Soldier of Fortune Preview
Soldier of Fortune is a sadist's oasis - a first-person shooter on the PC filled with obscene over-the-top violence and adrenaline-charged gameplay. Now it's coming to the PS2 with its extreme brutality and Internet play intact.
Gimmicks are a deceit; a distraction to hide glaring flaws in an otherwise undeserving product from the eyes of the consumer. Nowhere is this more evident than in Soldier of Fortune, a game that attempted to make a name for itself on the PC by promising a gratuitous amount of blood and gore behind its "been there, done that" gameplay. Released on the PC a few months ago, the game proved a moderate success with gamers and critics alike. The gameplay proved to be arcade fun, despite the clichés. Now Pipe Dream Interactive is bringing the game to the PlayStation 2, courtesy of Majesco, with both its trademark violence and multiplayer abilities fully intact.
Soldier of Fortune's plot is a hackneyed excuse for copious bloodshed. In this poor man's Tom Clancy meets Rambo, you're cast in the role of John Mullins, a professional mercenary and Vietnam vet. Long story short, Mullins is the top name on a short list of who to call when terrorists do bad things that threaten national security. In this case, a motley collection of extreme Arab terrorists and Nazi skinheads have confiscated four nuclear warheads, and they're promising to start World War III if their excessive demands aren't met. Naturally, you're ordered to use any means to stop them before it's too late. Sanctioned by the government as the ultimate one-man army, you have an excuse to blast your way Rambo-style through 26 levels spread across ten missions, decimating the anarchists and terrorists alike in order to maintain peace in the free world.
One of Soldier of Fortune's most talked about aspects is the involvement of John Mullins, who is a real-life professional mercenary. The developers originally approached the hired killer hoping that his expertise would allow them to create a more authentic experience than what's found in other similarly themed games. Apparently, Mullins didn't explain his trade very well or the developers didn't listen very closely, because Soldier of Fortune is hardly realistic. You're almost always outnumbered in your encounters, and the firefights are Hollywood-style, trading stealth for hyperquick movement and overpowered weaponry. You can also take an excessive amount of damage, only to completely heal yourself by grabbing one of the stereotypical health packs strewn haphazardly across the levels - an FPS cliché as old as Doom.
Soldier of Fortune's entire approach to violence is similarly superficial. The game utilizes 26 target-specific damage areas on each bad guy; however, this innovation is most often used for gruesome graphic effect rather than as a significant enhancement to the gameplay. If you shoot enemies in the neck, blood will spray from the wound, and they'll futilely grasp their throat; if you shoot their leg, they'll limp around. With more powerful weapons, you can blow entire limbs off in one shot or decapitate your victims. Admittedly, immobilizing your enemies may be useful in some situations, but Soldier of Fortune's target-specific damage system seems to serve mostly as a gory reward for your aiming skills.
Other interesting gameplay enhancements include a sound meter that spawns additional bad guys depending on how loud you are and a unique method of tracking your game progress. Instead of being able to save every moment along the way or only at specific save points, Soldier of Fortune uses a unique system that gives you a limited number of saves per level. While this allows you to record your game as you please, the limited quantity of saves ensures that you can't abuse the system.
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- Majesco Games
- Pipe Dream Int.
- Modern First-Person...
- Release: Nov 11, 2001
- ESRB: Mature
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