Soldier of Fortune II: Double Helix

"Gore vs Gameplay"

When we think about controversial games in history names such as Carmageddon, Grand Theft Auto and Soldier of Fortune spring to mind. Soldier of Fortune was a good game, based on the Quake 2 engine it was fairly dated, but featured a hit location system that allowed you to shoot off individual enemies limbs. Sure, the game was repetitive, but it was fun. There was just a certain 'spark' about it, that had you captivated till the end.
Well, now we have Soldier of Fortune 2, and I ask myself, is this game fun too?

John Mullins returns again, as a 'Soldier of Fortune;' mercenaries hired by the government to handle situations too delicate for the government to get involved in. The first mission plays as a flashback, an introduction to John's past, and from there introduces the themes of biological warfare, which is a prevalent theme from then on in the game.

Graphically, Soldier of Fortune is a nice looking game, till you see it moving. John's character seems to lurch across the screen, a poor effect that makes the game feel as though it is constantly chugging. Even running on my GeForce 4 Ti the game still felt sluggish. Another matter that annoyed me was the enemy death routines. The developer has tried to remove the 'floating body' factor, i.e when a character is killed on steps or the edge of a platform and they just seem to hover in mid-air. Great I hear you all saying. Well, all is not as it should be. sometimes an enemy will be killed and slumped over the environment in the most unusual and humanly impossible ways. One person for instance, I killed standing in a door frame. When he fell down in his death animation his head hit the side of the door frame and his body was left propped up against it. Impossible for a dead body. At other times bodies will just 'stick' to things, making for some very odd dead people!
There are some good set-pieces in the game though, such as the forest from the second mission, which is just beautiful. Character animation is also another low point. I noticed in the cut-scenes that the characters look wrong in the way they walk, and some objects in the game are rendered rather poorly, such as some doors which are just big rectangles.
The hit location system returns, and is much more detailed than the last game. You can actually shoot off exact pieces of an enemies head, till his/her brain falls out.
You can even place hit wounds on the exact spot you shoot, unlike the original that just applied a texture map of gun shot wound over the whole limb, regardless of where you shot. The overall 'effects' of these new implementations are purely cosmetic, doing nothing to add to the way the game plays.
As for gun models in the game, they are highly detailed, and look very good. The smoke trails are also fairly good.

The sounds are average, your usual assortment of gunshots, screams of pain and explosions. The music was entirely forgettable, and can hardly remember what the music was like even though i just played the game half an hour ago. The voice acting is fairly good, and luckily there aren't too many dodgy actors.

Gameplay is a very different matter. The one word to sum it up would be 'repetitive.' All it boils down to is shooting enemies with a gun in repetitious corridors. Sure, games don't have to be complex to be fun, but there is just something missing from SOF2 that doesn't make it as enjoyable as the original, that certain 'spark.'
Perhaps others will think differently, but I truly believe there is something missing from this game that made the original so much fun to play. Perhaps after the initial novelty of hit location has worn off then we are left with little actual gameplay. There are a wide veriety of levels, which seem rather huge at first, but after a while you come to realise that the levels aren't huge at all. For instance, the first level is set in a small town. It seems big at first until you realise that there are carefully put in barriers and blockades that prevent you from exploring the environment in any way, there is only one set path. This seems like a set back for the genre, especially after games such as Deus Ex, that allowed you to find your own paths and actually rewarded the player for exploration of the levels.

There are much better first person shooters out there today, but if you just want a game to pick up and play for a few hours, without challenging your brain, then Soldier of Fortune 2 is your game. Otherwise, grab Deus Ex or Serious Sam for a more enjoyable experience.

Story: 5 Save the world........again......
Graphics: 7 Looks great, till you see it running.
Sound: 8 Good voice acting, average music and sound effects.
Gameplay: 4 Adds nothing new to the genre other than extreme gore.
Longetivity: 4 You'll be lucky if you even complete it once.
Overall: 6 Not as much fun as the original, and after a while very repititious.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 08/06/02, Updated 08/06/02