Contract J.A.C.K.

The Good
I bought Contract J.A.C.K. not long after I finished No One Lives Forever 2. NOLF 2 was an excellent game and left me wanting still more 60's spy action with Cate Archer. Sadly, there was no NOLF 3 around. But there was Contract J.A.C.K., a game set in the same universe that was apparently a prequel to the game I had just played.

Indeed, Contract J.A.C.K. is set in the NOLF world and even features a cameo by Cate Archer herself. That is the only thing that makes it a NOLF game, though. J.A.C.K. takes an entirely different direction from the rest of the series, being a frantic out-and-out shooter rather than an espionage game.

And there is much shooting. Near constant shooting, in fact. Don't even try sneaking around. There's no point. This is like Doom in the 1960's. Just keep your finger on the trigger. If you like alot of action, this game does have it.

As usual for Monolith's efforts in this series, the game is pretty darned funny. The conversations between your enemies are a particular highlight. Also, there very fact that your primary opponent is a group called "Danger, Danger" is just too funny.

Graphics use the Lithtech II engine and therefore are nothing to sneeze at. All the character and level design is all high quality. Sound as well is very well done, with competent voice acting throughout.

The Bad
It's not what I wanted from this series. Yes, I know that this game sets forth to be a fast-paced shooter from the get-go, but it's still continuing the tradition of the NOLF series. There is none of the depth of gameplay in the previous two games. No gadgets, no intelligence to pick up, no sneaking around. It's just straight-forward shooting. And from this series, that's disappointing.

As well, J.A.C.K. doesn't even do the straight-up shooter that well. The basic philosophy of most encounters seems to be sending massive mobs of fairly stupid enemies. Further, the enemies respawn way too fast (a problem some NOLF 2 areas) and many do not drop ammo (you should not have ammo problems in a shooter like this).

All in all, Contract J.A.C.K. just isn't all that much fun to play with the kind of gameplay that is presented most of the time.

The Bottom Line
If you have played through the other two NOLF games and absolutely need more, then this might help satiate the urge just a little. Otherwise, go check out the rest of the series first.

The Good
Nice graphics.

Seeing some of the characters from NOLF1 and 2 was neat.

If you like Serious Sam gameplay this could be fun...

The Bad
An absolute disgrace to one of my all-time favorite series. Characters that were once vivid and hilarious are now two-dimensional and stupid. Rather than the excellent first-person shooter action gameplay found in NOLF 1 and 2, you find yourself thrust into a Serious Sam-esque game style set in the No One Lives Forever universe. Bad guys will come pouring out of every single hole in the area and they won't stop coming until you've genocided the entire Italian nationality.

Levels are dull. Some nice detail here and there, but mostly it's crap. Nothing very imaginative, save for the space level -- oh wait, that was done in previous episodes. No, there's nothing special about the levels.

Aside from a mounted gun on a motorized ski thing, there's nothing much to say regarding weapons. Oh yeah, the vehicle handling STILL sucks.

This game has absolutely nothing to do with either No One Lives Forevers. Despite Monolith's constant claims that you "take part in Cate Archer's adventures from the dark side", you see her maybe once and that's it.

I encountered serious frame rate problems at times, often in areas that weren't really all that detailed or polygon-heavy.

The Bottom Line
This game right plain sucks and never should have been made. They've tainted one of my all-time favorite series.

If you wanted a goofy Serious Sam experience set in the No One Lives Forever universe, hey, this is your game. But if you have any respect for No One Lives Forever you'll stay away from this steaming turd called a game and pretend it never existed. God, I wish I had.

The Good
I'll try and keep this short: Contract J.A.C.K is to NOLF what Red Faction is to Half Life: basically, it's a mod, albeit a pretty high-standard one at that, but falls quite a bit short of its roots.

The visuals in Contract J.A.C.K are top-notch; character models are detailed, the general design is quite eye-catching and details are high everywhere. The weapon models are pretty cool, and the environments are very nice to look at. So basically, LithTech/Jupiter still works very well. Also, the in-game music is pretty nifty, and as is standard fare with LithTech games these days the dynamic music sequences really kick ass (although not to the perfection of Tron 2.0). Finally, the sound is pretty good and voice acting is on par with NOLF (which is a good thing).

Contract J.A.C.K features a pretty rudimentary story that manages not to clash with NOLF's for the simple reason that it has very little in common with it: you play Jack, a hitman who gets hired by HARM to secure a vehicle prototype, and then go after a mandatory slightly-mad Indian Dr., extracting him from the other bad guys - an Italian crime organization by the name of Danger Danger. The game has little or no surprises right until the very end, when censored. So in essence: simple-minded fun.

The Bad
For starters, the enemy AI is ridiculously bad. Admittedly I did not play the game at a high level (Normal), but the enemies still followed the same stupid pattern - wait 'till I run into a curve, yell something and then come pouring out, waiting to be shot. I haven't once seen an enemy do something even remotely smart, other than maybe stay hidden behind an object - but even then they don't seek better cover or superiour ground, they just stay put and occasionally take a shot at you.

Gameplay is incredibly repetitive, but luckily the game is so short (5 hours at best) that it doesn't really matter; potential spoiler unfortunately there is only one boss in the game, which does not lend well to gameplay (again, compared to NOLF). And, while the scenery is varied, the enemies are not - just different skins for the same type of enemy with the same type of behaviour. There is very little here to break the repetitiveness - not even the occasional side-quest or cool item usage (I think there are maybe 3 or 4 items in the game).

While the architecture is pretty cool, the level design is uninspired at best - basically just the same thing over and over again: go through the corridor, shoot some bad guys, move across the hall, find another corridor, go through it, shoot some bad guys ad nauseum. And again the game falls into the trap of being so damn scripted and linear that you'd find yourself facing five locked doors and a single unlocked one in one corridor. I don't know about you guys, but I hate having all my navigation decisions being made for me (I think Max Payne was the first game in which I ever noticed this extent of linearity).

The Bottom Line
Short and incredibly mediocre. I wouldn't bother with it unless you can find it for $10 in a bargain bin somewhere. It's not worth full price for just a few hours of unenthusiastic fun.