Interface and Sound

They’re ‘natural’

No One Lives Forever 2 has an interface that takes the typical first-person shooter control setup, taking particular note of Half-Life, and simply extrapolates it to its needs. Weapons are put in categories, from melee, traps and small arms to rifles, explosives and miscellaneous equipment. With a weapon or item selected, it’s just a matter of point and click. Some items, like the light, have their own keyboard shortcuts. Others can be activated with the right mouse button when they become useful. If you approach a lock with an AK-47 in hand and target it, a ‘pick lock’ text will pop up where your cursor used to be. This extremely convenient feature makes it easy to spot and solve puzzles. That’s not to say the puzzles aren’t challenging, it’s just that players avoid the frustration of running around a level, clicking on anything that looks like it might interact.

Or the Quake way

Either works

Close up

In a nod to Counter-Strike and Rainbow Six, Cate’s aim gets worse the faster she moves or turns. Her guns produce recoil and prolonged automatic fire isn’t recommended except in close combat. The targeting reticule gets bigger and more blurred the worse her aim is. While effective, it’s harder to judge the actual aim deviation than it would be with CS or R6.

The front-end, from the main menu to the in-game interface, shows a lot of character. Maps are usually spy photos with marked locations or crude drawings on paper. Loading screens offer tips that hint at what is to come in the level ahead, and prepare new players sufficiently for the challenge. The in-game menu is complete with objectives, Cate’s stats, and intelligence and equipment menus. Highlighting objects or items of intelligence can offer useful hints if you’re stuck.

What a sexy voice

The game has utterly amazing sound effects. Everything just sounds appropriate. Don’t take that to mean realistic. Doors will always make noise when opening, just to provide a challenge when sneaking around. Like Garrett from Thief, Cate seems intent on wearing hard leather boots despite the rather stealthy nature of her job. Guns, explosions and other effects are right on the mark.

The sounds are more impressive than the music. Maybe we’ve seen the Austin Powers movies too many times, but NOLF2’s music isn’t all that impressive even considering the era it’s supposed to represent. In fact, the No One Lives Forever games have so much identity, that any nods towards the Austin Powers movies seem out of place. The ‘60s bright colors are fine, but NOLF2’s strength is more as a light parody of the James Bond titles than an Austin Powers knockoff. Initial impressions aside, the game just has much more in common with Bond than Powers. In keeping with that, the Bond-like NOLF theme music with the singing was far more appropriate than all the fruity ‘60s beeping/whistling tunes.

Throw a pineapple up there

He died but didn't fall out

Max skills are l33t

Sound effects aside, NOLF2’s real strength is in the voice acting. Despite the dire lack of variety, since there are maybe a half-dozen voice actors in the game, the actual voices are great. What makes them even better are the actual lines they deliver. Listening to the Russian soldiers is particularly funny.