twisted: Soldier of Fortune raises the bar in First
Person Shooters. Like its counterparts, it's the standard shoot 'em up game.
However, Raven totally re-works Quake 2's engine and introduces GHOUL to
the world. Enemies have 26 gore zones and almost all have a different appearance.
The player's arsenal consists of real life weapons, except the microwave
gun, and each gun is pin-point accurate. These are some of the many features
that Raven uses to spruce up this genre of games.
reese: But the fact still remains that it is based on Quake 2's
engine. This game is not orignal. The GHOUL engine was a excellent achievement,
but I do not think many games will continue with that. Other than GHOUL,
raven has not made anything else revelutionary in FPS.
twisted: I totally disagree. According to Keith Fuller, programmer
at Raven Software, "So if you want some way to quantify the overall changes
we made to the engine for its use in SOF, you could say that
a total of about 1.3% of Soldier of Fortune is still Quake2.
Also, I think Raven increased the immersive feel of this game by sending
the player on mission in real-world locations. Even some of the graffiti
on buildings was written in that location's language. Raven definitely payed
attention to details and made the levels as realistic as possible.
reese: The fact still remains that it was BASED on Quake2. When
you think of games that revolutionized FPS, you think of Quake (because
of real 3D), Quake 2 (because of engine), and Half-life (greatest single
player ever). Soldier of Fortune has what none of these games
have. SoF is just another game that will just roll through
and leave no mark. You reason of "real life situation" is irrelevant because
many games have had that. Kingpin revolutionized the essense of "real life"
with the beutiful arcitexture of the inner city.
twisted: Soldier of Fortune creates an exciting and
fresh role as a mercenary. The amazing cut scenes keeps the plot interesting
because you don't know what to expect next. The levels never become repetitive.
How many games have ever offered missions based in iraq? As for being based
on Quake 2 engine, Half-Life was based on the Quake engine. Both of these
games were heavily modified and do not bear resemblance to their original
engines.
reese: The cuts scenes have no interest what so ever. The sound
bits are unconvincing and the outcome is predictable. Even though SoF
does not bear much resemblance to its original engine, it is still not original.
Also another fact that makes SoF just another FPS is its lenght.
I finished SoF in 6 hours on medium. It took me 6 months to
beat Half-life. Also, the multiplayer for SoF is not very
good either. Compared to Q3A and UT, SoF has a very weak multiplayer
game. Soldier of Fortune is a good game and has an amazing
GHOUL system, but it will have no major impact on the gaming industry because
of it's lack of lengh, multiplayer, un-original engine, and lack of curves.
twisted: Cut scenes added a ton of interest. How cool was it to sit
back and watch the chaos unfold? The sounds were spot-on. In one of the
Kosovo missions, you could hear the war raging on overhead while you were
fighting in the sewers! People should not be so biased about a game's length.
Even though Half-Life was extremely long, many other games have been just
as long and received no praise. A person should judge a game on its quality
and content, not the length of the game. The multiplayer may not seem original,
but Raven adds some twists to it. The game comes with modes such as the
standard Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch. Also included are Realistic Deathmatch,
Capture the Flag, Arsenal and Assassin! Curves were not possible with Soldier
of Fortune's engine. Therefore, Raven still managed to implement
realistic architecture without curves. |
