There is screaming and bloodshed. At the end of each mission, you're given a tally listing the number of head shots, neck shots, groin shots You'll want a bath afterwards. And then you'll go back to finish off the next level. It's undeniably fun to play.
The levels aren't particularly taxing, but they are on the whole imaginatively designed. The real-world setting adds to the thrill, as does - and we're almost ashamed to admit this - the outrageous level of violence.
The graphics are exemplary throughout, as is the use of sound the music's a bit sucky, but it is 'dynamic' - ie it reacts to the action. The weird and slightly frightening thing is, if SoF was set in the spaceports of Mars, or the fictional netherland of Etemia, or wherever, it's doubtful whether it would have held our attention for so long. Fact is, the nigh-on pornographic buzz of spraying a modern-day office with gunfire, taking limbs off be-suited, screaming enemies left, right, and centre, while a standard neon strip-light buzzes overhead, keeps you glued.
That may be wrong, but it's the honest truth. The ultra-violence is eye-poppingly hideous - but it's also whisper it quietly perversely satisfying, in a please-God-don't-let-this-corrupt-me kinda way. But it would mean nothing were the game itself not so damn playable. Soldier Of Fortune is a balls-out, whisky-swilling, flag-waving, carbine-smoking, xenophobic, fascistic, cathartic arcade game that you'll end up playing more than you should. It probably deserves to be banned - but while it's here, let's enjoy it quietly.
Oh, and we'd recommend taking short breaks to read some Enid Blyton or a Mr Men book or something. Returning the game because it's too sick? That's got to be a first for one of our readers. All in all, the general consensus is that most of you find the extremely explicit violence fascinating, while being aware that it is wrong. Want to take part in a quick experiment? All you have to do is read the following words and monitor your reactions carefully. Here we go: Guns. Muzzle flare.
Zapruder footage. Heavy recoil action. Trigger finger. Empty casings rattling round your feet like hollow cockroach shells. Charlton Heston.
Dirty Harry. Guns, guns and more guns. Experiment over. Did you find yourself getting sexually aroused? If the answer's yes, then congratulations - you're probably just the sort of person who reads Soldier Of Fortune magazine, the right-to-bear-arms bible of gung-ho gun nuts everywhere.
Even if you haven't seen Soldier Of Fortune magazine itself, you know the kind of thing: you sometimes see gun porn mags lurking guiltily on newsagents' shelves in the UK, where they're imported from the US. A typical issue has a cover peppered with 'product shots' of phallic-looking semi-automatics, a feature on the National Rifle Association, some survivalist tips, and a wipe-clean centrefold of some trailer park jailbait deep-throating a muzzle.
Soldier Of Fortune is one of the most established ones. And now it's been turned into a game. A first-person shoot 'em up game. And, surprisingly, it looks like it might just turn out to be really really, good. Soldier Of Fortune the game is being developed by Raven Software, the people responsible for politically neutral actioneers such as Hexen 2 and Mageslayer.
The company's track record is a befuddling mixture of peaks and troughs in which robust and imaginative 3D shooters such as the aforementioned Hexen 2 feature prominently.
Soldier Of Fortune is the latest addition to the fold. Soldier Of Fortune utilises the Quake II engine, and as you can see from the screenshots here the game looks disturbingly realistic.
This provides more believable object physics in the game, for both wounded victims and pieces of architecture. Furthermore, as you'd expect from a game based on a magazine for gun fetishists, the weapons are designed to look and behave just like the real thing - nail-biting reload times and all.
It should be enough to have regular Soldier Of Fortune readers breaking into a sweat before the end of the first level. To this end, we're promised plenty of 'over the top violence' coupled with authentic strategic elements, support for all leading 3D cards, and thrill-a-minute multiplayer support bunged in for good measure. The licence is neither here nor there - this game should turn heads on its own merit. We'll be reviewing SOF in a forthcoming issue.
Now shut up, put the magazine down, and back away slowly. Or I'll shoot your forehead off. On a normal day just like any other, a call goes out to a man of action. A man named John Mullins wakes up to an ordinary life filled with dilemmas, the same as any other man.
However, this man may just save your life. Yes, John Mullins is a combat specialist meant to handle any possible terrorist scenario imaginable. He occasionally works as a freelance operative for a U. His current objective is to deal with a secret terrorist organization that is bent on murder and destruction. Generally, John hates to stick his neck out, but the paycheck is outstanding and he gets all the free ammo he can carry.
You may never hear me say this again, but before you start shooting it up with a terrorist you should go through the tutorial. Luckily the tutorial is actually interesting since it allows you to shoot all the guns you start with, including the sniper rifle. Of course you could just fake it, but it may not be to your advantage later in the game. If you own the Keyboard for the Dreamcast, it may be useful to those of you who are veterans of games like Quake.
Another useful tip: you can adjust the controls to fit your playing style. Another setting option is the difficulty rating. You may choose either easy, medium or challenging; whatever you feel comfortable with.
As a note, the only things that these difficulty levels determine is how many additional saves you have in the beginning of the game. Not to worry -- if you last until the end of the mission it will save automatically without using the additional saves. Once you start the game there are a number of icons that you should be familiar with.
The first one is the health meter, located at the bottom of your screen. If you want to know the amount of armor you are wearing, it is the gray line above the health meter. Oh boy! Another feature in the game is the meter that determines how much noise your character is making. Usually I would say to run in guns a-blazing, but there is an advantage to sneaking up behind enemy lines and then taking no prisoners.
One of the most important things in the game is learning how to shoot your target. I know you just have to aim and shoot, but there are features that will aid you in doing it. As usual you have an icon that helps you aim, but if you move it over certain things it will change color. If the icon is over a hostage it will appear green to let you know not to shoot. If it runs over an enemy it will appear red, giving you free rein to eliminate your opponent. The game, which was built with the Quake II engine , is notable for its realistic depictions of violence, made possible by the GHOUL engine, including the dismemberment of human bodies.
This was the game's stylistic attraction and it caused considerable controversy, especially in Canada and Germany, where it was classified as a restricted-rated film and listed on the Federal Department for Media Harmful to Young Persons , respectively. The technology creates 26 different zones on the bodies of enemies, allowing for vastly different reactions depending upon which one is targeted.
The game sold well initially and critical reception was positive. Soldier of Fortune Online , a massively multiplayer online first-person shooter game , was published in Korea in , but it servers were shut down shortly after its release.
Soldier of Fortune is best known for its graphic depictions of firearms dismembering the human body. This graphic violence is the game's main stylistic attraction, much like the destructible environments of Red Faction or bullet time of Max Payne. The GHOUL engine enables depiction of extreme graphic violence, in which character models are based on body parts that can each independently sustain damage gore zones.
There are 26 zones in total: a shot to the head with a powerful gun will often make the target's head explode, leaving nothing but the bloody stump of the neck remaining; a close-range shot to the stomach with a shotgun will leave an enemy's bowels in a bloody mess, and a shot to the nether regions will cause the victims to clutch their groin in agony for a few seconds before kneeling over dead.
It is possible to shoot off an enemy's limbs head, arms, legs leaving nothing left but a bloody torso. In the last mission there is also a fictional microwave weapon , causing the enemies to fry or explode, depending on the firing mode. However, nonviolence is a possibility, if the player is a good shot it is possible to shoot an enemy's weapon out of their hand, causing them to cower on the floor to surrender.
The game also came with password-protected options to disable all gore and there is even a version of the game with the extreme violence permanently locked-out, titled Soldier of Fortune: Tactical Low-Violence Version.
The story involves the theft of nuclear weapons , and the main enemy turns out to be an Afrikaner neo-fascist group based in Germany, led by South African exile Sergei Dekker. At the beginning of the game, terrorists steal four nuclear weapons from a storage facility in Russia, and proceed to sell them to various nations. This is a prelude to the acquisition of advanced weapons of mass destruction by this terrorist group. John Mullins, working for a U. Raven Software acquired a license from the mercenary magazine Soldier of Fortune to produce a video game based on the publication.
This introduced the ability to dismember enemies in combat, adding to the realism of the game. The game was originally supposed to be much more realistic, featuring mostly real weapons, and the players taking damage would impede their movement and dexterity, depending on where and how many times they were hit.
In prior to the Kosovo War the game was also supposed to be partially based in Bosnia instead of Kosovo. The game is AMD Eyefinity validated. The Dreamcast version and the Gold Edition received "mixed or average reviews" according to the review aggregation website Metacritic.
Robert Mayer of Computer Games Strategy Plus gave the PC version four stars out of five, saying, "Raven Software set out to make a shooter, and they've made a damn fine one. Just be sure you're up to it before you dive in. It gets mighty bloody in there. It doesn't bring much to the genre, save for its gory depiction of violence.
Cal Nguyen of AllGame gave the PC version four-and-a-half stars out of five, saying, "If you're bent on eliminating terrorist threats by skinheads, Saddam Hussein 's army, Russian mafias or even New York mobsters, then take a lesson from the Soldier of Fortune [ sic ] and tear open a new one. Barnes gave the Dreamcast version three-and-a-half stars out of five, calling it "a solid shooter that doesn't break new ground in graphics, sound or artificial intelligence, but it's a solid shooter worth some attention.
Aside from the tricky controls and lighting issues, FPS fans shouldn't be too disappointed with this single-player adventure. Nash Werner of GamePro said of the PC version, "With its well-written storyline and thought-provoking missions, SoF ' s singleplayer will keep you thrilled for hours, and you'll probably be playing the Assassin mode for months. Despite ridiculously long load times, Soldier of Fortune is recommended for everyone who appreciates a good FPS.
With very little to offer in terms of design or new features, it fails to capture the right FPS feel which other games have effectively achieved. In other words, look someplace else. According to PC Data , a firm that tracked sales in the U. In , after receiving a complaint from a member of the public about the explicit content of the game, the British Columbia Film Classification Office investigated and decided the violence, gore and acts of torture were not suitable for persons under 18 years of age.
In a controversial decision, the game was labeled an "adult motion picture" and was rated as a pornographic film. Initially released for Windows, the sequel was later ported to the Xbox. It was later ported to the Dreamcast and PlayStation consoles. A remake of the game, entitled Expendable: Rearmed , was released for Android in It is in the format of a modern arcade game. The player starts with 7 "credits" and can continue until running out of credits. A second player can join the game at any time by pressing start.
San Francisco Rush is a racing video game developed and published by Atari Games for arcades. It is also the last game in the Rush series to be set in the city of San Francisco, and the last released on a Nintendo console. It also serves as the final game for the Atari Games label, which was retired shortly after the arcade release. It was originally planned for release as a Nintendo 64 title, but was cancelled during the early development phases of the game and was never officially announced.
Incoming is a 3D shooter video game developed by Rage Software and published by Interplay. The game was first released for Microsoft Windows in late , and was followed by a Sega Dreamcast version, which was released in Japan on December 17, , in Europe on October 14, , and in North America on September 15, Set in the near-future of , the game primarily revolves around controlling vehicles and turrets to fight alien invaders of Earth in one of the campaign modes, the arcade mode, and with or against another player.
Some levels include brief real-time strategy segments. The PlayStation port of the game was developed by Tarantula Studios. It is regarded as one of the pioneering tactical first person shooters. Croc 2 is a platform video game developed by Argonaut Software and published by Fox Interactive. The sequel to Croc: Legend of the Gobbos , it revolves around the title character going on a quest to search for his missing parents, as well as saving the Inventor Gobbo from a revived Baron Dante.
It was subsequently released on the PlayStation and Dreamcast. The game was published by Eidos Interactive. Chicken Run is a platform-stealth based 3-D platform video game based on the film of the same name. There's an excellent sniper rifle and a downright hideous flamethrower.
There is screaming and bloodshed. At the end of each mission, you're given a tally listing the number of head shots, neck shots, groin shots You'll want a bath afterwards. And then you'll go back to finish off the next level.
It's undeniably fun to play. The levels aren't particularly taxing, but they are on the whole imaginatively designed. The real-world setting adds to the thrill, as does - and we're almost ashamed to admit this - the outrageous level of violence.
The graphics are exemplary throughout, as is the use of sound the music's a bit sucky, but it is 'dynamic' - ie it reacts to the action. The weird and slightly frightening thing is, if SoF was set in the spaceports of Mars, or the fictional netherland of Etemia, or wherever, it's doubtful whether it would have held our attention for so long. Fact is, the nigh-on pornographic buzz of spraying a modern-day office with gunfire, taking limbs off be-suited, screaming enemies left, right, and centre, while a standard neon strip-light buzzes overhead, keeps you glued.
That may be wrong, but it's the honest truth. The ultra-violence is eye-poppingly hideous - but it's also whisper it quietly perversely satisfying, in a please-God-don't-let-this-corrupt-me kinda way. But it would mean nothing were the game itself not so damn playable. Soldier Of Fortune is a balls-out, whisky-swilling, flag-waving, carbine-smoking, xenophobic, fascistic, cathartic arcade game that you'll end up playing more than you should.
It probably deserves to be banned - but while it's here, let's enjoy it quietly. Oh, and we'd recommend taking short breaks to read some Enid Blyton or a Mr Men book or something. Not only does GHOUL produce some of the most realistic looking character models out there, but it also incorporates 26 gore zones on the character models to make for the most realistically disgusting ballistic wounds you've ever laid your eyes on.
All of this is extremely disturbing and extremely intriguing at the same time since this is the first time this type of damage model has been used in a shooter, and it ads an eerie yet sickly-satisfying effect to every landed shot.
Now a head shoot may yield a nauseating red spray while a shot to the leg with a large caliber gun may rip the appendage from the torso.
Gory indeed, but impressive technology to boot. In addition to an excellent character modeling system, SoF features clever level design and layout. The location feels extremely realistic and authentic. Although for the most part the levels are linear and keep you on a straight path to the finish, you will find a slew of neat and creative twists in every level.
Whether it be riding atop a speeding train, infilitrating a high-tech Japanese corporation, or trudging through a frozen Russian base in Siberia, you feel like you're in a real-world location.
And graphically, these locales couldn't be much better. The environments are a bit square and the textures aren't up to Quake III quality, but everything is well detailed and, as I've mentioned before, the character skins are to die for.
One of the things that impressed me most about SoF and that's a tall order since I have a long list of things I like about this game was the game's stability and the fact that it looked good on almost every video card combination I tried it on.
Of course, no shooter review is complete without a look at the arsenal, so how does SoF stack up against the competition? Well, it has its highs and lows. While there are a few futuristic weapons in the game like the Microwave Pulse gun and the heavy-hitting slug thrower, the core of the game revolves around good-ol' bullet lobbers.
You have your small and large caliber pistols, your trusty shotgun, your sub-machine gun both a suppressed and non-suppressed version , your sniper rifle, and your extremely versatile heavy machine gun Of this list, the shotgun and heavy machine were my favorite. You'll need to deal with limited ammo every shot counts, trigger-boy , frustratingly authentic reload rates and, for once, proper recoil no physics-defying, Quake-a-licious, rocket launcher nonchalance here, wethinks.
To keep potential mass murderers happy, Soldier Of Fortune's toy cupboard practically overflows with different flavours of death: machine guns, sniper rifles, grenades These days, no game can be reported upon without at least one reference to a ridiculous acronym dreamt up by the developers to describe an otherwise dull feature of the coding, and hot diggety dawg, if Soldier Of Fortune doesn't make heavy usage of a bit of technological fizziness known as GHOUL.
Not only does everything show full respect for the laws of physics - even the boxes shatter in a realistic fashion - there's also admirable attention to detail. We're promised the ability to shoot the gun from an opponent's hand, but if you think it's more fun shooting off the hand itself, prepare to bellow with unwholesome delight because the loveable GHOUL system also caters for stomach churningly lifelike gore.
If you winced at the merciless crowbar-clubbing action on display in Kingpin, maybe you should consider playing SOF with your eyes shut. Each character model is split into umpteen 'reaction zones', allowing goggle-eyed psychos to blow individual limbs off their enemies until their trousers stir with delight.
You can shoot a man in the bollocks and laugh as he convulses in agony or burst his head like a watermelon and gasp as chunks of brain fly past your shoulder. Or do both, one after the other, should you be thus inclined. We rather expect the BBFC to take a somewhat dim view of this, although perhaps, in these apparently more lenient rimes, they'll pass it uncut and content themselves with rolling their eyes heavenward while sighing in a world-weary fashion.
So what else is there? Well, aside from the usual believe-it-when-we-see-it promises about awe-inspiring artificial intelligence and multiplayer support, Raven are making much of the way the game's storyline unfolds -like a thriller, apparently - and also, intriguingly, of the occasional role-playing element at work beneath all that stubble and kevlar.
Apparently, there's some degree of NPC interaction beyond picking whose head to blow off next: you'll be conversing with, and making judgements upon, a wide variety of different characters throughout the game. All in all, it looks like being a definite contender - albeit a wilfully controversial one.
Keep yer peepers primed for a full review in due course. And please don't subscribe to the Soldier Of Fortune magazine in the meantime.
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