Paul Frew
Payback Beckons
May 18th 2008 04:56
Soldier of Fortune has always been about gratuitous violence, while having helluva lot of fun. Recently, the third game of the series 'Soldier of Fortune - Payback (SoF)' came out for pc, well, in Australia anyway. Stupid classification board. I'm also writing this while playing it, so hot off the press.
So far, the first thing I notice - apart from not being developed by Raven and not having John Mullins - is that SoF continues the trend of FPSs lacking a health meter. While sure, go for the pursuit of realism, but lacking a health meter, while still having gun info down the bottom totally defeats the purpose. So now you die aftrer getting shot a certain amount of times, like normal, though not your screen goes redder the more damage you've taken. Helath does regen over time, like most games out now. This just makes things confusing now, bring back health meters.
The core of SoF remains, thankfully, which is fun mindless shooting. Enemies come from left right and center, leaving you to blow them to pieces with all manner of weapons. Speaking of pieces, the damage system synonymous with SoF games returns! This means location damage really damages their locations, legs, arms, heads, all can be damaged or simply blown off. Then laugh as someones leg gets shot off, flailing around on the ground, dancing style. Or lol at a man who, after having both his arms shot off, contemplates if he should try and take you on armless (ho ho ho) or just pass out from lack of blood?
In the recent Call of Duty 4, they added in the whole deal of shooting through objects one should be able to shoot through - only CoD 4 took it a bit further. For example, thin walls and doors. SoF tries this as well, though sometimes takes it a bit too far, as cover can become as little as something try and dodge bullets behind. i expect a pallet of bricks be able to protect me from gun fire, not just be a nice bit of scenery.
- Also, yay for random programming glitches! As usual when holding a gun out in front of you, gunfire goes where you point it, right? Well, prepare to be amazed, as in this game, when you walk up to a low wall and the animation makes it so you hold your gun against your body, turning it to the side, you are also magically able to shoot ahead, take that man who is my enemy! -
Anyway, back to my review. As with most games these days following everybody else's trends SoF also has motion blur, explosion blur, bullet blur, enemy blur, texture blur and any other blur you can think of. Blur while reloading is the most obvious one really. I'm surprised it even runs on my pc anyway.
Speaking of the graphics, it, like all of the recent gen of games, is quite good looking, it's no Crysis, or as artistic as BioShock, probably sitting around the same mark as Call of Duty 4. Character models are well modelled, with a few varieties of enemy per environment. Also, given the fact it's SoF the body pieces also have the extra internal bits for the so inclined readers out there. Character textures are fitting, though sometimes too fitting, as losing enemies in the background can provide an extra bit of challenge, especially seeing as you stick out like a sore thumb. Though they do at least fit in with the environments they are 'protecting'.
SoF loses brownie points though for once again being set in some undisclosed middle eastern setting, even if only for the first level. This is obviously our new WW2 setting.
Some points are gained back here through the level design teams effort to keep their levels filled with enough assets to make the levels not seem empty. with most of the assets being explosive barrels, though this is cool by me. Enough though has been put into them though to keep them interesting to continue blasting through.
The guns are pretty too. Not shiny, unfortunately. Weapons also are unlocked on a mission completion basis, unlocking the better weapons as you progress. Ranging from the standard categories, Assault, SMG, Heavy, Shotgun, Sniper and Pistols.
The artificial intelligence seems alright in this game, though they mainly like to stand in the open and shoot at you, only there also happens to be many of them. There also is the fun ones who spawn behind you after you've gotten a little quick and they end up stabbing you from behind. Be careful though, as many also appear from high up places, which has caused me to go 'wtf?' more than once. Enemies don't seem to use or move to cover much, while they may appear from it, i don't see them go back to it. While this may be due to the fact i have already shot them already, maybe they just don't like it?
Sound quality in SoF is indeed quality. The music is fitting in my mind, changing tempo so it's almost as if it's trying to calm me amongst the huge poo storm I'm creating. Lots of guitar thrown in, seemingly to makme feel as though that i'm never safe and to keep an eye out at all times... which is pretty much what is always going on i guess. Weapon sounds are nice and loud and chunky, definitely making my boom sticks sound just like that, sticks of boom.
Enemies shout and hoo hah around when they're angry and trying to kill me in their foreign languages. While your character has enough dialogue with HQ to detail what you need to do for the level, just in case you can't figure it out for yourself. Levels also begin with a short briefing, just to clarify further your objectives. These only happen though at the start of a chapter i guess, the change of scenery.
The story in Soldier of Fortune - Payback centers around the building of a pipeline in China, with apparent slave labour going on. You, meanwhile, are on a mission to get back a man who knows all the inside details. When it all goes wrong, it means you are to go in and do something about it of course! While not much of a story, it does enough to keep you moving on through. Plus, who really plays a SoF game for the story? It's all about having fun! Which I'm finding this game has in spades (or shovels).
In conclusion, i find this game is a nice break from reality, nothing too complex, plenty of guns, ammo, people to kill. Multiplayer is also a plus, though i haven't had a chance to try it yet. If i were to give it a score, I'd probably say 7.5 or so out of ten (way to generalize!).
So far, the first thing I notice - apart from not being developed by Raven and not having John Mullins - is that SoF continues the trend of FPSs lacking a health meter. While sure, go for the pursuit of realism, but lacking a health meter, while still having gun info down the bottom totally defeats the purpose. So now you die aftrer getting shot a certain amount of times, like normal, though not your screen goes redder the more damage you've taken. Helath does regen over time, like most games out now. This just makes things confusing now, bring back health meters.
In the recent Call of Duty 4, they added in the whole deal of shooting through objects one should be able to shoot through - only CoD 4 took it a bit further. For example, thin walls and doors. SoF tries this as well, though sometimes takes it a bit too far, as cover can become as little as something try and dodge bullets behind. i expect a pallet of bricks be able to protect me from gun fire, not just be a nice bit of scenery.
- Also, yay for random programming glitches! As usual when holding a gun out in front of you, gunfire goes where you point it, right? Well, prepare to be amazed, as in this game, when you walk up to a low wall and the animation makes it so you hold your gun against your body, turning it to the side, you are also magically able to shoot ahead, take that man who is my enemy! -
Anyway, back to my review. As with most games these days following everybody else's trends SoF also has motion blur, explosion blur, bullet blur, enemy blur, texture blur and any other blur you can think of. Blur while reloading is the most obvious one really. I'm surprised it even runs on my pc anyway.
Speaking of the graphics, it, like all of the recent gen of games, is quite good looking, it's no Crysis, or as artistic as BioShock, probably sitting around the same mark as Call of Duty 4. Character models are well modelled, with a few varieties of enemy per environment. Also, given the fact it's SoF the body pieces also have the extra internal bits for the so inclined readers out there. Character textures are fitting, though sometimes too fitting, as losing enemies in the background can provide an extra bit of challenge, especially seeing as you stick out like a sore thumb. Though they do at least fit in with the environments they are 'protecting'.
SoF loses brownie points though for once again being set in some undisclosed middle eastern setting, even if only for the first level. This is obviously our new WW2 setting.
Some points are gained back here through the level design teams effort to keep their levels filled with enough assets to make the levels not seem empty. with most of the assets being explosive barrels, though this is cool by me. Enough though has been put into them though to keep them interesting to continue blasting through.
The guns are pretty too. Not shiny, unfortunately. Weapons also are unlocked on a mission completion basis, unlocking the better weapons as you progress. Ranging from the standard categories, Assault, SMG, Heavy, Shotgun, Sniper and Pistols.
The artificial intelligence seems alright in this game, though they mainly like to stand in the open and shoot at you, only there also happens to be many of them. There also is the fun ones who spawn behind you after you've gotten a little quick and they end up stabbing you from behind. Be careful though, as many also appear from high up places, which has caused me to go 'wtf?' more than once. Enemies don't seem to use or move to cover much, while they may appear from it, i don't see them go back to it. While this may be due to the fact i have already shot them already, maybe they just don't like it?
Sound quality in SoF is indeed quality. The music is fitting in my mind, changing tempo so it's almost as if it's trying to calm me amongst the huge poo storm I'm creating. Lots of guitar thrown in, seemingly to makme feel as though that i'm never safe and to keep an eye out at all times... which is pretty much what is always going on i guess. Weapon sounds are nice and loud and chunky, definitely making my boom sticks sound just like that, sticks of boom.
Enemies shout and hoo hah around when they're angry and trying to kill me in their foreign languages. While your character has enough dialogue with HQ to detail what you need to do for the level, just in case you can't figure it out for yourself. Levels also begin with a short briefing, just to clarify further your objectives. These only happen though at the start of a chapter i guess, the change of scenery.
The story in Soldier of Fortune - Payback centers around the building of a pipeline in China, with apparent slave labour going on. You, meanwhile, are on a mission to get back a man who knows all the inside details. When it all goes wrong, it means you are to go in and do something about it of course! While not much of a story, it does enough to keep you moving on through. Plus, who really plays a SoF game for the story? It's all about having fun! Which I'm finding this game has in spades (or shovels).
In conclusion, i find this game is a nice break from reality, nothing too complex, plenty of guns, ammo, people to kill. Multiplayer is also a plus, though i haven't had a chance to try it yet. If i were to give it a score, I'd probably say 7.5 or so out of ten (way to generalize!).
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