprisingly relatively quick and straightforward play.

Thumbs up, but I want my NOLF 3.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: First was good, the second is much better.
Review: Graphics: Great.
Game play: Great.
Sound: Good.
Interface: Almost Perfect.

I'm really enjoying this game. If you liked the first, you'll love this one. This game excels at all the obvious attributes that make a game great, but the thing that really impresses me most about this game is its interface. I have never played a game that was as well designed as this one. It seems they thought of everything, except one minor annoyance - quickloads are not instantaneous. But the levels are huge so I guess there has to be a tradeoff.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Even Better Than The First!!!
Review: Cate Archer is back in a huge way!!!! NOLF2 is absolutely AMAZING!!! The graphics are absolutely incredible, even the actual game, not just the cut scenes. The storyline is once again very in depth as well as comical. I will make this short and sweet. With a new barage of weapons and gadgets to tinker around with. NOLF2 will most definately rank up to Game of the Year again. I am not exagerating. It really is that good. I have ALL of the new FPS(First Person Shooters) and this is by far my favorite. Don't get me wrong, I mean games like SOF2 are great, but most FPS are pretty close to the same story. NOLF2 not only keeps you interested with the unique arsenal of weaponry and gadgets, but the storyline is still "Austin Powers" like, with machine gunning. This is a must buy for any serious FPS gamer!!!!
I have a 1.3GH P4 with 768MB RAM, and GeForce4 128MB TI4600 which most likely has a lot to do with how well my particular game performs. However, the requirements are nowhere near that, which means that almost anyone with a decent system should easily get good results with NOLF2. BUY IT!!!!!! IT IS SOOOOO WORTH IT!!!!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: If you get one game, get this one
Review: Sierra and Monolith have on their hands the best single player FPS franchise in the world. Half Life may have revolutionized the single player FPS genre, but NOLF has perfected it.

UNITY's Cate Archer is back to battle the nefarious H.A.R.M with a whole new graphics engine to boot. And like James Bond, she gets better and better with each episode.

Ill keep my review short and sweet so as not to bore you. The new graphics are stunning. Water has never looked so good. Grass waves in the wind. The characters are highly detailed and their mouths literally speak the words. No more "chewing gum" mouths. The weapons and gadgets are spectacular, I used each and every one of them. You can gun your way around a level with an AK-47 or snoop around with a brand new "utility launcher" The inclusion of which was done perfectly. It truly is the most versatile of cate's weapons and great for silently moving around.

The plot is wonderful and I wont spoil it for you here. Needless to say, it was so good I had my girlfriend watching over my shoulder the entire game like it was a movie. She would not let me play unless she was watching. And thats testament to the brilliance of this game and of its predecessor. Its not a game, its entertainment. You dont play a "shooter" you play a movie that is complete with witty characters, exotic locales, and stunning gameplay.

Do us a favor Sierra/Monolith, dont make us wait 2 more years for NOLF 3. You have an amazing engine and a world class franchise. Please produce another NOLF soon, Cate is too good to be shelved for long

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: angry kitty!
Review: NOLF2 is so amazing! if you liked the first one, then you will love NOLF2 even more. the story is awesome, the graphics!!!!!!! are realllly really nice and the humor, that's the best part of the game :)

fun for everyone :)

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Wow! I never thought it'd be this good!
Review: Action, humor, AMAZING graphics, fun gameplay. This has it all. Highly recommended.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Uh?
Review: Uh to the person who wrote the first review, uh, when you wrote that review the game wasn't even out yet soooo uh you are a liar . you might be a tester, but you acted as if it was already out in your review, so i just wanted to tell you I'm not that stupid to think it was really out then.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: NOLF2: A Spy in H.AR.M'S WAY
Review: I downloaded the offical demo and it is very playable. I will be trying my best to buying it when it comes out. I usually do not buy games when they first come out but this one is worth it/ The only complaint I have is that they did not use the orginal voice actress for Cate Archer.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Best Single Player FPS Ever Made
Review: If you enjoyed the first No One Lives Forever, you'll be surprised that the developers at Monolith have improved it in every possible every way.

The story is just as fresh and funny as the original, but is delivered through the most impressive in-game cut-scenes I have ever seen. The character's lips are synched perfectly with the hilarious dialogue and their eyes blink and follow the person they are talking to in a perfectly natural way. It reminds me of the first time I saw "Toy Story" and I had to remind myself that everything was really a computer generated cartoon and not real. It is very hard to believe that these cut-scenes are not pre-rendered, but are actually done with the game engine!

After watching the opening cut-scene you find yourself inside the beauty of the game itself. The first level is the most beautiful FPS game level I had ever seen (untill I played the rest of the game! :) I don't want to spoil the game, but just like the original No One Lives Forever, you will travel to many different exotic locations around the world and each one is better than the last. I don't know how they pulled it off, it is a testament to the skill of the developers at Monolith, but each location is beautiful and believable. You really have to experience it yourself to understand how impressive the art in the game really is.

The gameplay is outstanding. All of the hype you may have heard about the new and improved AI is NOT hype, but truth! I couldn't believe how realistic the AI was, many previews have talked about it so I won't go into detail here, just believe the hype! The coolest thing is that you can adjust the gameplay difficulty at any time so when it got too hard, I just went from Hard to Normal and it was much more fun. For a while I played on Easy just to run around and fight and not worry about getting killed. Then when I wanted a challenge I moved it back up to Hard (I wasn't about to try Super Spy ;).

The new cooperative mode is really cool as well. I wasn't sure if I would like it or not, but my brother and I have been playing it a lot. It feels just like the single player game, but is cool since you can organize with another person the best approach and when you're about to get killed the other person can run in and protect you. Very, very cool. We used to fight a lot when we'd play deathmatch against each other, but now we're on the same side and I actually feel closer to him when I save him from getting killed (or revive him after he has died). I know it sounds weird, but we don't fight as much anymore! (well, we still fight, but not when playing NOLF 2! ;)

There is a ton more that is cool about the game, but since so much of the game is the story I don't want to ruin it for anyone. The story lives up to the first game, and is actually much funnier in many ways. The NOLF series is definitely my favorite and I hope just like the Bond movies that they just keep making them forever. Anyway, I think I'm going to go start over from the beginning and see if I can play though the whole game without killing anyone! Just be super sneaky like a real spy!

If you haven't played this game you have missed out on an extrodinary gaming experience! Go buy it now! :)


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