Soldier of Fortune II: Double Helix

"While the game incorporates a great engine, the game could have been better"

You are John Mullins, returning for duty on your next assignment. While you're not quite sure what you will find, you know it's a deadly disease taking the lives of thousands. This is your day Soldier, this is the day, for a Soldier of Fortune.

Graphics:9/10

Even compared with recent amazing graphically advanced releases, this game holds its own. The graphics are nicely polished, damage can be taken to SOME objects, adding damage to the terrain. Shooting at bad guys also causes them to bleed violently, which creepy and disturbing to watch at first, is the nonetheless, realistic. That's a major part about the game. The game is so real, that the violence is. That's what put the game on the map, the gore. When you shoot someones arm off with a shotgun, it flies off, and lands on the floor, and you can see the bone, and the flesh around the arm. Disturbing at first, but you'll get used to it soon enough.

Sound:7/10

While voice acting is nicely done, not professionally, but well enough to fit the atmosphere, the guns begin to sound pretty bland.....Lots of the Auto Assault weapons' sounds begin to sound the same or quite similar to one another. Though it's not a terrible thing, it could have been worked on. Screams from enemies when you firing shots at them, or brutally decapitate them, are nicely done though.

Controls:7/10

A little flimsy and difficult to get used to in some spots. The regular movement keys are used like in many other First Person Shooters, but other, bizarre choices where made for things like crouching and shouting commands. If I do so recall though, they are fully customizable. Which is a plus. So you can suit them to your likings if you wish.

Fun Factor:5/10

While the game has nice elements, the Phantom engine (realistic gore and decapitation), the game is VERY lacking. Missions are bland and monotonous. Very unexciting most of the time. It's basically get to one end of the level to another, making the game very linear. While blowing enemies to pieces in gory detail might seem fun, it doesn't make for a fantastic game. Multiplayer is also fun, if you can ever get into any servers. It's a miracle to find a server that you can connect to that has people playing in it, and that you can connect to, because very bizarre connection problems occur OFTEN when trying to connect to a server. Even when you get into one, it doesn't stay fun for long. While you can choose whatever weapon you like (depending on the server's setup), and there are many game modes, it just isn't enough to really hold together to make a fun game. There is a feature added in this version of the game called "Random Mission Generator", which creates random missions each time you play it (depending on the choices you made). Even though this might seem like a nice extra, it isn't enough to hold your attention for long. Hardcore fan's of the original might like this the most, but if you're a casual gamer, or someone who has never heard of this game, I wouldn't recommend buying it on sight.

Buy or Rent
As stated above, I wouldn't recommend buying it without making sure you like it. Try a demo first, see how it goes, and you decide. Otherwise, don't buy it

The game I admit is cool, and enjoyable for a while, but it just becomes more of a "Been there done that" deal.

I give this game an 5/10

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 08/05/04