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| Soldier of Fortune II: Double
Helix |
Reviewed by Evan 'DarkFriend'
Lesser |
Soldier of Fortune II: Double Helix
(PC CD-ROM)
Used & New from $12.00 |
Soldier of Fortune II: Double Helix
(Xbox)
Price: $49.99 |
Developer: Raven Software
Publisher: Activision
Download
Demo
Release Date: 05/21/2002
 For
a long time, Raven Software was known only for developing games with fantasy
themes. These games, including the Heretic series, its popular offshoots
Hexen and Hexen 2, and their precursors Black Crypt and Shadowcaster, were all
artistic gems, combining an obvious love for the genre, along with exceptional
technical skills. A few years ago, Raven and its long-time publisher
Activision acquired the rights to use the "Soldier of Fortune"
license, taken from the magazine of the same name. The plan was to develop
a gritty first person shooter where players became a mercenary for hire, gunning
down terrorists across the globe. With an intended focus on realism, more
than a few people wondered if Raven, a fantasy game developer, could take
on development of a game set in the "real world." Any skeptics
of Raven's abilities to create a decent game without swords and sorcery
were dashed with the release of Soldier of Fortune in 2000. Using
a heavily modified Quake 2 engine, Soldier of Fortune was the bloodiest
shooter ever, with a story and flow that played out like a blockbuster action-thriller
movie. Even though the Quake 2 engine was well aged in 1999, Raven
managed to add enough new features to it to make Soldier of Fortune another
gem to add to the company's crown. It proved that fancy graphics do not
themselves make a game. Solder of Fortune's gameplay was fast and furious,
with satisfying weapons, better-than-average enemy AI, excellent sound, and plenty
of interesting locales for the player to gun down baddies in. In particular,
the smooth, motion-captured character animation and the possibility of "bolt-on"
items for models added a degree of realism that first person shooters had not
yet seen. Word traveled around fast. The combination of "over-the-top"
blood and gore, fun gameplay, and a controversial license made the first Soldier
of Fortune an instant hit.
It was no surprise that Raven and Activision teamed up again to
create the next step in the Soldier of Fortune world. Released late
last month, Soldier of Fortune 2: Double Helix promised even more action,
more realism, and more unique scenarios to put the player in. How does it
fare?
Graphics
 Since
Soldier of Fortune 2 uses iD Software's Quake 3 Team Arena engine as its
base, you would assume the graphics in the game would be great. Unfortunately,
the graphics in Soldier of Fortune 2 are good, but not as artistically
inspired as past Raven works like the recent Jedi Knight 2 and other Quake
3-powered games like Alice and Return to Castle Wolfenstein. I can understand
Raven wanting to focus on gameplay, but the graphics in Soldier of Fortune
are somewhat dull. This is surprising for a game coming from Raven.
Many of the game's textures are muted brown and gray colors that leave the player's
eyes feeling washed-out after an hour or two of gameplay. In addition, a
lot of the in-game models that the player encounters (cars, boats, helicopters,
houses, etc.) are extremely blocky looking. Playing the Quake 3 demo a few
years back, I was always shot to pieces standing around gawking at the statues
towering over the arenas. After seeing how chunky the models look in Soldier
of Fortune 2, I got the feeling that some of them were ripped from the
first Soldier of Fortune game. Walking around the levels, you
get a sense that everything is squared and angular. There are no rounded
edges visible that make the Quake 3 engine so great. Other graphical faults
take place on the character models. Since the non-player characters rarely
blink their eyes, you often feel like you are conversing with zombies - not people.
In addition, mouth movement in relation to the dialog being spoken is choppy and
not of the caliber I'd expect in a mid-2002 game release. Dying enemy models
bend and twist like rubber, and often end up in completely unreal positions when
they finally come to rest. It's great that the models no longer die halfway
through a wall, but the system Raven has in place for Soldier of Fortune
is far from perfected, causing for some big laughs when an enemy dies in a seemingly
advanced yoga position. In the real world, people come in all shapes and
sizes. In Soldier of Fortune 2, it appears that all models are the
same general size and height. This isn't something you may notice consciously,
but your mind knows its there.
 Considering
how exceptional the graphics are in Raven's Jedi Knight 2, I begin to wonder
if there were two separate teams who developed each game at Raven.
However, the graphics in Soldier of Fortune 2 are not all bad. Weapon
modeling is stunning, and about as real-looking as you can get. Explosions
and gunfire are big and satisfying. The outside levels, especially in the
jungles of Colombia, greatly benefit from the addition of swaying grass and moving
leaves. Snow, rain, and fog effects are beautiful, working to reduce the
players visibility and actually adding a new strategy element to the game (not
just eye-candy). And finally, the "arcade" type levels with scrolling
terrain are very well done.
Single Player Storyline
The storyline of Soldier of Fortune 2: Double Helix is standard "terrorist
gets weapon of mass destruction, please kill him and his operation" fare.
Without giving anything away, there are a few minor twists and plot turns in the
game that attempt to make things interesting. I can safely relay that our
hero John Mullins has to deal with a traitor in his organization that is bent
on making life difficult (and dangerous) for everybody. In addition, one
of John's pals is the prime suspect. Raven doesn't really play out
this part of the plot very thoroughly. It would have spiced things up a
bit if the suspected friend was seen in possible positions that might lead the
player to suspect involvement with the enemy. Anyone with half-a-brain can
figure out who is the organization mole, soon after the discovery of the traitor
is made.
 Unfortunately,
the storyline is kind of dull and really serves no purpose other than allowing
the player to shoot enemies in the "same old" box-filled warehouses,
snowy landscapes, and the classic "uninhabited-except-for-enemies" city
streets as usual. In Soldier of Fortune 2, a foreign terrorist has
developed a virus and plans to unleash it on helpless U.S. citizens. Although
frighteningly "current," I would love to see a single-player game plot
that gets really interesting and original while still maintaining some reality.
Instead of the constant threat of faceless foreign terrorists, why can't the enemy
be someone from our own country or a friendly country? Perhaps a renegade
military general, or an old friend of the player's character, or a fanatical religious
leader? Instead of levels taking place in warehouses, parking garages, and
pipe and steam-filled basements, why can't players battle it out in locations
like a crowded shopping mall, or a football stadium, or an amusement park?
But I digress..
In
my opinion, the best storyline to date still comes from the classic Half Life,
probably because it was written by a real author, not some game company president.
In general, you will most likely find yourself skipping a lot of the in-game cut
scenes, just to "get on with it" and return to shooting bad guys in
the crotch or knees.
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