No One Lives Forever 2: A Spy in H.A.R.M.'s Way

The Good
Early in NOLF2, we learn that H.A.R.M. (Good at Being Bad, Bad at Being Good) is still active and under the control of a martini swigging, cad with a bad comb-over and major maternal issues. Worse yet, H.A.R.M. is working in conjunction with the Soviets on Project Omega and it’s up to The Operative, Cate Archer, to stop Project Omega and, if possible, find out what Project Omega is… and maybe uncover H.A.R.M.’s new mission statement.

This second installment in The Operative series puts Cate on a globe-spanning mission to defeat the evil forces of H.A.R.M. Along the way, Cate is joined by new friends and old enemies and assisted by the gadgets and weaponry developed by Santa’s Workshop (UNITY’s Q-Branch equivalent). NOLF2 improves on much of the original game’s innovations. Intelligence Items- whether a slip of paper in a desk or an abandoned briefcase provided humor in the previous game with an occasional hint. In NOLF2, Intelligence Items take on an added importance. They still provide humor and hints, but now their recovery earns points for Cate, points you can spend to improve certain aspects of Cate’s character.

Though a well-trained spy, Cate begins the game with minimal abilities in Stealth, Stamina, Marksmanship, Carrying, Armor, Weapons, Gadgets and Search. As you spend points you can increase the length of her life or armor bars, decrease the time it takes to search a corpse, or increase the amount of damage you do with your guns. NOLF2 has a better interface as well, if you are in a dark area, a hide icon will appear to show that you are hidden. This takes away the guesswork some games require to determine if your surroundings are dark enough. Right-clicking interacts with the environment and if you are aiming at an area that requires inventory, NOLF2 automatically selects it. This is useful if you are being chased and need to quickly pick a lock.

While NOLF2 has a lot of weapons and gadgets, I felt that there were less available this go around. I didn’t feel cheated though, because it seems like the new system is more streamlined. In the original game, each mission was preceded by a visit to Santa’s Workshop where Cate could train with the new equipment. There was also an equipment selection screen were Cate could pick what she wanted to take. In a somewhat clumsy attempt to add to the replay value, there were levels in the game where equipment available later would be useful. Once the equipment was unlocked, you could replay these levels and explore new areas. Now Santa appears during missions (in the guise of a bird) with notes on new equipment and briefcases for Cate.

While I didn’t notice improved enemy AI (the original’s was quite good), a new feature of this game is that alerted enemies will run to an alarm. While the alarm is sounded and enemies remain aware of Cate’s presence, enemies will spawn and search the area. If Cate stays concealed, enemies will lose their enthusiasm (and disintegrate the bodies of their fallen comrades rather than deal with the paperwork). The enemies Cate faces are quite diverse and include sinister mimes and ninjas who leap from the street to the rooftops in a single bound. There are also Boss-type characters Cate must face.

Graphically, NOLF2 is incredible. I marveled over the water textures in Japan, the snowfall in Russia, and schools of fish beneath the ocean’s surface. Characters look great and they tumble like rag dolls when they’re killed. Music is still that swinging sixties sound, though modified to sound culturally correct depending on Cate’s current location. Voice work is top notch, both in game and in the mercifully short cutscenes (NOLF1’s biggest problem area).

The Bad
NOLF2 seemed short to me.

Part of this is probably due to the streamlined gameplay system, levels build on each other and there aren’t side trips to Santa’s Workshop. But what I missed most in this game and liked most in the previous one were the action set pieces. This game has a few memorable sequences, but nothing that matched the excitement of a midair gun battle at 36,000 ft or fighting off helicopters in a mountaintop gondola. The Boss fights also seemed less innovative and… well… easy.

I have no real complaints about this game, but I think the first one was more fun.

The Bottom Line
Cate Archer is back even if the heart isn't. This is still a great FPShooter/Sneaker where one wrong turn can lead you into a pit of petulant rabbits.

The Good
The graphics and the sound get a great update. Especially noticeable is the music, that has a much fuller sound that doesn't as canned like the original. (I'm a musician, I notice these weird little things.) Kate looks better than ever. The cut scenes show more nuanced and articulated models, with more lifelike features. Gone are the bricklike hands.

The return of the original baddies from Nolf make for some great scenes. I love the overheard dialog between bad guys. Its pretty much what you'd think that henchmen would be talking about while being bored and waiting for action. The incredulous gadgets that you can use to take your enemies out.

You can use experience points to modify and increase your skill levels, such as sneaking, medical, etc... It didn't make a huge difference in game play, but it did add some depth. More often than not, you can use non-lethal ways of taking enemies out.

The Bad
Near the end, the novel game design falls away and you have a more gun and run play. The ending is satisfactory, but the ending play is more linear and not as interesting. Some of the wild gadgets do not work very well, leaving you vulnerable unless you employ more conventional weaponry. A lot of backtracking through non-descript areas.

The humor is there, but not quite as brilliant as in Nolf. Its missing some of the laugh out loud stuff that made Nolf so much fun.

The Bottom Line
An excellent FPS with great graphics and sound. But the gameplay was much better in the original.

The Good
STORY You are the foxy spy Cate Archer - in the employment of the anit-terrorist group U.N.I.T.Y... It's been a few years since your last outing against the terrorist group H.A.R.M and there's another mysterious plot about involving Russians, Mimes, and Supersolders. But the story is lacking a bit incomparison to the last game. I got lost on the plot more than once and kept on wondering If I had missed anything. A second play revealed that I had not.

GRAPHICS Top notch - for the rather irky Lith-Tech engine. While past releases of this engine have not been brilliant the Jupiter variant is a stunner. From very well realised Cate archer to other nice effects like water, glares from laseres, explosions, gas and other very eye candy additions to the game engine - most notable is the hair, there's a physics engine behind it and on some characters like Dr. Schenker they have a pretty realistly cool mass of tangled hair. The game textures for the levels are also nicely done - nice and crisp with signs and stuff telling you to do things like "Don't drink the water" Also characters are very well animated, most likey MoCap with the animation blending from the previous game returning, enabling guards to fall down stairs without as much as a stop in their frames. Eye motions and expressions are also well done giving a more human touch to the cutscenes.

SOUND Yet again sound is handled well. From the ambient chatter of Eastern cities to the clink of bullet shells everything is still the same in this department. The music is also back - while not as brassy or as entertaining as the last game the dynamic music still is there when you get into a mess. The voices are well acted - the replacement actress for Cate Archer does very well, as she has a large part to replace. Some of the actors from the previous game are back, Dr. Schenker, Bruno, Magnus Armstrong as well as a whole bunch of other well voiced characters.

CONTROLS Standard WASD keys with the Right mouse button assigned to interact with anything and so on.

GAMEPLAY Now this is when the game unfortuantly does not live up to it's predecessor. The last game was honoured for being VERY different in terms of common FPS games...but while the second time around there are still innovative objectives (sober up your pilot by making coffee!) other missions have objectives that are not so well explained. The story has lots of gaps and one moment you're in Britan talking about HARM and so on - the next second later you're in India trying to get into HARM....then with no reason why you're suddenly taken all the way from India to the Antartic then BACK to that sunny country India with little reason why. There seems to be a few cutscenes missing in my opinion Now - the weapons. The zany gadgets are back - from the simple Bug (an oversized Ladybird) to the Angry Kitten - (a VERY explosive cat that explodes and sends whatever is around it to kingdom come) "Oh what a cute little kitte- BLAM!" Some other changes have been made - you now have an Utility Launcher in which a whole lot of supressors for cameras and guards have been installed in it - Very handy because you don't need to do elaborate camera jumping or being sneaky with sleeping gass purfume. But the weapons - are sadly limited. The Russians have their AK-47, the French their Tommy Gun and Harm Agents Parabellems...and you - your pistol or Sten Gun....that's pretty much it. Gone are all the handguns, machine guns and so on...It's a real shame. The crossbow does make a return (along with pinning people to the wall) and the Rocket launcher folds rather cooly out of a case - but gone are the real assortment of guns that made the last game interesting - though the addtion of Katanas, Rapiers and Shrikens make it interesting The enemies have better AI and there's this interesting pathing/interacting thing added to their AI. There are all these hotspots located around a level where the AI may go and sit at a desk, and do something, then walk over here and do this and so on. But when it chooses to (random choises). The same old "Oh - I've found some footsteps!" and other "We have an intruder" stuff is still there - you can now hide from them and they then loose you - but keep a tight patrol.

The missions like I said were a bit duller in comparison to the last game - Gone are the dive from the plane, escape in a rail-car while being shot at by choppers or escaping from a sinking ship (well there is a level close to that) When there is a happening it's usually interesting - like the fight in a Caravan park as a Tornado approaches or the fight inside the house as it's being torn to pieces by the same tornado. Other missions involve you scurrying around a level finding things from glasses, doorknobs and tapes - not too entertaining, plus alot of the plot is told though notes and things found in the level. The Abigal supersolder sub-plot is not really well explained and I did not really understand it untill I played it again.

The Bad
It could have been another classic - but slightly stale gameplay and lack of things that made the last game great are missing.

Gone are the brilliant levels that just flowed from start to end perfectly, almost no backtracking, in here the Serbia levels are a major chore with plenty of backtracking and getting well lost. The outdoor levels are more or less like a maze - with little or no clues on where to go next. The AI is good, though in some times the constant spawning of foes as you are trying to get out of a sticky situation is very annoying. Plus the skewed plotline is not too well.

Multiplayer is not as grandose as the last game - no Good vs Evil - just CoOp missions that while are interesting - get dull.

The Bottom Line
A great game - playable, enjoyable - aside from the mentioned flaws. The original is still the best.

The Good
No One Lives Forever is one of my all-time favorite games. Never before has such a linear game been so much fun that I would restart it and play through it again right after I beat it. Each level was fun, and the varied levels were just as great. Enemies came at you in large numbers and you even had to use a little strategy by hiding behind walls and knowing when to fire - also avoiding friendly casualties. The enemies even hid behind walls and ducked behind barrels, something I hadn't seen done very well until them. And of course, the humor in the game was the biggest seller. It took itself just serious enough. Every piece of intelligence you found had hilarious messages in it, and every conversation you overheard was enough to put you on the floor grabbing your side from laughter. It was, yes, my favorite FPS of all time.

No One Lives Forever 2 is a game I'd been waiting for since I beat the first level in No One Lives Forever and realized what a great game it was. The sequel, in most ways, is wonderful. It's a worthy sequel to my all-time favorite FPS. The new Jupiter engine rocks, capturing everything from the original and adding so much more to it. Animation is more fluid, and the in-game cutscenes are some of the best I've ever seen.

In NOLF2, you resume your roll as Cate Archer, superspy, working for UNITY and attempting to thwart the evil plans of H.A.R.M. Gameplay has changed a tad from the original. No longer do you have to sort through your inventory to find that pesky lockpick - instead you just hold down the "use" button and Cate will whip it out for you. Also, a lot of the "useless" gadgets from the first have been removed, and most levels are stricty run-and-gun. Good or bad? Perhaps good; those who didn't care for the "stealth" missions in the first one won't find a problem in the second one.

The humor is well-present in this game, even moreso than in the first. Every single piece of intelligence you find is filled with hilarious notes, and you might find several notes that all connect together to form a very funny exchange of hilarious quotes from two H.A.R.M. agents. And whoever doesn't think that riding on the back of a tricycle piloted by a large Scottish guy in a kilt gunning down fat French mimes is the coolest thing ever should check himself into a clinic. And not to mention the "angry kitty", a robotic cat that lures the enemy to it, thinking its a cute furry kitten and then explodes.

Levels are very well-crafted. In one particular level you fight ninjas in a trailor park in Ohio as a tornado rages through it! And another you journey into the depths of an undersea HARM base. Each location has several missions within them, all hilarious and entertaining.

The new skill point system also works very well. You gain skill points by finding intelligence, doing some optional "quests" (finding other intelligence items) or by completing missions objectives. You use these skill points to increase your attributes, such as ammo carrying capacity and marksmanship.

A lot of people don't like the "new Cate", but I found the new attitude of Cate to be refreshing. Instead of being a smug down-to-business girl, in NOLF2 she portrays an actual human being. Her dialogue sounds much more real and convincing and far less rehearsed than it did in the first one.

The Bad
Sadly, while this is a great sequel to a great game, it's not nearly as good as the first one was. That's not to say it's a bad game - not at all. Just not as good as the first.

To start, the difficulty is awkward. On normal difficulty, it's quite possible to make it through any level just by running through it, picking up armor and killing only those that you have to. The enemy is a horrible shot and they do very little damage. However, on "hard" mode, it seems like the damage you take per shot is multiplied by ten. Three shots you die - more realistic, I suppose, but not that fun when you find yourself surrounded by twenty fat French mimes with machine guns. So you'll probably be playing on "normal" difficulty the whole way through, which is far too easy.

The whole feel of belonging to UNITY is all but gone in this sequel. In the original, every chapter required you to go through some sort of training to see what kind of nifty new gadgets the labs had come up with. It was very entertaining, and very useful. One of the things I looked forward to after completing a chapter was what kind of cool neato gadgets I'd be able to use in the next, even if they weren't all that practical. Sadly, that's all gone in the sequel. In fact, you only go to the UNITY base once in the game, and even then it has nothing to do with a briefing or new gadgets. The gadgets you do get in NOLF2 aren't all that much interesting, either. Instead of having a lipstick bomb, you have...a grenade. You don't get any cool sunglasses that you can use to zoom in and take pictures with, either. They make up for it a bit with the angry kitty and blow-dryer blow-torch, but other than that, much is missing.

The "stealth" missions are also pathetically easy. In the original, I remember playing on stealth mission for hours because it was so difficult. You weren't allowed to alert your target at all, so you had to make your kills quick and silent, and make sure the bodies were disposed of. In NOLF2, however, stealth is almost completely pointless, since you don't fail the mission by alerting anyone. You can just run from everyone you're supposed to "elude" once they start chasing you, and they'll eventually get lost or give up looking for you. Boring. I would say that it's a nice feature that you're able to pick up bodies and drag them to a hidden spot, but it's a completely useless feature. You can also hide in the shadows, but for the most part, that was completely useless as well.

The levels also just weren't that entertaining. In the first one, there were nearly a dozen (heck maybe even more than a dozen) different locations you visited, each one unique and each one memorable. In NOLF2, the levels are somewhat dull. The outdoor levels are too cluttered with buildings and streets that only serve to annoy you as you "treasure-hunt" for an item. The indoor levels are a little better (such as the Indian theatre or the UNITY base), but pale in comparison to NOLF1's levels. Even the simpler ones in NOLF (like the Morocco hotel) just were more entertaining.

The Bottom Line
Despite all its shortcomings, this game is a worthy sequel to one of the best FPS' of all time. It has some great voice acting and incredible in-game cutscene animation, and all the humor that was in the first is in the second. Perhaps it's a little short (I beat it in two days...but I played it nonstop :P) and the levels aren't really as much fun, and the funky gadgets are all gone, but regardless, this is still one of the best first-person shooters I've played all year.

The Good
The original No One Lives Forever is one of my favorite FPS, and a truly underrated gem. When I heard about the sequel, I was very expectant. This second part offers some great improvements over the original. Although very similar at first look, the graphics are better. The best improvement comes in the terms of facial gestures and people's movements. The submarine level felt very original, like a new version of the spaceship level on the original game I liked also the possibility of searching your enemies bodies and the chance of improving certain abilities.

The Bad
On the other side of the coin I have to admit that this level felt very, very short in comparison with the first one. There aren't the great variety of levels of the original NOFL, and even worse, much of the episodes takes place in the same map (the one in Morocco). I would like more stealth levels, too.

The Bottom Line
Despite being very short this is a game that won't totally disappoint to those who liked and loved the original No One Lives Forever. Long life to Cate Archer!

The Good
No One Lives Forever 2: A Spy In H.A.R.M. S Way, is as the title implies the sequel, to The Operative: No One Lives Forever. As one would expect it is a fun and funny game. Which is impressive as humor is hard to pull of in a game.

NOLF 2, takes place shortly after the first game. The game’s heroine, Cate Archer, having proved herself in the first game is now a full agent of U.N.I.T.Y. H.A.R.M. of course wants her dead. Cate’s adventure will take her to Japan, India, Siberia, Khios, and various H.A.R.M. bases.

Cate also has several close calls in NOLF 2. This game is truly humorous. Sometimes in the form of notes you come across. While other times a conversation you overhear. Or perhaps even the way your enemies act.

During missions you have set objectives, and usually can perform optional objectives. Which reward you with skill points that can be used to upgrade Cate’s skills and agent rankings. The level design is excellent as we have come to expect from Monolith. One of the most interesting missions is one in which you must defend U.N.I.T.Y headquarters from attack.

The Graphics are amazing, thanks to Monolith’s Jupiter Engine. After all Monolith is known for pushing the graphical barriers of PC games. Even of the lowest setting the game looks incredible. Environments and models are incredibly detailed. Lighting effects are also very impressive. Even considering the games age it still looks better than some newer games!

The voice acting is superb. As one would expect from a modern, American game. The sound effects are up to par as well. The music is appropriate 60’s trends which are dead now. The soundtrack is very good. I am surprised that it was not available for sale.

The game mixes FPS, with stealth, and vehicle segments. It blends the types of gameplay successfully. You can also collect data for skill points and they are often quite humorous. You can hide and lay traps for unsuspecting enemies. Other game makers can learn from this, the A.I. is beyond belief! Enemies have routines, they get up look over files, go and have a smoke break. They are also more varied than most games from H.A.R.M. troops to mimes! They will notice if they hear or see something strange. When in combat they will call for help or set off an alarm. They will duck and roll out of the way of fire. They are generally more cunning than in most games.

The Bad
You may need a patch to get this game up and running. And for some reason on my PC the game always tells me that my video card does not support T&L which is a load because Max Payne 2, needs a T&L supported card and that runs just fine. The game is on the short side. But at least it is not too long.

The Bottom Line
Overall NOLF 2 is still one of the best PC games. At Cate Archer is a babe. And could kick Joanna Dark’s ass.

The Good
It's been 2 years since we first took the role of Cate Archer and foiled H.A.R.M.'s plan for world domination through exploding people. No One Lives Forever was a super-shagadelic blast to play and one of the best fps of it's day, so talk about a difficult act to follow for Monolith... having won critical acclaim in practically every PC mag. out there only added to the pressure, but that isn't going to stop Monolith from releasing a sequel to any title!

The basics are still there: this is an action-heavy fps which combines aspects of sneaking and gadgetry to create an exciting spy-shooter gameplay mix. With everything taking place in a tongue-in-cheek version of the 60's that lampoons all of the super-spy movies of the decade. However new additions improve the already solid formula: if in the original you could get special items that increased your abilities and had a light rpg angle in this one you now have a full-fledged skill system whose points are gained by collecting intelligence items (which are still as wacky and funny as in the original). Gain enough and you can increase any of Kate's abilities such as sneaking, marksmanship, equipment efficiency, etc. adding much more depth to the already solid gameplay.

While the use of gadgets and special items was a key factor in the original, in this one the items themselves are refined, excluding the wacky but totally useless gadgets of the originals (now replaced with wacky but USEFUL gadgets) and the rest receive small but efficient improvements. Additionally, dead or K.O.'d enemies are now treated as items in themselves, and searching them for equipment or ammo is an action gauged by a "searching" bar that fills faster or slower depending on the level of your ability. Hiding is now a much easier affair as a pop-up "hiding bar" appears whenever you try to sneak, and practically all of the guess-work involved in knowing how much cover does this or that offer is removed, plus the bad guys now have the sense of hitting alarms and infinitely re-spawning baddies, so sneaking around is an essential feature in a lot of cases.

Technically speaking the game also takes a number of major improvements, with the graphics receiving a complete overhaul resulting in a striking new look, with texturing detail and model poly-count that makes the original look like a Doom-clone. In fact, the difference is so much that some players might have a problem with the super realistic models and textures, which lose the cartoony look of the original. I had no problem enjoying them however, and as far as I'm concerned the increased graphical quality add a lot to the game. Plus, as all LithTech-based games, you have realistic hit-detection for more interesting gunplay and spectacular animations like the now famous "rolling-down-the-stairs" bit and similar spectacular mo-capped moments.

The Bad
Unfortunately it seems that the guys at Monolith concentrated a lot on the technical and mechanics upgrades, and while that is good it comes at the price of a somewhat neglected scripting and storytelling, cornerstones of the original game.

Basically the sequel, while still a comedy-filled fps, comes nowhere near the original in terms of wit and but-gusting comedy. The story is pretty much a bore, having practically none of the fun of the original (except for the inclusion of a group of evil mimes that are the game's coolest opponents) and worse yet, it's yet another plot about some bad guy making a breed of super-soldiers... good god, by now I think this has to be the FPS cliche #1, I mean... c'mon!! Did badguys ran out of ideas?? Does it's always have to be about some form of super-soldiers??!!

Anyway, the game is also substantially shorter so the story doesn't drag so much, but unfortunately this also means there's less of the wonderful conversations between guards and assorted wackyness...

The level design while hardly terrible is considerably worse than the original with only an indian area to remind players of the genius Morocco level (but with none of the chases, sniping sequences and cool stuff) and some levels are a downright bore to play through (ie. the early Japan areas and the later volcano HQ)Worst of all, the scripted action pieces that were such a cool element of the original are almost completely left out of this one, with only a battle vs. a group of ninjas in a trailer park (as a hurricane strikes) and a tricyle rail-shooter sequence against the mimes as the only standouts in the whole game. And nothing that even remotely comes close to the sky-diving fight in the original or the climactic boss fights.

Also, as another reviewer noted, the "interlude" sequences have been ditched in favor of in-mission briefings and hints, which may work to streamline the action but lose all the charm these sequences had... Yes they were long, but I cannot understand why would anyone want them out.

The Bottom Line
If NOLF2 took the original and improved many of the gameplay features, enriched the rpg-angle and gave it a major graphic overhaul we would be talking about a perfect sequel here folks. Unfortunately while the sequel does all that it is at the expense of a lot of the wonderful creative material that made NOLF such a unique experience. I don't want to go into the ultra-bitchy "A sequel ain't never going to be as the original" mode, but as sad as it is to admit the obvious result is that NOLF2 ends up being a lot more generic than it's predecessor... rest assured that it's still a worthwhile shooter and a definitive recommendation for action fans, but fans of the original won't be able to shake the feeling that the original was much, much better despite the fact that Cate looks much hotter.