Gameplay

Gang War in NY

The first mission we got to sample was the NY Subway level. This mission starts off with Mullins and Hawk arguing with police about entering the subway. The cutscenes use the game engine, in much the same way that Kingpin did, and effectively sets up the player for what you're up against. Apparently there's a huge gang war going on in the subway, and police are powerless to restore order - this fact is punctuated by a gang member sneaking up on a SWAT officer, shooting him in the back of the head and pumping more rounds, gangster style, into the lifeless body (btw, dead bodies shiver and writhe on the ground with every shot). When the gang leader starts taking out hostages, Mullins and Hawk (your sometimes seen sidekick) move in.

That's gonna hurt in the morning

That's 'you'

The gameplay in the subway level was fast and frenetic - gang members pop up at you in droves as you reload and shoot frantically at all the hostiles. Check your fire - there are innocent hostages around. What's disconcerting is that enemies in Soldier of Fortune will actually spawn in and come up from behind you, even from an area that you just cleared out. The medium difficulty level is very challenging as is, but the harder levels just get insane (in addition to more enemies, you also get fewer numbers of saves with increasing difficulty). I'm not sure yet how I feel about respawning enemies, and limited numbers of saves per level. One thing's for sure, it adds to the urgency level in the player to be more careful and mindful about getting quick, clean kills. No slop allowed!

Incoming!

Pepper him with the SMG

After getting through the initial subway station level, you move deeper into the tunnels where your view is blocked by some volumetric fog. It looked like something was wrong with the fog on my G400, but Raven's Rick Johnson explained that fog in the OEM demo is a bit screwed up and will look better in the final. After this second subway level, the game moved on to one level on a moving train carrying a nuclear device.

Motion

The train mission of Soldier of Fortune was simply awesome, probably even more fun than the moving train mission in Nocturne. There weren't as many enemies to kill, but you had to deal with a hovering AH-1 Cobra gunship helicopter. It's hard enough to jump and move your way up the train as it is, but having to fear falling off, and getting shot by soldiers, but dealing with that menacing helicopter and its nose mounted cannon…that's downright scary.

I hit that leg pretty well

Boom!

At some points you have to actually use the helicopter to shoot out obstacles for you, so dealing with the chopper is in many ways a cerebral experience. It's armored, so your standard weapons won't really touch it. Its nose mounted cannon can cut you to pieces in about nothing flat, and it carries rockets too! You're not totally powerless though; about halfway up the train you can get in a train car that offers enough cover (and time) for you to whip out your sniper rifle and take out the chopper pilot! (be sure to see gallery 1 for a pictorial account of this) WOOT!