| Soldier of Fortune is a first-person
shooter game created by Raven Software and published by Activision on March 27, 2000 for personal computers. It uses a modified Quake
II engine. It was later released on the Sony PlayStation 2 as well as the Sega Dreamcast.
Loki Software also made a port for Linux. Based on its success, Raven Software and Activision later published Soldier of Fortune II: Double Helix
in 2002. Initially released for personal computers, the sequel was later ported to the
Xbox.
Soldier of Fortune
Background
Soldier of Fortune was developed to be based on the Soldier of Fortune magazine. About midway through the game's development, Raven Software
hired a professional mercenary, John Mullins , to act as a consultant on the game for purposes of realism and accuracy. A
fictional version of Mullins was eventually made into the game's main character.
Soldier of Fortune was one of the first "real-world" first-person shooters, with modern weapons and human opponents, as
opposed to more fantasy/sci-fi oriented games like Doom or Duke Nukem 3D.
Gameplay
A very controversial video game, Soldier of Fortune was best known for its graphic depictions of firearms dismembering
the human body. This graphic violence was the game's main gimmick, much like Red Faction's geo-mod or Max Payne's bullet-time. The game detailed realistic, extreme graphic violence, in which
character models were based on body parts that could each independently sustain damage (gore zones). There were 26 zones in
total, and the makers called this the GHOUL system. A shot to the head with a powerful gun would often make the enemy's head
explode, leaving nothing but a bloody stump of a spine remaining. A close-range shot to the stomach with a shotgun would leave an
enemy's bowels in a bloody mess with his or her intestines oozing out. It was possible to shoot off an enemy's limbs (head, arms,
legs) leaving nothing left but a bloody torso. Non-violence was also a possibility, if you were a good shot it was possible to
shoot an enemy's weapon out of their hand, causing them to cower on the floor in surrender.
In spite of its claims of being a realistic and accurate shooter, Soldier of Fortune's gameplay was fairly arcade-ish
and not particularly different from other more fantasy-oriented first-person shooters. Because of this it was criticized for
basically being Quake with Iraqis instead of Demons. Weapons have perfect accuracy
even when you're moving around, and basic gameplay would often involve running into a room, then strafing around shooting
everything that moves. Much like a standard shooter character, the player moved extremely fast and could survive a few dozen
bullets before dying. In fact, John Mullins could survive more than 4 direct rocket launcher shots to the head. Additionally, in
the last few levels the game would introduce futuristic science
fiction weapons, the most notable of which was a Microwave Pulse Gun that basically acted like a continous laser beam. In the
final battle, the game's main villain came at you with a railgun-like laser while wearing body armor that allowed him to survive
a couple hundred bullets before dying.
Many gamers also complained that the plot was too over-the-top and "Hollywood". The story involved the theft of nuclear
weapons, and the main enemy turned out to be an Afrikaner Neo-Fascist group based in Germany.
Story
The story was the basic action movie plot. At the beginning of the game, Terrorists steal 4 nuclear weapons from a storage
facility in Russia, and proceed to sell them to 3rd world nations around the world. This is a prelude to the acquisition of
advanced Weapons of Mass Destruction by this terrorist group.
John Mullins, working as a Soldier of Fortune for a Mercenary Organization known only has "The Shop", and his partner, Hawk,
are assigned to prevent the nukes from falling into the wrong hands, and stop the terrorists in their plans.
The first level featured skinheads who had taken people hostage in a New York City subway system. It also included levels in
Iraq (featuring Saddam Hussein), Kosovo, and Sudan.
Soldier of Fortune II: Double Helix
Background
Soldier of Fortune 2 was developed using the Quake III
Arena game engine. Once again, Raven Software hired John Mullins to
act as a consultant on the game. Based on comments and criticisms of the original game, Raven Software developed Soldier of
Fortune 2 to be a more "realistic" shooter, with games like Counter-Strike and Tom
Clancy's Rainbow Six as inspirations.
Gameplay
The series' main gimmick, its graphic depiction of human bodily dismemberment, made yet another appearance in Soldier of
Fortune 2. GHOUL 2.0, as the new engine was called, featured even more gore zones (a total of 36) allowing for increasingly
detailed depictions of gore and carnage. A shot to the head could now blow away a chunk of scalp and expose the dripping brains
beneath, and blown-off limbs would reveal jutting bones that spurt blood. At the same time, the gore is a bit less "cartoonish"
than in the original game: in the original game, a couple pistol shots could blow away a character's head or limbs, in the sequel
damage is more localized (entry wounds and such), and the most full-blown gory effects are generally only seen when you used
particularly high-powered weapons such as the shotgun.
Attempting to be a more realistic shooter, the game is more like Counter-Strike and less like Quake. The player character is much less of a tank, and while he can
still survive more than a dozen bullets thanks to his body armor, a single explosion can kill him instantly. Additionally, weapon
recoil makes automatic weapons become increasingly inaccurate as
they are fired, so if you run around firing continously you won't be able to hit anything. Running into the middle of a firefight
will usually get you killed, and gameplay involves a lot of ducking behind cover and leaning around corners to take shots.
Unlike the original game, there are no futuristic weapons or sci-fi elements. The most advanced weapon you encounter is the
very real O.I.C.W.. Hit damage is also realistic, enemies die after only a couple shots
from an assault rifle, and even characters wearing heavy body armor die after several hits. There are no occasions like the
original game's final battle where you end up facing a character wearing super body armor that allows him to survive a couple
hundred shots to the face.
One highly advertised feature of the game was the Random Mission Generator or RMG, a feature that allowed you to randomly
create a terrain map. The RMG also allowed you to select a variety of different map factors, such as mission type (i.e. escape,
infiltration, assassination, etc.), time of day, type of terrain (hills, snow, jungle, or desert), etc. In theory, this would
allow for an infinite number of map permutations to play in. In practice, the randomly generated maps tended to be more or less
the same. Additionally, these maps were fairly empty and undetailed.
In Multi-player, there are five gametypes: team deathmatch, infiltration, capture the flag, deathmatch, and elimination.
Elimination most resembles Counter-Strike gameplay, as gameplay takes place in rounds, and players cannot respawn when
killed until the end of the round.
Story
The theme of the sequel is germ warfare, as Mullins travels the globe attempting to track down a well-funded para-military
organization known as Prometheus before they unleash a deadly bio-weapon.
Inspired by games like Elite Force, the story plays a much more
prominent role in the game, with many lengthy cutscenes as well as several levels dedicated entirely to walking around talking to
characters.
External links
|
