No One Lives Forever 2: A Spy in H.A.R.M.'s Way Preview

While Cate Archer wasn't the first popular superspy to spoof the sometimes hammy settings, villains, and plots of the numerous James Bond movies, she was the first computer game character to do so in such a successful manner. Released in 2000, The Operative: No One Lives Forever was a superb first-person shooter that blended an impressive graphics engine with witty dialogue and a humorous setting, which made it one of the most memorable action games in recent memory. In fact, NOLF's single-player campaign was so good, the game walked away with our Action Game of the Year award for that year. But as well executed as No One Lives Forever's single-player game was, its multiplayer component was passable at best. Quake III and Unreal Tournament weren't even a year old at the time of NOLF's release, and when compared to those two online powerhouses, the multiplayer modes and the somewhat floaty controls of No One Lives Forever simply didn't stack up. In creating the sequel to No One Lives Forever, the designers at Monolith opted to eschew the tried-and-true but highly competitive standard multiplayer modes of deathmatch, capture the flag, and whatnot in favor of the path less traveled: cooperative play--the ability for multiple players to work together in order to complete objectives in a manner typically found in single-player games. We were able to take a firsthand look at NOLF 2's somewhat unique multiplayer mode during a recent visit to the Monolith offices in the Seattle area, and we liked what we saw.

Only a few first-person shooters in recent memory have included a single-player cooperative mode, the most memorable of which are the Serious Sam series for the PC and Halo for the Xbox. In all of those games, this mode is simply the single-player component played with numerous players simultaneously. And while there's no questioning the amount of fun to be had in Halo's or Serious Sam's cooperative modes, replicating that formula for No One Lives Forever 2 would have been impossible, according to Monolith. That's because the single-player game is so story driven, so dependent on Cate Archer's presence, and has so many lines of dialogue and scripted events, that converting that entire campaign into a cooperative mode would have "broken" the game. Instead, No One Lives Forever 2 will have about a dozen cooperative-only levels that will be slightly different from their single-player counterparts in that they'll have their own plot and characters. Most of these missions will take place either before or after familiar single-player missions. For example, one of these minicampaigns takes place in Calcutta, a few hours before the events in the corresponding single-player level. You'll be part of a team of UNITY members--the same organization that sponsors Cate Archer's globe-trotting and villain-bashing--that's been sent in to prepare the area for Cate's arrival, which takes place in one of the single-player missions. You and the other players on this intercept team will be tasked with scoping out the area where a meeting between Cate and a local named Balaji Malpani is scheduled to take place.

Successful completion of this and other multiplayer missions will require that you accomplish several tasks as a team. In the case of this Calcutta mission, your first task is to meet up with a UNITY informant named Kamal, who'll ask you for 40 rupees before giving you access to a part of town that you need to get to. This money is spread around the level in 10-rupee increments, though it won't take you long to collect the full amount in between the sporadic firefights that you'll find yourself engaged in. After paying Kamal off, you'll be able to enter the previously inaccessible part of this level, and it's here that the fighting with the locals really becomes frantic. The AI in NOLF 2 has been significantly retooled since the original game, and as such, the enemies that you'll face will put up quite a fight. In classic NOLF fashion, you'll often stumble upon a pair of guards who are already engaged in a humorous conversation about monkeys or grandmothers, but once the fighting starts, enemies in the area will be alerted not only by the sounds of gunfire, but by the sight of their fallen comrades. Since the enemies in NOLF 2 are so sensitive to dead bodies, you'll now have the ability to pick up those that you've killed or knocked unconscious in order to move them to a secure area, away from prying eyes.

When Kindness Fails

Or you can choose to avoid confrontation altogether. Like the original game, NOLF 2 will stress the importance of stealth, though unlike in the frustrating office level from the first game, you'll never have to start over once you're spotted by an enemy. Instead, and in an apparent nod to the Thief series, NOLF 2 has numerous locations within each level that your character will be able to hide in. These are usually denoted by dark shadows, gaps between solid objects, or crevices in the terrain, and you'll know that you've successfully hidden by the appearance of a purple eye icon at the bottom of the screen. Once hidden, enemies won't be able to spot you unless you make a sudden move, and of course, any enemy that notices you while you're trying to hide will be able to see you regardless of your location.

If you grow tired of moving bodies and hiding in shadows, there's always the opportunity to settle things the old-fashioned way. No One Lives Forever 2 will have a wide variety of weapons and quirky items that will enable you to shoot, zap, and slice your way out of hairy situations. The Calcutta level we played had a small selection of the game's arsenal, but it still gave us a good idea of what to expect. You'll start out with a silenced .32-caliber semiautomatic pistol, but you'll eventually be able to pick up the more powerful AK-47s from enemies that you dispatch, and you'll come across a shotgun and several types of grenades, which really reflect No One Lives Forever's lighthearted nature. In addition to the standard fragmentation grenades, the level also has stun grenades and gas grenades that release a laughing agent. There's even a banana that you can pick up and use as a nonlethal weapon. Simply peel it, discard the banana, and toss the peel on the ground--any unsuspecting soul who walks over it will take a tumble, and while the banana doesn't cause any damage, it will leave its victims incapacitated and vulnerable to attack for a few seconds.

The selection of weapons that will be available to Cate in the single-player game and to the UNITY operatives in the cooperative multiplayer component will vary from level to level. In a later mission, located somewhere in Japan, you won't have access to any firearms, but you will be able to wield a number of silent weapons, including throwing stars and a katana. There's also a powerful crossbow that you'll come across, and though it may be slow to reload, its extremely powerful--it often takes only one hit from its sharp bolts to kill the female ninjas who are loitering about the level. In a neat visual effect, these bolts will sometimes pin their victims to a wall, and they'll crumble to the ground if you retrieve the protruding arrow. And it wouldn't be a NOLF game without the collection of zany gadgets. Flashlight key chains, lipstick cameras, and taser lighters are all available to you whenever you find yourself short on the more traditional ammunition.

Sometimes, however, no amount of weapons, stealth, or gadgetry can save you from demise. The build of No One Lives Forever 2 we played was difficult, and even though there are still plenty of balance issues that the designers at Monolith have yet to tackle, they insist that the final game will pose a challenge to most players. Thankfully, the game's multiplayer mode makes use of a unique respawn feature that should keep the action from getting too frustrating. Once you die, you can be instantly resurrected--with all of the weapons and ammunition that you had--by one of your friends. They simply have to walk up to your dead body and hit the "use" key. If your comrades have their hands tied, you can choose to respawn at the closest respawn point after 30 seconds have passed, but you'll lose any weapons or items that you came across in that level. To increase your odds of survival, you can customize your character using NOLF 2's skill system. This system works similarly to those in traditional role-playing games in that you can allocate points into eight different skills--stealth, stamina, marksmanship, carrying, armor, weapons, gadgets, and search--each of which affects your in-game abilities noticeably. Adding points to armor, for example, will let you carry more armor than you normally could. It's a novel approach to action games and certainly one that fans of the genre will be pleased to see.

With Unreal Tournament 2003 on the horizon, it seems pretty clear why Monolith has chosen to include cooperative play in No One Lives Forever 2 instead of the standard multiplayer modes that nearly all the games in this genre now include. Not only does this further separate an already unique game from its competitors, but it's also the first time that this type of cooperative play is used to complement the single-player plot instead of simply replacing it. Check back next week when we take a look at Cate Archer's adventures in the single-player levels of No One Lives Forever 2: A Spy in H.A.R.M.'s Way. In the meantime, however, be sure to take a look at the latest batch of screenshots that we've added to our gallery, and watch the new movies in our media section for a glimpse into NOLF 2's multiplayer in action. No One Lives Forever 2 should be on store shelves by early October.