Soldier of Fortune

aka: SOF, Soldier of Fortune: Tactical Low-Violence Version
Moby ID: 1331
Windows Specs
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Description official descriptions

A terrorist organization has stolen nuclear weapons from a facility in Russia, intending to sell them to various third-world nations, initiating a global conflict. The player takes the role of John Mullins, a US mercenary working for an organization known as "The Shop". The goal is simple: hunt the villains across the globe, thwart their evil plans, and save the world!

Like most 3D shooters, Soldier of Fortune consists mainly of exploring the environments and killing the enemies that try to impede the player's progress. It is one of the first shooters to isolate over 20 different body regions and show/inflict damage to those regions. For example, if the player character shoots an enemy in the foot, the enemy will limp. The game was also notable for including realistic gore animations resulting from the injuries sustained by the enemies.

Spellings

  • 命运战士 - Simplified Chinese spelling

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Credits (Windows version)

169 People (140 developers, 29 thanks) · View all

Project Director / Creative Director
Creative Director
Project Coordinator
Art Director
Animation Director
Level Design Director
Programming Director
Technology (GHOUL)
Gameplay Programming Director
Sound, Music and Localisation Director
2D Artist
3D Artist
Additional Artwork
Special Thanks
Animator
Additional Animation
Level Designer
[ full credits ]

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 80% (based on 43 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.5 out of 5 (based on 112 ratings with 4 reviews)

Deliberately over-hyped game

The Good
Some levels in the game are a nice change from most of the indoor levels that the game has e.g. the levels with the snow and the final one at the ancient European castle. The violent features in this game such as the fatal head-shots or blowing off limbs can be fun for a while, but then the novelty wears off pretty quick. Besides, this was done years ago in another shooter called Chasm the Rift, which was much more fun. The fights with the boss characters was amusing.

The Bad
Frankly, there is not much to like about this game. I'll give the reasons here. First of all the level design in this game is bland. Some underground levels like the subway and meat processing plant are monotonous and boring. The choice of color for the wall textures was poor too. The weapons which are very important for any FPS game are unremarkable and do almost the same kind of damage. So, whether you use a pistol or shotgun, you can still blow off an enemy's limb without a problem. The music and the sfx were repetitive and insignificant. The voice acting was mediocre at best. In fact, I had a hard time believing this game was released by one of my favorite developers.

The Bottom Line
It's a first person shooter that everybody has heard about because of it's so-called excessive, over the top violence. If that's the sole reason you bought this game, you will be sorely disappointed. Believe me, there are other much better games out there.

Windows · by Roger Wilco (1144) · 2008

The most satisfying shooter ever created

The Good
The body animations are awesome, and so realistic there is a violent and non-violent version of the game. Heck, it's more satisfying than sneaking up behind a camper in Quake 2! Other than the gratious violence, there is a fun, terrorist-killing game, and a good multiplayer. (It's VERY fun to shoot the arm off your opponents in multiplay.)

The Bad
Sometimes too mindless; not as good and suspensful Half-Life.

The Bottom Line
Kill terrorism in a first-person view with realistic blood and gore.

Windows · by Dragoon (106) · 2000

John Mullins = Chuck Norris

The Good
I like this game, because your adventure takes place in many different countries, and the story is like a B-rated movie (and I like B-movies! ;)). John Mullins is like Chuck Norris. With two friends he fights against terrorists and defends the free world against a nuclear disaster. I like the fights against the Nazis, because they are very funny. The scripted sequences are very good. When I played the game, I felt like I really was a Soldier of Fortune.

This game is truly the best using the "Quake 2" engine, and it combines it with the ghoul engine. Many PC magazines claim the game's graphics are bad, but I really liked the real light effects and the animations of reactors. I'm looking forward to play the second part :)

There's a lot of gore in this game, but you can turn it off. When you do it, you have a really good game with fantastic levels and a wonderful story.

The Bad
I don't like the gore in this game. It is too realistic. Too much blood and too much pain. I don't like the ending of this game, but it isn't so important.

The Bottom Line
If you like Chuck Norris, you are going to love "Soldiers of Fortune".

Windows · by Eugen Andreev (4) · 2002

[ View all 4 player reviews ]

Trivia

German version

There are a few changes in the German version:

  • All blood and gore effects, especially shooting off limbs, were removed.
  • There are no death screams.
  • No missions take place in real locations anymore, e.g. Tokyo was renamed to Tokono
  • Parts of the animation of a peeing enemy and pictures of Saddam Hussein were removed.

A detailed list of changes can be found on schnittberichte.com (German).

incite PC Gaming review

Steve Klett's review of the game in incite PC Gaming #7 (June 2000) had a somewhat distressing sidebar detailing how his dog was frightened by the blood-curdling screams of dying enemies to the point that he escaped to his master's room and curled up in a ball, scared out of his wits. In his own words, "I guess it's a testament to the fact that the violence is perhaps too realistic."

John Mullins

The game is based (to a certain extent) on real-life mercenary John Mullins. A former member of a Vietnam spec ops unit of the Green Berets, Mullins has written a novel recounting his experiences (Days of Fire, 1991, Berkley Press) and acted as consultant for the game.

Online servers

With patch 1.07f Gold from 6 July 2001, the game's online service was migrated from World Opponents Network (WON) to GameSpy. The GameSpy service was scheduled to shut down on 31 May 2014 in the wake of GameSpy's total closure.

References

"Jessica Six'"is a reference to the 1976 movie, Logan's Run.

Weapons

The weapons in this game (except for the more outlandish ones such as the slugthrower and microwave gun) are based on real life weapons, but to avoid royalty issues with the manufacturers, they have fictional names.

Information also contributed by Alan Chan, Foxhack and Jussi Huuskonen.

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  • MobyGames ID: 1331
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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by MAT.

Dreamcast added by Kartanym.

Additional contributors: Zovni, Unicorn Lynx, Corn Popper, Cantillon, Patrick Bregger, Plok, Kennyannydenny.

Game added April 13, 2000. Last modified March 17, 2024.