Contract J.A.C.K.

aka: Contract JACK, No One Lives Forever: Contract J.A.C.K., Wu Ren Yong Sheng 2: Shashou JACK
Moby ID: 11245
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Description official descriptions

Contract J.A.C.K. is the prequel to No One Lives Forever 2: A Spy in H.A.R.M.'s Way. The game revolves around John Jack, a contract killer under the H.A.R.M. flag. Jack is sent on a mission by H.A.R.M., whether he likes it or not, to stop an Italian crime organization. The game lets players explore "the dark side" of the No One Lives Forever universe, and features a large arsenal of weapons and over 10 single player levels.

Spellings

  • Агент Д.Ж.Е.К. - Russian spelling
  • 无人永生2:杀手JACK - Simplified Chinese spelling

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Credits (Windows version)

150 People (113 developers, 37 thanks) · View all

Lead Sound Designer
Senior 2D/3D Artist
Animator
Senior 2D/3D Artists
Producer
2D/3D Artists
Level Designers
Senior Engineers
Engineers
Associate Producer
QA Lead
Director of Development
Creative Director
Lead Game Designer
Art Director
[ full credits ]

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 60% (based on 28 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.2 out of 5 (based on 30 ratings with 6 reviews)

No One Lives Forever 2 Minus Cate Archer And The Charm.

The Good
The prequel to the excellent “No One Lives Forever 2: A Spy In Harms Way”. “Contract J.A.C.K. shows gamers a darker version of the NOLF universe. Instead of playing as the super spy Cate Archer, we get to play as John Jack, a hitman, and the jack of the title.

In “Contract J.A.C.K.”, you take on the crime syndicate, Danger! Danger! While working for H.A.R.M. The games seven missions take you from Italy, to the Moon! The plot is not as well done as in NOLF 2. Nor is Jack’s adventure as long as either of Cate’s. Yet you manage to kill more people than in both NOLFS combined. But then again you are a contract killer.

There are no gadgets in J.A.C.K. But there are new weapons, including some that have returned from NOLF 1 and were not in it’s sequel. So I guess the amount of guns is supposed to make up for the lack of gadgets. Thankfully vehicle segments return. There are even more than there were in NOLF 2. And this time around the vehicles come equipped with a gun.

Most of the humor of previous games is gone. There are still some funny moments. But the jokes tend to be darker. For some reason there is a lot of explicit language in this one unlike the other games. The game also seems more violent, but I guess this is to be expected.

The Graphics are stunning. Once again thanks to the Jupiter engine. Monolith still uses this engine in it’s games, showing just how awesome it is. Like NOLF 2 this game looks great even on the lowest setting. The weapons and characters are look amazing. And the real time lighting effects have to be seen to be believed. The flash of light when you fire your gun is so sweet!

There is even less music in this than NOLF 2. But it is quality over quantity. The voice overs are good except for Jack, who has too much of a gruff voice. Which makes him sound odd. Some of the weapons sound different and more realistic.

J.A.C.K. plays more like Serious Sam than No One Lives Forever. This of course was disappointing to NOLF fans. As the NOLF series is known for successfully blending stealth and action segments.

The Bad
This game is way too short. You can finish it in one sitting. So it only has about four hours of gameplay. The difficulty settings are ridiculous. On easy it is way too easy. On Normal it is about ten times more difficult. The A.I. is not as good as we would expect, often enemies run right into to harms way.(No pun intended.) For some reason the box claims that there are ten missions. I have no idea where they got that number, as there are only seven missions. Three less than stated on the box.

The Bottom Line
Overall Contract J.A.C.K. is an average game. That while it does not live up the NOLF series, there is some fun to be had if you can get over it’s dissimilarities to NOLF. Do not pay full price for this game as it is too short, in fact I would not pay over $20. I got my copy on Amazon for about $6.00.

Windows · by MasterMegid (723) · 2006

Monolith makes a Molehill

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.

Windows · by Terrence Bosky (5397) · 2004

What a disgrace.

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.

Windows · by kbmb (415) · 2004

[ View all 6 player reviews ]

Trivia

German version

In the German version, all blood effects and death cries were removed. Also missing are ragdoll physics for corpses and the possibility to set them on fire.

References to the predecessors

Here are a few references to the other games of the No One Lives Forever series:

  • The game begins above the Drunken Scotsman (Magnus Armstrong?) which has a vandalized poster advertising Inge Wagner.
  • During the insertion into Czechoslovakia, Cate Archer is briefly visible near a rabbit.
  • Cate Archer wanted posters pop up from time to time.
  • The game shows off H.A.R.M.'s NOLF 2 lair including comments on the "lava".
  • Music from NOLF2 appears in some missions. * The Jade Hamster, a fictional movie spy from NOLF2 returns on several cinematic posters.

Awards

  • Computer Games Magazine
    • March 2004 - #4 Worst Game of the Year 2003

Information also contributed by PCGamer77.

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Related Sites +

  • NOLFGIRL.COM
    A community site dedicated to the NOLF universe.

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  • MobyGames ID: 11245
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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Mattias Kreku.

Additional contributors: Terrence Bosky, Unicorn Lynx, Solid Flamingo, Stratege, Patrick Bregger, Plok, JimmyA, R3dn3ck3r.

Game added December 8, 2003. Last modified March 3, 2024.