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

November 6, 2006

So I beat NOLF2 last night. I have to say, I had much more fun with this than I did with the first game. There was still some issues that just rubbed me the wrong way, but overall, I could recommend this game if you are a fan of FPSes.

For a game of its age, (ok its not THAT old, but I guess its old to today's standards) the graphics are pretty damn good. Monolith's Lithtech Jupiter engine gives the game a great look. The graphics just had that look to them where they just seemed to "pop" out of the screen. The game is a little on the cartoony side, and the engine does a great job of doing that. With future versions of the Lithtech engine in other games (F.E.A.R for example... that runs Jupiter Extended) you can see it just get better and better. Its no Unreal 3.0 or Source, but damn it, NOFL2 looks great!

Sound is also very nice. The music does a great job of giving it that old spy movie feel with the trumpets blaring and what have you. Voice acting is also great and really give the game its funny moments that extra edge. Not much else to say really. It works the same way as the voice acting did for Full Throttle. :)

As for game play, while it was good, I had a few issues with. Just like in the first No One Lives Forever, it is almost impossible to go through this game without getting caught. It is just so damn hard to go through this game with any sort of stealthy strategy that about 15 minutes in, I was at the point of saying "man, screw this, I am just gonna go guns blazing for the rest of the way." If you tried to snipe someone with the crossbow bolt or the snipe rife and you miss, well you better get ready for them to know right where you are and to call a bunch of friends. I guess it sorta makes sense with a crossbow bolt, you know... sorta pointing the way of where it came from, but god damn it, if I am behind cover, there should be no way he can tell right where I am. After I just went the whole guns blazing route, I had MUCH more fun with the game and didn't try to stress out if I was gonna get caught or anything. Its a little weird for a spy game... because you know... I am sure as hell Solid Snake or Sam Fisher wouldn't just go in balls to the wall, but whatever.

I know there is a multiplayer, and I hear there is some sort of co-op mode that sounds pretty interesting, but I am just gonna kee moving on. Plus, with the time that this game has been out, I wonder if anyone still plays anyway. So yeah, if you like FPSes, go ahead and give it a shot. It would be great if we could see a NOLF3 using a brand new engine, going by what T-Bird has said, I guess this will be last game. Bummer... it sorta leaves it open for one.