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Complete waste of money

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 2 / 11
Date: August 23, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Tested on 1GHz P3 with 256Mb RAM and ATI Rage 128 running Windows 2000 Pro, DirectX 8.1, latest video drivers from ATI.

I got the demo from PC Gamer magazine and had a lot of fun with it. I noticed the price of the full game was [the right amount of money] so decided to buy it. What a waste!

The same installs with no errors. However, when I try to run it all I get is an hourglass for a few seconds then nothing. When I run TaskManager I can see nolf.exe in the process list but there is no corresponding window.

Fox Interactive's idea of techinical support is a peer-to-peer discussion forum. There is no way to get any support from the company. Reading the discussion forum gives you an idea of the huge number of problems this game has. ...

Great Game

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 0 / 12
Date: December 06, 2001
Author: Amazon User

This game had me laughing from the opening monologue to the last cut scene. The dialogue was outstanding. I enjoyed this game so much I can't wait for the sequel to come out. I will pre-order a copy a soon as it becomes available. It was rated Game of the Year and deserves that Award. With it's great graphics, story line, dialogue and various scenery, other games will have to go a long way to beat this one. If you liked Austin Powers and 007, you will love this game. It has a mixture of both incorporated in it's story line.

Gizmos and funny dialog donýt make up for an average game:

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 11 / 15
Date: April 11, 2002
Author: Amazon User

"No One Lives Forever" is a first-person shooter/sneaker that is set in the 1960's. It has a humorous secret agent theme which combines elements of James Bond with Austin Powers. With the music, scenery, voice-acting, and a welcome dose of humor, this game does a great job of pulling this off. There are long cinematic scenes (sometimes too long) filled with wise-cracking type humor (there is just something about watching stuffy people with British accents insult each other that is funny). Kate Archer is a unique main character that you won't find in any other game. I loved the mission interludes, which is when you get your orders from HQ and learn about the new spy gadgets that your organization has come up with. The graphics, animation, and sound for this game are all very good. These were the highlights of the game.

The game does also add stealth elements, like what you find in "Deus Ex" and "Thief". Enemies will react to sounds of footsteps and gunshots, and security cameras will set off alarms if they focus in on you.

So why did I give this game only three stars? To make it simple - I found the missions themselves to be bland. Add on top of that, there aren't many of them - if you take the cinematic scenes out of this game, it is short. If you strip away the fancy elements, you have mediocre maps and average game play.

The spy elements in this game (the stealth, the gadgets, etc) never lived up to their potential. Lots of the spy gadgets, like the robot poodle, have one or two obvious uses each mission and then become unnecessary. On each mission, it is almost impossible to remain undetected, and it is easy to mow down all of your opponents with your sub-machinegun, so what's the point of trying to sneak around all day? There are some creative levels and settings, but most of them end up as a typical "bad guy hunt" - go to room A, clear out the bad guys, then go to room B, clear out the bad guys... and so on. The maps are small and simple. There are a few good puzzles in this game, but most of the solutions are spoon-fed to you. Other than occasional "intelligence items" that you are supposed to pick up (which are simply left out in the open for you), there aren't many goodies to find, or items to interact with. Even the intelligence items have no outcome on the game -- they are just there if you want to keep score of how much stuff you can find.

I must be spoiled by games like Deus Ex and Thief, which have much richer levels, and a few different ways to solve just about every problem. It is for these reasons that I never felt compelled to play this game for more than about 30-45 minutes before moving on to something else.

If you enjoy first person shooters, then you should pick up this game. But if you haven't played Deus Ex yet, then pick that one up first. It is a much better game.

It's OK, but not one of my favorites

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 4 / 8
Date: November 01, 2001
Author: Amazon User

My favorite games include Half Life, Desus Ex, System Shock 2, and Thief. NOLF is often compared to those, but it is not an accurate comparison. That is my main reason for being disappointed with this game. What those games have and this game lacks is a certain mysterious, intriguing almost disturbing quality. If that's what you look for in a game, then you will be disappointed in NOLF. This game is more comical than anything else. This is not to say it isn't challenging. It is at least from a shooter's perspective. In fact that's another problem I have with this game. It's a little too big on arcade style shooting and weak on problem solving. Don't get me wrong, all of these qualities may make this game perfect for some people, I'm just not one of those people. One last note. One of the things that many people liked about this game was the music. When I heard that the game had a sixties soundtrack, I thought it was going to sound really cool. Well I was wrong. To me it takes away from the tension that it so important in games of this type. Sorry, I think I'll go back and play System Shock 2 for the fourth time. Even after that many playings it's got more intrigue and variety than NOLF. There are some games in which I have a deep desire to replay after I am finished. With NOLF, the first thing I did after completing it was uninstall it to make room for games that satisfy my definition of interesting.

Great graphics, average plot, idiotic dialogue

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 1 / 6
Date: December 30, 2001
Author: Amazon User

The graphics are superb, and for a while the game is intense and fun. It quickly becomes repetitive, however, as the enemy casually throws one soldier after another at you from a bottomless supply of thick-skulled morons. Sierra hires fine computer programmers, but must also allow them to write the dialogue rather than hire anyone with an ear for the language. The dialogue is straight from a comic book, and not a very clever comic book. The supposedly flirty conversations between Cate Archer and her bloated partner are particularly stale and stiff. Yes, this is a game, not a movie, but still, the dialogue didn't have to be so imbecilic.

NEED A CONTROLLER

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 5
Date: May 25, 2002
Author: Amazon User

This game is great. I rented it on Playstation 2 and I loved it. So I bought it for the computer. The training in the begining took me about an hour. It only took me about 10 minutes on playstation. The problem is the controlls. It is much easier to get the hang of the controlls with a controller. The game is good after you get over the controlls first.

Huh?

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 9
Date: January 30, 2003
Author: Amazon User

How was NOLF game of the year?? I dont understand??

Semi-decent game thou.

it's not bad ...... but is it worth your time?

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 7
Date: May 31, 2003
Author: Amazon User

its not bad for [$$], but its not the best game ever made by far. First person shooters are basically all similar in feel. You point and click and shoot the enemy that jumps in front of you. Or you can stand back and snipe the unsuspecting target from 100 meters away. Nowadays, virtually every fps has a machine gun, and sniper gun, and despite the packaging the core gameplay remains similar. WHat makes the great fps is the "angle" Where is it based? Whats the storyline? Does it actually make my heart pump, or makes me curious enough to finish the level? I'm not saying NOLF is a bad game. It is very fun, and i like the doses of humor sprinkled throghout. But because it really lacks a distinctive angle, NOLF is not a "great" fps. IMHO, some great fps games I've come across or played were System Shock 2 (for its eeary atmosphere and chilling exctiment), Alien v Predator (good graphics for its time and scary as [heck]), and the Rainbow Six series (because of their realism) I'm also playing NOLF 2, and its a definite improvement over its predecessor. Before declaring this as the best action game of 2000, or ever (as some would argue), please try out the other fps games I put down here. You will definitely notice the difference.

If you loved Half Life...

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: July 20, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I call this kind of game a 'scripted first person shooter'. The gameplay is fun, but linear, leading you down a path with very little open-endedness. It's a bit like playing a character in a movie, where you must follow the script. Other good scripted FPS games are 'Half Life' and 'Medal of Honor'. No One Lives Forever is one of the best of this type game. It is a very long game, so you get your money's worth, and it never gets old, with a great variety of locations and a good story. The Game Of The Year edition also includes 4 new levels in a volcano at the end, source code and editing tools to create your own levels and mods, the 'In The Lounge' music CD (an EXCELLENT music CD on its own, but I think this also came in the original packaged version, so it's not really fair to say it's a bonus with the game of the year edition) and a free strategy guide. The only major problem I had with this game (and the reason I deducted a star) is the 'stealth' aspect. To me, the greatest stealth game ever made was 'Thief: The Dark Project', and NOLF comes nowhere near the excellent stealth missions found in 'Thief'. In NOLF, you must be stealthy in certain areas, but there is generally only one way to sneak past these areas, not allowing you to get creative with how you approach these areas. If you want the apex of stealth, try 'Thief' or 'Thief 2' instead. That said, however, all other aspects of NOLF are excellent. Visuals, sound quality, and weapons are all very well done. And the story is great (though the cut scenes tend to go on a bit too long). And you won't find a funnier FPS around. I laughed out loud at several points listening to the other characters talk, and there are several sight gags also. I wasn't expecting these, so it was a nice touch. The scenery looks great, with wonderful atmosphere and a good sense of place. Obviously, this game was made with a great attention to detail and love of the material by the designers. And since it's a couple years old, it runs nice on older computers. It ran perfectly on my Pentium II 450 with a 16 meg video card. It is definitely a classic, and a must-have for any serious game player or FPS fan. Get it while you can!

Very fun game, minor WinXP problems

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 6 / 6
Date: March 14, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I decided to play NOLF when I finished NOLF2. I expected the graphics to be outdated (and they were) but it's not a big deal. This game is centered on the story and gameplay, which are both superb (and hilarious).

I'm running this game in WinXP, which isn't "officially" supported. And, there are problems. One, the black letterboxes during cutscenes are half-transparent. Two, every time a new area loads, my video becomes very choppy and ugly (as if video acceleration isn't being used). A quick fix is to go to the display options and change the resolution (to any value). This seems to [beat] the video-card ... until the next area-load, where you have to repeat the process.

Over-all, it is what I expected accept for the technical problems.

System:
Athlon XP 1600+
512MB RAM
Radeon 9500 Pro Video (128MB RAM)
Windows XP Pro
Sound Blaster Live! 5.1
Catalyst 3.1 drivers
DirectX 9

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