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Soldier of Fortune
Page 2
Why, Raven, why?
Things aren't all positive I'm afraid :-(
Remember me mentioning the 'action-style' gameplay ? It means leaving out some situational puzzles, right ? Well yes and you see, it makes SoF a high adrenaline ride, but alas a very short one.
It's all good running through a map blowing away the 'bad' guys, but it can go very fast. I finished SoF in 2 days on Medium difficulty. The in-game timer stopped at 5h42m. I'm afraid I expected a game a little longer.
Sure, it takes longer to finish it if you play the Unfair setting, but what's the point ? The only difference is the enemy count, nothing more nothing less. As long as you keep on shooting away with some heavy weapon, they keep on coming ( the more noise you make, the more enemies lock on to your position).
And yes, there is multiplay, but Raven clearly marketed the product as a Single Player game.
Another thing I was very disappointed about was the ending. I won't tell anything about it, but is one of the most stupid endings I have ever seen. It just leaves an empty feeling, just like Half-Life did.
  
Help ! I can't play!
I have included this little troubleshooting paragraph, because a lot of people seem to have trouble getting this game to run.
I you have problems, you should start by reading the faqs and docs provided on the disc. A second place to look is Raven's messageboard. There are a lot of tips from other players and the Raven people stop by now and then to personally answer game problems.
If you can't find what you're looking for I have included some things I have found out myself. Mind you, I never had trouble running SoF, but maybe it can help some desperate people among you :
-Install everything on the disc including WONSwap, even if you don't plan on playing over the Internet. This can fix a 'CD not found'-problem
-Make sure your 3D card fully supports the OpenGL 1.1 standard
-For VooDoo2 users : in the past I have experienced that upgrading to the latest drivers is not always the best solution. If possible try running SoF with DirectX 5 drivers instead of DirectX 6 or the very buggy DirectX 7 drivers.
-Be sure you have 64 Mb of FREE RAM; close down all TSR by CTRL+ALT+DEL and shutting down everything except explorer and systray.
-Don't even try at running SoF under Windows 2000. Win2000 is a business platform.
-I recommend 32-bit cards for richer colours and textures
-Pray for a patch :-)
If you have a configuration similar to mine and can't get the game to work, you can mail me to compare drivers, setup, etc.
Reviewers Note: The latest patch for SOF fixes a lot of the above troubles so please grab it!
Phew ! Well, I guess it's time for the final judgement.
 
Conclusion
Manual:
Hey, it's a FPS game, so guess what ? The manual is very, very thin. It covers all the basic controls and some info on the standard weapons. The credit pages seem to take the most space :-) Raven offer however some of the best support I have ever seen ! (technical support is handled by Activision)
Sound / Music:
Very good dynamic music ! It's a long way from those boring MIDI tunes and it adds a lot of atmosphere to the game. As far as the weapon sounds go : some of the best in the genre. Even the enemies die in the most satisfying way : by screaming a lot, unless you blow of their head :-)
Graphics:
It is based on the Quake2 engine, but it doesn't show. Very beautiful and crisp textures if your card can handle them. Some interesting level design and believable environment renderings. Nice scripted sequences throughout the game.
And of course … the GHOUL rendering system !
Excellent !!
Gameplay:
As a single player experience SoF is a high adrenaline ride, offering some of the most satisfying gun fights in any game, ever.
It is however very sad that the game is rather short and offers very little replay value for the single player. This does not mean you shouldn't get it. If you waited for it, you probably already have it. If not, I really recommend SoF, but I also recommend playing on a high difficulty level.
John Mullins, OUT …
-Jochen
Ratings
Manual:
76% |
Graphics:
95% |
Music & Sfx:
93% |
GamePlay:
92% |
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This game scores
on our 5-point Rating System
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