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
In the Gamasutra Postmortem for the original No One Lives Forever, Craig Hubbard notes that the driving design goal was to develop a game as polished as possible. However, while Hubbard advocated presentation over innovation, it would be remiss not to overlook that it's NOLF's originality that made it memorable. NOLF took the 60's spy setting and found a comfortable place between James Bond and Austin Powers. NOLF made the main character a female, who owed nothing to Lara Croft, and treated her like a person, not a toy. NOLF was filled with creative villains and packed with action set-pieces. Finally, with its emphasis on stealth, gadgets, and intelligence gathering, it was definitely not another first person shooter.

Then NOLF2 came along and refined the gaming process. More importance was given to intelligence gathering. Playing stealthily had a bigger payoff. The game was streamlined to forward the story by using in-game events rather than cutscenes. New gadgets were introduced during missions, instead of taking side trips to the weapons lab. Best of all, Cate Archer was now customizable, having attained attributes which allowed her to hide faster, shoot more accurately and use her gadgets faster.

Finally there came news of Contract J.A.C.K. Tired of being the good guy? See the NOLF World from H.A.R.M.'s viewpoint. Sadly, what was offered as the chance to play From Russia With Love as Red Grant ended up being Red Grant caught in Danger: Diabolik.

John Jack (the Jack part of Contract J.A.C.K.) begins his adventures tied to a chair in an anonymous room being threatened by two thugs and a voice on a speakerphone. After getting slapped around, called an asshole and threatened with a chainsaw, Jack springs to life: snapping his bonds and pummeling the two thugs to death with his fists. Surviving a sudden onslaught of thugs attracts the attention of H.A.R.M. Director Dmitrij Volkov who has a need for Just Another Contract Killer. Working for H.A.R.M. pits Jack against the Czechoslovakians and Danger Danger (out of Italy) in a race… well… to the Moon.

If Contract J.A.C.K. has any strength it comes from using the same engine as NOLF2 and reutilizing most (if not all) of the music, sound effects, etc. Voice work is great, even if the dialogue is not. Contract J.A.C.K. has a few vehicle levels, which are well armed, and one level brings to mind "Unexpected Turbulence" from the original game; not that these are better levels than the rest of the game, but they break up the monotony of running endless, bloody gauntlets.

The Bad
Contract J.A.C.K.'s biggest failing comes from making a game set in the No One Lives Forever Universe that has very little interest for fans of the No One Lives Forever series. John Jack is not a male Cate Archer. H.A.R.M. (as presented here) is not a dark reflection of UNITY. Contract J.A.C.K. bravely does away with stealth and gadgets, presenting a FPS with poor AI and bad weapons. Hell, Contract J.A.C.K. doesn't even make use of the 60s setting, Jack's weapon of choice is an anachronistic Desert Eagle.

Afraid to lose their M rating, every villain suffers from hemophilia, drenching the scenery with blood when they are shot. Weapons are frighteningly underpowered—it's not uncommon to empty a half clip into an enemy only to have them barrel onward. Headshots don't seem to matter this time around. The few times I acquired the crossbow, I only had one shot left. Ignore the John Woo style gun in each hand pics on the cover—that's just to fool Max Payne fans.

AI is pretty poor (except when scripted). Enemies spawn and run instinctively to your location. Forget about sneaking around! NOLF had a nice pacing where, if you had to kill someone, you had to time it so they were alone and you could dispose of the body. Not here.

The Bottom Line
At a rapidly dropping price, it's hard to be too disappointed with Contract J.A.C.K. It is short and completely conventional, stripping off all the polish the previous games had, but a bad John Jack game doesn't have the same impact a bad Cate Archer game would have. Do I recommend it? No. It doesn't fill in the gaps, like you'd expect so it's unsatisfactory even for NOLF completists. No matter how low the price gets, there will always be another game at the same cost that is better—which is too bad, because done better, they'd have something here. Still, until patching a game rewrites it completely, leave this game on the shelf.