The Operative: No One Lives Forever

So many games are given this title of being a classic but how many of them manage to keep a your interest 6 years after the release? No One Lives Forever of NOLF is one of these games, when I first started playing I was skeptical and with the many FPS on the PC I didn't this would be any different to the rest, likes of Duke Nukem or Doom both good but I don't play then anymore and they also lack NOLFs style and wit.

About the story, in this game a player takes controls of a former thief with rough childhood who becomes a spy down to her sneaking skill. She works for a group called UNITY and her break comes when all other UNITY agents are killed off by a evil group H.A.R.M.

So what makes this game better that the rest? Well for one you get to access a great range of guns and gadgets as well as stealth, while in stealth you can over hear harm henchman me talk about there weekends or how the can't stand the singing of the fellow henchman they are on patrol with, this gives each henchman man a personality which few, if any games do (The one other I can think of is Max Payne).

I'd give this game a 9.5 now, 9.9 on release for the P.C. from what I've heard the PS2 version is best left alone as you can't save during missions.

Well, the much-praised game has truly some points to offer that would make it as one of the best games of our time. Basically the game is an FPS. But in several occasions it becomes a new version of racer (while you have to drive a bike and a sledge), sometimes it becomes a tough judgement game (when you have to provoke an enemy by selecting your conversation, or to get information thru sly but loose talk).

At least five different missions are distributed thruout around 20 different levels. And on this occasion your character, sexy superspy Cate Archer has to visit different exotic locations including Morocco, Germany, underground USA, the Alps and even space. An entire level is designed underwater when you are moving in your scuba costume and equipments. All the locations are designed fantastically, including minor details. Cutscenes are fine and conversations are often hilarious.

Another main point of the game is that it isn't just a go-and-shoot-'em-all game. In many occasions you have to sneak into buildings avoiding guards and cameras. Shooting the guards won't help because if the camera finds any deadbody in vicinity, you're doomed. You have to use several spy gears in correct places, otherwise you can't advance. In all, NOLF is not really a female version of James Bond games. It has its own points to deliver. This is an all-new type game, a prophet in its own genre.

No One Lives Forever parodies the Bond films and the sixties spy genre in general. The humor is well done, tongue in cheek with some real guffaws in the cut scenes. However, the game is also one of the best FPS's out there.

There are a load of original gadgets to separate it from the cliché FPS. A pheromone releasing, robotic dog to sneak past canines, explosive lipsticks, a barrette used as a lock pick or a poison needle and stun gas perfumes. As you can guess by the gadgets, we are not dealing with the typical, macho, Bond style agent, but an alluring thief turned super spy, Miss Cate Archer.

There is a lot that separates this from classic FPS. You have to sometimes rely on stealth to complete your missions; others are just basic shoot-em ups. What the game offers is an engaging, campy story with your missions. Not only is their stealth and shoot chapters, but you will find yourself dodging pesky train attendants, free falling out of airplanes, diving in shipwrecks, driving snowmobiles and motorcycles, trying to find a way to bypass steam lines, gathering information using your camera like sunglasses, escaping exploding space stations, rescuing kidnapped scientists and fighting obese German opera singers and gorilla like Scottish thugs, tam and kilt included. You basically play the lead role in a silly and charming 60's movie. In fact, all the Bond movies packed into one video game.

The sets are atmospheric and varied. Morrocan hotels, alpine lodges, Japanese style office buildings, 60's discotheques, ship cargo holds (both submerged and floating), outer space, lost jungle temples: you don't get any wider assortment than this. Some missions require sniping, others include dodging laser beams in a giant safe while others involve interviewing a rich buffoon posing as a newspaper reporter. You basically are surprised with the requirements for every mission, keeping it very interesting to say the least.

I highly recommend this game to any fan of the Bond games or someone looking for an amusing slant on the FPS genre. Not only will it keep you enthralled with the action, but keep you entertained and laughing as a movie.

This game is just awesome. I could have given it full marks but the first level "misfortune in morocco" didn't impress me. Except that the game was a cool ride. I felt like a spy all the time.

AI is simply gr8 and they do respond to the sounds you make while walking and even the gun-silencers have some limitations giving it a real-like effect.

Guard conversations are highly funny with some adult humor. But sometime those conversations make you feel for the guards and you don't feel like killing them and that's the beauty of the game.

I had predicted the end villains/moles as soon as they were introduced in the game so didn't felt much of a suspense (because i played soldier of fortune 2 before, it had a similar storyline.. so you need not worry).

Sometimes, you also get a feeling of half-life while playing this game specially when you battle sharks with a crossbow and have steam coming out of pipes..

So, a really good game with a brilliant AI.. strongly recommended.

I sincerely don't understand why this game, during the years, has been acclaimed as the sort of classic FPS masterpiece that in reality it isn't. It's because of Cate Archer alone? Yes, she's a great, sexy character and a study case for how to write strong, charismatic female leads, the humour is at first genuinely funny and the story, albeit a bit predictable, is interesting enough. The problem is, gameplay wise, this game is a mess. It wants to be a mash-up of stealth and FPS and, most of the times, it is mediocre-average at both. The stealth is, de facto, mostly impossible due to the cameras having the most inconsistent field of view ever (sometimes they can spot you from 5 kilometers away, sometimes they don't see you when you're standing right next to them) and the enemies being all - and I mean all - the typical Shogo: Mobile Armor Division stuff of hitscanning thugs that can spot and kill you from miles and miles of distance with one single shot of a Kalashnikov (the kind of which I never saw even when playing Duke Nukem 3D at its maximum difficulty years and years ago), which in turn not only makes the attempts at having a full-on stealth approach a là Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory worthless but it also makes extremely frustrating the driving sections because you always have to stop driving in order to kill said thugs as otherwise it's you who is going to be killed. Also, I might add that 1) the gadget selection is cute, but most of them serves nothing and 2) the ending streak of final bosses because reasens reeks of a void of ideas from a mile. On a last note, the level design is good generally speaking, but sometimes it's a bit confusing and the OST is good too.

If you want the best from the FPS era of Monolith productions get the first F. E. A. R. - which is leaps and bounds better than this - and you'll be better served overall, Cate Archer or not.