Even if No One Lives Forever 2 came out years ago, it still is a game that gamers should look forward playing.
And this game still is through today's standards. It has great gameplay and great graphics. But most of all: it's still considered as having great graphics TODAY, 7 years after it came out. It's not like the mighty Far Cry where there is grass, realistic water, etc. But the overall feeling of the textures which have a 60s look makes it pleasant for the eye, along with advanced particle effects that you wouldn't expect to see in a 2002 game.
Now that was the introduction to this review. The following part of the review is what I call the core and it'll talk about everything that's good (nothing bad about it, really) about this game.
Graphics: As I just said, the graphics are Ok. The particle effects are well made, the characters models have a enoughly high poly count (you would not be shy to show this game to today's gamers) and the textures are OK. But it's the style of the overall graphics, to the artic bases to Calcutta, India.
Gameplay: The gameplay of No One Lives Forever 2 is better than most PC shooters. Aiming is easy to do with the mouse, but the controls also feel very responsive and character's animations are well made (you could kill someone and he would fall in the stairs nearby). It's just a little fact to note that the game is rendered through Monolith's Jupiter engine, which is the same used in Contract Jack (the prequel to No One Lives Forever 2).
Weapons: There are lots of weapons and gadgets, as a wallet-bomb, a banana to make ennemies split, a taser and more if you like to go stealth. For action guns, you have a bow, AK-47 and a lot more licensed guns I can't remember the names.
Story: In the game, you play as Cate Archer, U.N.I.T.Y.'s only female operative in the field. Your goal is to stop Dmitri Volkov from taking over the world. Cutscenes are well made, and character's animations are well made. Maybe not all as interesting as in Dreamfall: The longest journey, but more vivid.
Weird things to say: You're going to chase someone on a tricycle, battle a ninja in a house inside a tornado in the air and go to a underground secret underwater base (which is my favorite level by the way).
AI: The AI of the characters is better than most games today. And I really mean it. If you shoot someone, he'll start being panicked and will be searching for you. If he sees footprints in the snow he'll go investigate, etc. Lots of games now (Far Cry 2, Bioshock and many others) do not have a strong AI which partially ruins gameplay. AI stands for Artificial Intelligence by the way
Multiplayer: Deathmatch and coop modes are available online and it's one of the most fun game to play with others. You can also play through LAN, but make sure the WIndows firewall settings are correctly adjusted.
Compatibility: This game is reported to have some issues on PCs running Windows Vista. If you haven't installed the Service Pack 1, you're in luck as I've myself created a fix for it. The issue is that the character's voices and some sound effects are missing during gameplay (such as a storm or guns). An important fact to say too is that this game supports only 4:3 resolutions and up to 1600x1200. But those settings can be modified through the game's configuration file manually, both for the aspect ratio and the resolution. Contact me if you ever need anything to fix the game.
Conclusion: No One Lives Forever 2 is a Masterpiece and should be played by anyone liking the FPS genre. Even if it's difficult to find a copy of the game, you can probably find a spare copy on ebay or amazon.