Soldier of Fortune II: Double Helix

"Whoops, there goes a leg!"

INTRODUCTION
After enduring two mediocre FPS games, namely James Bond: Nightfire, and Unreal 2, I was beginning to tire of such games. Thus, I embarked on a journey to my local shopping mall to find some other gaming alternatives. However, there was a surprise waiting for me. Namely, they had Soldier Of Fortune 2 back in stock! I quickly purchased it. Before starting it up, questions appeared in my mind. Would this game give me the satisfaction I sorely needed? Would it restore my confidence in FPS games? My friends, the answer is yes. Oh, so yes.

PLOT 5/10
You play John Mullins, mercenary for hire. You work for The Shop, a super secret organisation that eliminates terrorist threats the world over, using less conventional means. This time, your objective is to foil a plot to unleash a deadly biochemical weapon on an unsuspecting public. And of course, what war plot would be complete without some Russian terrorists thrown in? How about a Chinese computer hacker? Heck, throw in a traitor as well! Mix them all together, and you get a staggeringly average plot. Not good, not bad, just average. But who cares anyway? The fun part is where you get to shoot people!

GRAPHICS 8/10
Athough slightly dated, the graphics in SOF2 are still quite good. The character models are detailed, and the weapon designs match their real life counterparts closely. And now, for the disadvantages of having an old graphics engine. The water animations and shiny surfaces leave much to be desired. In addition, the lip movements don't synchronize well with the dialogue. Although the death animations are good, its a bit crappy when the body falls on the ground because they don't slump down the stairs or lean against the walls. Furthermore, they tend to lie down in awkward positions. SOF3 needs Ragdoll physics!!

CONTROLS 9/10
They're good, with one exception. The OICW Gun, or the Super-Rifle, can't fire it's grenades unless you 'Laze' the target first. Needless to say, this is annoying since most of the time, you will rarely find enemies standing still in groups, waiting for you to 'Laze' them, align the crosshair with the dot, and then shoot. They would most probably be gone by now. Besides that, it makes the grenade ability useless in pitched firefights, with multiple enemies ganging on you. Besides that, there's nothing much to complain about.

SOUND 9/10
Outstanding. From the BLAM of the shotgun, to the clinking of grenades (which you will grow to fear), every weapon sound in the game has been recreated perfectly, immersing you into the intense firefights. Furthermore, the sound of your footsteps on certain surfaces like metal and glass are also done well. As for the music, well... its okay. Oh yes, and the enemies speak in their native languages, and even during some certain cutscenes! A thumbs up to Raven for adding a further touch of realism.

GAMEPLAY 9/10
Never before has a game been so violent. For those with weak minds, or parents who think this game will instantly turn their children into mindless murderers, this game is not for you, or your kids. Even though there is a Parental Lock, putting it on kinda destroys Raven's efforts at making this game as realistic as possible. Okay, with that aside, let us get back to the review.

Yes, as mentioned above, this game is violent. VERY violent. Examples of said violence include: Blowing body parts off, being able to hack off parts of the head one by one, bulletholes appearing on bodies with the appropiate blood spatter, blood pooling beneath every dead enemy, and death animations. And that, is that makes this game so fun. Many a time I have used the shotgun and purposely aimed at the arms just so I could blow them off, and watch the death animations. When a body is on the ground, there is more fun to be had. I would shoot it with a few bullets to examine the blood spatter and the appropiate bulletholes that were created. Or I would pull out my knife and carve the body apart. And no, I am not a sadist. I'm just enjoying the game to its fullest.

The missions are mostly comprised of shooting the hell out of whatever you see, and a few stealth missions. The stealth missions are a bit flawed, however. This is due to the enemies having super eyesight. Once they catch a small glimpse of you, even for a milisecond when you peer out behind a corner, the alarm will be sounded and most of the time, it's game over. The AI is okay, but they have a bit of a problem with their pathfinding abilities, and there are some times where it took them a while to notice me and start firing.

As for the level designs, they are mostly linear, saving me the trouble of backtracking to accomplish some obscure objective I forgot to do earlier in the level. Some levels are quite well done, like the Columbia levels. The underbrush makes it hard for you to spot enemies, since they are wearing cameoflage. Yet more realism, although it seems that the undergrowth won't help YOU hide from the enemies.

This game will take you a while to complete, maybe around 10 hours? After you're done with the single-player missions, you can take on some randomly generated missions or go online for an alternative to Counter-Strike (no offense, but I'm tired of that game). And so, replayability is medium-ish.

CONCLUSION 8/10
This game HAS restored my faith in FPS games. Don't let the high violence content put you off, its rather comical actually, and adds a lot to the gameplay. Forget the overrated Unreal 2, get this. Who needs pretty shiny surfaces and fluid water animations when you have have an arm-blasting spree instead?

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 04/25/03, Updated 04/25/03