Finding a niche

In order for a game to break out of the crowded first person shooter market and stand out, it needs to specialize in something specific. Being just average in every area is not the way to go. Quake 3's specialty is pure and utterly refined multiplayer. Half-Life's single player game is still the standard by which all others are judged. Unreal Tournament changed the way we look at game interfaces, and out of the box value. So what's Soldier of Fortune's appeal? Put simply, it's interactive carnage. You might have noticed that other FPS games eventually become nothing more than a shooting gallery after a short amount of time. You hit someone and they fall down or they gib. Maybe you'll see a few bloody holes or something, but your enemies die the same way every time, more or less. It's not that simple in SoF. For better or for worse, Soldier of Fortune brings us 2 or 3 steps closer to the graphic reality of battle.

Weird how the scalp came off like that

I can take those glasses off

Carnage

Remember watching the beach landing of "Saving Private Ryan" for the first time? Even for us "desensitized killing machines," the battle scene branded into our minds some vivid, horrifying pictures of how it really looks like for someone to get shot or blown up. There were bullets slicing cleanly through the water, entering and exiting submerged soldiers as if they were nothing but sheets of paper. Then you saw the soldier confusedly searching the ground for his severed forearm. The tide ceased bringing in clean seawater, only the blood of thousands of dead and dying Gis.

Mess in the kitchen - those are fish on the table

Ninja on the ground

Keep out of reach of children

If there's any game on the market that could come close to delivering the same realism (and giving heart attacks to folks like Colonel David Grossman and Senator Joe Lieberman), it's Soldier of Fortune. Clearly it's not a game you'd buy for your 7 year old brother or son, but for those of us who are mature enough to handle it, Soldier of Fortune is fantastic. The advanced locational damage and animations supply the player with an unparalleled experience.