Overview

A Spy in H.A.R.M.’s Way

The original No One Lives Forever came out of nowhere. People dismissed the hype, the common expectation was that it was going to be just another first-person shooter, with a new gimmick at best. Oh how wrong we were. NOLF turned out to be one of the great shooters of all time. In what was a great year for FPS titles, No One Lives Forever stood out even with such competition as Soldier of Fortune, Thief II and the mighty Deus Ex out on the market.

Foxy lady!

The menu

Gonna take a permanent nap

Like its competitors, NOLF gave the genre a new spin. Starting with the introduction of a strong and capable, yet not overtly sexual or butch female character in Cate Archer; then tossing in a great and topical sense of humor that never got overbearing or stale; and finally finishing with an excellent action-spy style, No One Lives Forever was one of the most unique titles out there. To this day, no one copied the style. Into this hungry market, Fox Interactive/Monolith have released the sequel.

The concept

NOLF2 is really just more NOLF. We’re going to be the last people on the planet complaining about that. The developers took the original then refined and distilled it into a superb gaming experience. The spy game has never been so fun. No One Lives Forever 2 takes players all over the world, to locations in the North, East, South and West. There are no crazy levels like skydiving without a parachute, and ‘gimmick’ levels like sniping in Morocco, as we had in the original. But these have been replaced by far more solid normal levels..

Bye bye!

Love that interface

Sneaky sneaky

The absence of the mini-games takes away some of the James Bond feel from the title, but there’s no doubt that this is still a spy action game. The emphasis of the game is still on being stealthy whenever possible, sneaking around to avoid attracting unwanted attention makes progress much easier than going in with guns blazing. There is a wide assortment of creative spy weapons like Angry Kitty Bombs in addition to regular firearms such as the AK-47 or grenades.