First Impressions

Developer: Raven
Publisher: Activision
Soldier of Fortune official page: http://www.activision.com/games/sof/

Quick Thoughts

Soldier of Fortune went gold last week, and should be very close to reaching store shelves. Activision was kind enough to rush us a copy of the gold master last week, so we thought we'd give readers our first impressions of the game, and some sneak peeks at what's in store for gamers! If you flip through all the screenshots you'll see parts of the Siberia level, which was not in the demo, some of the new weapons, models, and a deathmatch level based on the Raven offices!

This tank can own you

That's you - John Mullins

More gore

Of course, being the mature, level headed gamers we are *cough*, which chose to install the game with full violence mode on (SoF comes with a parent lock and a low violence mode). The first thing we noticed is that it's a lot easier to gib enemies in the full version. Running through the first subway level with a shotgun was a rather gruesome experience. Arms, legs, and heads vaporized rather easily under the force of 12 gauge buckshot. The .44 caliber pistol was equal to the task of dismemberment, which we found out after reaching the Kosovo level. One thing's for sure - you'll definitely notice all 26 of the "gore zones" in the location based damage. The single player game even keeps track of head shots, neck shots, full gibs, and shots to the "nether regions" (read: the groin) as you play through the game.

Cleared out the guard nest

This guy's toast

Customizability

A lot of people who played the demo complained about how often enemies respawned - it's as if they could pop up right before your eyes. Raven was thoughtful enough to include a customizable level of respawn in the full version. You can turn it off completely or leave a very low level of respawn. For those who actually like it, there's a setting called "ridiculous" which will spawn enemies with reckless abandon! Did you hate the way that the number of save games is limited? Rejoice, because you can turn on unlimited saves now.

Crumple

Look out for the spray

Multiplayer

Multiplayer includes a number of customizeable elements, ranging from movement speed, to realistic damage (on or off), to the presence of missile weapons. We haven't had much of a chance to play multiplayer, because the disc arrived last Friday, just as Firingsquad and Gamers.com were packing up our computers to move (again) to our new offices. Rest assured that a full review is coming later this week, and we'll get right to the heart of multiplayer issues and everything else. We did do a quick run through of the Raven DM level, which is modeled after the Ravensoft offices! We're not sure if it's that technically sound of a DM level, but it sure seems fun to pop up over top of cubicle walls and exchange fire!

Stay tuned to FS for a full SoF review. In the meantime, enjoy the screenshot goodness! We've got two more pages worth of eye candy. Looking for more info or screenshots? Check out our earlier SoF Preview.