A few months back I had a chance to go hands-on with an early build of Soldier of Fortune and after about 30 minutes of playing time, I left rather excited about this military shooter. Now that I've had my time with the retail version, it's time to talk about the overall experience. Does this shooter make some waves or are we getting into the same old thing? Let's find out...
Gameplay
The game puts you in the shoes of a mercenary who has been double crossed by one of your partners. Apparently you were supposed to protect some diplomat at instead of that, your partner offs him for a greater good. There isn't a whole hell of a lot more to that so basically you're a little pissed off and you need to find out who's behind all this treachery going on in the middle east. The game itself is a pretty straight forward shooter that controls like most other ones you've played by now. The big difference here is however that once you put a cap into someone's ass or head or whatever, their limbs can be literally shot off. Say you've got your sights on some Arab fellow and you snipe him between the eyes. The next thing you're likely to see is his headless body crash to the ground as blood spurts all over the place. It's quite amusing actually and maybe a little diabolical but to make matters worse, you can actually walk up to him and begin shooting off his other limbs. Talk about leaving a bloody mess eh! The over-the-top gore is what makes the title stand out in my opinion and is honestly its forte. What I found interesting as well was that if you shoot off someone's arm for instance, they can still try and shoot you with their other hands as they drag theme selves on the ground or hold themselves up. Of course they'll also bleed to death but they have a small window of opportunity to retaliate while they're still alive. Certainly this would be a case where you'd want to shoot him in the balls or obliterate his neck off. Speaking of necks, I one time shot this guy right on the side of his neck and he crumbled to his knees while holding onto his neck, a sign that the AI is smart enough to react to a specific part of the body that has been shot; good stuff!
It'll hurt if I swallow!
Another aspect of the game where it becomes somewhat unique is in the ability to customize your weapons. Ala Battlefield 2142, you can equip yourself with a main weapon, a secondary weapon, a handgun and some type of frag equipment (i.e.. grenades, smoke bombs, flash grenades). If that wasn't enough, your weapons can be upgraded by adding things like a silencer or grenade launcher. This is something that I would like to see done in more shooters. The story mode itself is rather quick and should take players anywhere from 5-7 hours to complete. The story as I mentioned is a little generic and offers little motivation and the AI, though smart in some aspects can also be a bit idiotic. On many occasions I found the enemies running right past me or running towards my fire. The game is also a bit on the easy side with most enemies jumping out right in front of you though sometimes they'll shoot you from the most obscure places that you may have trouble locating them. You won't find your heart pounding in this one with everything being pretty much in front of you but at least you can take the action online.
The online mode is also somewhat straight forward as you can jump into a quick match or customize the game type with options like Team Deathmatch or Deathmatch. You can still customize your weapons when you battle online with up to 12 players. I found online play to be pretty fun for the most part as blowing off someone's limbs even after they were dead was kind of a treat. The unfortunate part is that with so many other excellent shooters, there weren't many people to play with. Many times I found myself staring at my screen waiting for 3 other players to join (it takes at least 4 for a deathmatch) that I was forced to exit and look for a new game. It's pretty frustrating when no one seems to want to play and it's kind of a letdown.
Graphics
What would all the gore and dismemberment be for if the game couldn't make it all look so beautiful in a deadly kind of way? Luckily, the game looks quite good as the lush environments look impressive and the detail in each of the enemies and the bloody mess they make really speaks out to me. There is one particular stage that takes place in a jungle that happens to be my favorite. It looks like an area right out of Far Cry with the trees and waterfalls looking gorgeous and life-like. The terrains in the desert areas also pop out at you so its easy to see that the art team did a fantastic job with the look of Soldier of Fortune. With such detail and bloody corpses laying around, the team did have to cut the online multiplayer from 16 to 12 players to keep things smoothly and it's a fair trade off.
I think I can see his tonsils from here
Sound
The sound effects coming from the guns you're firing sound pretty good especially from a decent surround system. Where the game loses me is in the hideous voice acting in which the lead character sounds like a pissed off G. I. Joe.
Fun Factor
From the early going, the game is a blast to play especially for players who never played the original Soldier of Fortune. The shock and glee of shooting off someone's kneecap and blood trails that can fill a river will keep you entertained for a good while until you've played it for a few weeks. The gore factor eventually wears off and with a lackluster campaign mode, you may eventually get bored. But hey, who are we to judge the sinister enjoyment of our readers. Shooting off heads and leaving the enemy disfigured may keep you glued to your Xbox 360 like a 2 year old watching Barney DVD's.
Lasting Appeal
As I mentioned earlier, the campaign mode is pretty short. That being said, there's always online multiplayer right? Well as long as you can actually find someone to play with. You may be hard pressed to continue playing after you've beaten the game and tried heavily to find a online game to join in.
The 411
Soldier of Fortune: Payback is a decent little romp that goes beyond the rules of killing by letting you do unthinkable things to your enemy. It's a fun game for the vicious killer in us all though the fun seems to stop in less time that I would have liked. Still it's a somewhat enjoyable title that deserves some attention and should be the basis for a much improved sequel.
Graphics
8.0
Beautiful locations with detailed environments. Plus a load of gory body parts look insane.
Gameplay
6.0
Decent shooter with questionable AI. Customization of weapons is cool and did we mention dismemberment?
Sound
6.0
Weapons sound good, but the voice acting is below average.
Lasting Appeal
4.0
Short campaign mode and little or no online players to join up with.
Fun Factor
6.5
Single player can be frustrating but the shooting of enemy limbs is a hoot.
