Introduction

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

Gunning for Glory

The last time we reported on Soldier of Fortune, we gave it our E3 Best Game of Show award. Raven's demonstration knocked our socks off - the build we saw featured crisp graphics, awesome weapons, cool animations, and most of all, a fantastic locational based damage system. Couple that with a fast paced single player game that borrows its plotlines straight out of the latest techno-thrillers (I'm a big Clancy fan by the way), and you've got a first person game that just stands out from the rest. It's worth noting that many of today's and tomorrow's games are based on their own awesome engines (Nocturne), the Unreal Engine (Wheel of Time, Duke Forever), or the Quake 3 engine (Alice, Heavy Metal FAKK2). Soldier of Fortune has been in development for a while now, so it uses a highly modified version of the venerable Quake 2 engine. Many of the Quake 2 licensed games have already come out, like SiN and Kingpin. With that in mind, Soldier of Fortune promises to be the last hurrah for Quake 2 engine games. What's that you say? Daik-a when-will-it-ever-come-out? OK maybe not quite the LAST hurrah, but close to the last.

This poor sap is hosed...

...glocked!!

Yes, it has to do with the magazine

Raven and Activision licensed the name of this game from the magazine, Soldier of Fortune. Since the magazine is all about mercenary life, it should come as no surprise that you play one in the game. In SoF, you take the role of a gun for hire named John Mullins. As a mercenary, you'll be going on dangerous missions that take you all around the globe to embark on a variety of very realistic and believable scenarios. Raven actually employed the services of a former "soldier of fortune" (and professional author) to help them create the game and its story, spanning 26 levels over 10 different missions. The OEM version we played allows you a glimpse of 3 missions - the New York subway mission, an exciting train level in Africa, and a jaunt through the underbelly of wartorn Kosovo. Standard equipment includes throwing knives, 9mm semiautomatic pistols, .44 magnum handguns, repeating combat shotguns, a sniper rifle with telescoping sight, and C-4 plastique. More cool goodies await in the full version of course!

The game can get gory

Notice the lack of limbs