For as long as man has existed, he has been at war. The reasons for our eternal discord are many, though it can be said that most soldiers raise a weapon out of allegiance to their country or a belief in a religious or political ideal. Then there are those who fight not for country or convictions, but in pursuit of compensation. Called mercenaries, these soldiers of fortune enter battle with one eye in their gun scope and another on the final reward. The latest 3D shooter from the famed creators of Heretic and Hexen shoves a machine gun in our hands and enlists us as a member of these enigmatic corps. But Raven has seen altogether too many dull descendants of Doom. Instead of slabbing out a mindless romp, the design team distinguishes Soldier of Fortune with the buzz-saw intensity of authentic gunfights and a not-so-subtle graphic realism. There has been a palpable buzz in the air surrounding this title due to its torrents of blood. Or perhaps that was just the hiss of a bullet burning past our ears.
The title and action are borrowed from the pages of the "Soldier of Fortune" magazine, a pro-military, pro-U.S. defense editorial voice dedicated to reporting on armed hostilities and intelligence operations around the world. People step into the boots of John Mullins, a character named and modeled after an actual mercenary, who accepts assignments from the U.S. government at global hotspots. The real Mullins even lent his, um, “professional expertise” to the product. Before entering battle, users must decide which tactics and weapons are needed to complete the ensuing mission; they then receive compensation upon success. The plot that drives all this has the unpretentious appeal of a high-concept action movie; Mullins and a non-interactive partner--who appears in the cinematics but then goes off and completes a separate set of objectives--must locate four stolen nuclear weapons and terminate the terrorist organization responsible for stealing them. Although grounded in real world settings, this scenario hits some jarring hard right turns that would lose even the globetrotting James Bond. One moment Mullins is suppressing gang warfare in the Big Apple and the next he is gunning down Serbs on the other side of the world, all before fights through Saddam Hussein’s homestead and a German fortress. The means of weaving these fragile plot threads together--in-game cutscenes and e-mail messages containing new assignments--are not as important as the fact that the story is never boring. I just hope you can stomach the cheese.
Front and center, the action combines the hard-hitting realism of Rainbow Six with the run-and-gun clarity of Quake II. Although the combat can be dumbed down to offer a simple blastfest, at its default setting, Soldier of Fortune is a strategic shooter that punishes those who dash into rooms with guns blazing. A couple piercing rounds from an automatic turret and gamers will be falling headlong into a pool of their own gore. This encourages a more subtle approach in which Mullins uses stealth, the blade, a sniper gun and other strategic elements to wipe out opponents. To accomplish this, Raven outfits users with the perfect arsenal and set of game mechanics. People can lean around corners and snipe enemies from a distance, or toss a special grenade into a room that blinds everyone, then rush forward with the blade extended. Although not quite as punishing as Rainbow Six, the combat model does encourage strategy.
To facilitate this, Raven also equips gamers with an on-screen mechanism called the Personal Audio Detection device, which gauges Mullins’ noise level. The louder the weapon and the more frequent his shots, the more fanfare he creates. This causes swarms of enemies to spawn in from the ether or gather behind closed doors. In other words, mercenaries are not meant to be seen nor heard, so using the quieter weapons or firing short bursts from the louder ones is paramount. Most enemies were unaware of my presence until Mullins' blade was in their throat or a bullet hit home from a distance. The maps contain lots of tight corners, strategically placed exploding barrels and sniper positions to further liberate the digital tactician within each of us. Designers need to differentiate their titles from the competition, and stealth is one way in which Soldier of Fortune carves its niche in the genre of bullet-spitting 3D shooters.
A large selection of real-life and experimental weapons are on hand that complicate being quiet, of course. In addition to the blade are the 9mm pistol with its 18 round magazine, the .44 magnum with its nine round clip, and the eight round shotgun. Loading chambers before belting into a room is the sensible thing to do as Mullins will stop shooting to reload when out of ammunition; getting pelted with hot lead while loading a clip was a frequent precursor to death for me. The sniper gun is next and is, without a doubt, the best implementation of this weapon ever. You can zoom in on an enemy from a distance and put one through his eye--or just shoot the weapon out of his hands. The closer you zoom, the more accurate the shot. Moving up in ferocity, a series of automatic weapons is provided, including the 9mm submachine gun that resembles an uzi and the supressed SMG, a stronger 9mm gun that holds more rounds and has added stopping power. The most versatile weapon is the heavy machinegun, which stops enemies in a heart beat up close and rewards users who have long distance accuracy with fast frags.
Although these firearms sound similar in function, they form perhaps the most balanced set of weapons since, dare I say, Doom II. Some of them are useless against armored opponents, while others are capable of ripping through full armor with a single blast, so choosing the right weapon for the job is critical. For instance, one of the tougher enemies comes with full body armor and a missile launcher on his shoulder; a couple secondary blasts from the "experimental" microwave pulse gun fries him to a crisp, whereas round upon round from the repeating slugthrower does almost no damage. The blend between long- and short-range firearms adds another sweet strategic element to the action, as does the ability to cut off enemies at the legs. The detailed weapon modeling is superb, too. Mullins even has some amusing idle animations, such as spinning a chamber and juggling the blade. The one annoying glitch is that these are random, and once he starts an idle animation, he will not stop until it is complete. R.I.P. in other words if an enemy happens to catch him in the middle of this. In another nod to realism, Mullins is no futuristic marine capable of hauling a dozen firearms; the amount of firepower he can carry is limited according to the size of the weapon. Dropping one and grabbing a dead enemies’ implement broadens the arsenal for each map.
Raven enhances the strategy with a slender inventory. There are no unrealistic power-ups such as invulnerability or mega-health; rather, Mullins carries a practical set of items that includes health, armor, light amplification goggles, grenades and explosive plastique for setting traps. Health bundles are a rare commodity and must be rationed with care; armor is more plentiful and can be salvaged from dead opponents. At the beginning of each mission, Mullins can purchase a new inventory. Although the selection of items is perfect, this process comes across as superficial and pointless since most of the weapons and items can be obtained from enemies or in storage areas within the actual maps. Plus, I never encountered a situation where I had too few grenades or not enough plastique to get through the tougher portions of a mission. I purchased a pair of health vials and a set of armor and well as a half-dozen grenades before moving on, none of which lasted long. I suppose Raven wanted gamers to feel as though they were doing something constructive with their hard-earned money.
Despite this small gaffe, the missions offer a fun action-oriented experience. There are 10 sorties spread across more than 30 maps--which is a lot of content. The levels, which are linear in nature and require almost no environmental interaction other than hitting switches, are filled with scripted sequences that create a threatening ambience. Enemies lean around corners and bust through doors to extinguish Mullins, and swarms of soldiers descend on our hero when things get loud. There is a considerable degree of refreshing unpredictability as well, and one’s actions can help or exacerbate a given situation. For example, in the German castle, there is a bedroom in which Mullins can grab some much-needed ammunition; a large television turns on that he can “use” to see the corridor outside the room. If he “uses” the television, some unwanted company will be waiting for him when he emerges; if he resists the temptation, the coast will be clear. This, along with the enemy spawning, creates combat that is less predictable than 3D action gamers are accustomed to. Overall, this is a good thing, though the spawning can become frustrating and push the difficulty past a reasonable degree. Since save games are limited in the default setting, people have even one more reason to contemplate their next move before rushing headlong into battle.
In addition to the intense combat, two other things distinguish Soldier of Fortune from the competition: its character animation and collision detection, both of which enhance the gunfights. Using a technology that implements 26 regions per character that can be targeted, Raven forces gamers to aim at their opponents before pulling the trigger--something that has considerable strategic value. In addition, the animation is stunning; no matter where an opponent is hit, they respond in a realistic manner to the impact. Shoot them in the shoulder and they will be slammed into the wall behind them; hit them in the arm and they will lose their limb as well as their weapon. In one humorous instance, I strafed around a corner, unleashed a single round from a shotgun at three enemies, and all of them started prancing up and down in a macabre synchronized dance.
This technology also enabled Raven to create the most violent release to date. The result is combat rendered in the deepest tones of red--there is nothing quite as astonishing as hitting a game character between the eyes and see a stump of bone and mist where the head sat moments before. The violence is so over-the-top at times it could be misunderstood as a manufactured scandal. But Raven and Activision have gone to great lengths to ensure users can tone down the gorier elements and reconfigure the action to their tastes--or for younger users. There are five levels of content scaling, and Soldier of Fortune can even be installed without the bloodier content included. Furthermore, a password protected mode ensures parents and guardians can set the content at their comfort level and it will remain unchanged.
Soldier of Fortune comes complete with a number of online modes that extend the action to the Internet, including: standard deathmatch; Realistic mode in which a single, well-placed shot can frag an opponent; the ubiquitous Capture the Flag; Assassin, in which each participant is assigned one opponent and loses points when the wrong person is fragged; and Arsenal, in which the first person to achieve a frag with each weapon wins. All of these can be configured to a “T,” including heath, armor and weapon availability and so on. People can also choose from a huge library of avatars. Something I realized the first time I selected a deathmatch character is that each of them represented enemies I had encountered in the solo game. There is so much variety to the enemies, both in self-contained areas and from region to region, that I never grew tired of seeing the same opponent over and over. It’s just one more indicator of the attention to detail and amount of blood, sweat and tears that were poured into Soldier of Fortune.
Raven has performed a sort of cathartic alchemy on the standard 3D shooter, eliminating all fantasy-based inclinations to manufacture a purified rendering of mercenary combat. The result is a more strategic release that had me posing unexpected questions such as: How many bullets do I have? Why empty an entire carriage when three rounds will do? Is this a good time to use a grenade? When I had defeated the final boss, I felt bludgeoned; the combat is that intense. Rainbow Six and Spec Ops fans will still scoff at the notion that it is realistic--and with good cause. Underneath the extreme battles is the same light-fingered rambunctiousness from which all 3D shooters are molded. And layered on top of them is a blood-splattered grisliness that is more cartoonish than authentic.
Despite considerable defects in the AI department and an aging rendering engine, Soldier of Fortune is a strong technical statement. Gamers have never seen animation this articulate or been able to gun through a virtual world so responsive to destruction. The one-note action becomes redundant and there are other small glitches and questionable design decisions, but these are pardonable in light of the absolute configurability that caters to all levels of expertise and the sheer amount of fun to be had. Raven has its fingers on the pulse of action gamers and is shooting in the right direction. Those who survived the somewhat cheesy ending and have watched sales charts will understand when I say a sequel is inevitable. Soldier of Fortune was a gratifying experience and I am gunning for more--so bring it on. Just iron out the creases. |
