User Reviews (1 - 11 of 104)

Show these reviews first:

Highest Rated
Lowest Rated Newest
Oldest Most Helpful
Least Helpful

You might not live forever, so play this before you die

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 45 / 46
Date: April 12, 2003
Author: Amazon User

The world of first person shooters is getting a bit played out. There's pretty much two kinds of them: the realistic military type (Counterstrike, Ghost Recon, Operation Flashpoint) and the sci-fi type (Unreal, Alien vs. Predator, System Shock). In all this, there's not much room for improvement and things are getting a bit repetitive- all you do is go in and kill everything that moves, and solve (or cheat) your way past the occasional puzzle that primarily exists to justify putting a longer gameplay figure on the box. Looking at most new titles, the only really interesting thing is even more detailed graphics and effects, which- by the way- mean you need a new PC.

Enter No One Lives Forever 2: A Spy in HARM's Way. This excellent shooter and sequel to an excellent shooter is the type that will save the genre. Here's why:

System requirements: You don't need a new PC to run this game, but this doesn't mean it looks like the original Doom. More on that later.

Gameplay: There are some puzzles, but they aren't annoying or counterintuitive. It is possible to get past some levels without killing anyone. Curiosity and inventiveness pay off here, but if you can't do that, you can usually just go in with guns blazing.

Something new: The game has some nice additions from the original NOLF. Most significant of these are skills. Completing primary and secondary objectives and finding intelligence items gives you points, which you can invest in 8 different skills that all have a significant impact on gameplay. Additionally, there are new and cool gadgets to play with. Many of them auto-activate when necessary, which disposes of the annoyance of having to switch over to use them. HARM also has some new hires and allies, including French mimes (no, I didn't make that up). Do you need any other reason to play?

Story: This is what really makes the game fun. The voice acting and cutscenes (all done with the game engine) are superb, and really draw you into the plot. As you might guess from the title, the usual suspects are up to no good once again. It's a tossup as to whether this is more of a James Bond or Austin Powers kind of script, but whatever it is, it's a good one.

AI: The NOLF AI is smart- as good as any other game I've seen. They take cover behind objects, go prone, roll out of the way of grenades, and seek you out if you make noise. The AI characters also act like real people. If you pick one of them off with a silenced weapon, they'll be confused for a second and then load their guns and start looking around. If you can see them, they can see you, and given enough time they definitely will.

Replayability: Due to the detail of the levels, it's unlikely you'll find everything there is to find on one pass. Also, the AI behaves in a random enough fashion that every time you play an area the outcome could be very different (if you don't believe me, just try reloading a save). Also, you don't have enough skill points to advance to the max in every area. Playing again with a different set of skills is quite fun. For example, try going all-out stealth and health instead of firepower and attempt to sneak your way through places you blasted by earlier. It's arguably more exciting trying this!

Graphics and sound: This is the first game I've seen that models expressions believably. The Jupiter engine has the look and feel of something that would require a cutting-edge machine to run, but goes smoothly on an average computer. It is, quite simply, astonishing. There's a huge amount of interaction with the environment, and things have an almost movie-like appearance. The characters are especially a pleasure to see, due to the attention to detail. Ms. Archer in particular has had a gorgeous makeover- she is arguably the hottest woman in any game to date, even including live motion actresses. Oh, and by the way, the soundtrack is killer.

Multiplayer: The version of the game that shipped did not have significant multiplay support. This has been remedied. Updating to the latest version gives you deathmatch, team deathmatch, cooperative, and assault game modes. Additionally, there are plenty of maps out now. The only thing missing here is bots, which is a bit of a pity considering how good the AI is. I'm sure someone will think to add those later.

If this isn't enough to convince you, the setting is just plain cool. This is the 60's, folks, complete with President Johnson, neon colored clothing, retro-tech spygear, and even a bellicose American general. The characters that populate this world have true depth and, more often than not, are good for some great laughs. Lastly, this game is probably the best deal you'll ever see at such a low price. Don't miss out- grab NOLF 2 while you can.

Best Single Player FPS Ever Made

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 51 / 56
Date: September 17, 2002
Author: Amazon User

If you enjoyed the first No One Lives Forever, you'll be surprised that the developers at Monolith have improved it in every possible every way.

The story is just as fresh and funny as the original, but is delivered through the most impressive in-game cut-scenes I have ever seen. The character's lips are synched perfectly with the hilarious dialogue and their eyes blink and follow the person they are talking to in a perfectly natural way. It reminds me of the first time I saw "Toy Story" and I had to remind myself that everything was really a computer generated cartoon and not real. It is very hard to believe that these cut-scenes are not pre-rendered, but are actually done with the game engine!

After watching the opening cut-scene you find yourself inside the beauty of the game itself. The first level is the most beautiful FPS game level I had ever seen (untill I played the rest of the game! :) I don't want to spoil the game, but just like the original No One Lives Forever, you will travel to many different exotic locations around the world and each one is better than the last. I don't know how they pulled it off, it is a testament to the skill of the developers at Monolith, but each location is beautiful and believable. You really have to experience it yourself to understand how impressive the art in the game really is.

The gameplay is outstanding. All of the hype you may have heard about the new and improved AI is NOT hype, but truth! I couldn't believe how realistic the AI was, many previews have talked about it so I won't go into detail here, just believe the hype! The coolest thing is that you can adjust the gameplay difficulty at any time so when it got too hard, I just went from Hard to Normal and it was much more fun. For a while I played on Easy just to run around and fight and not worry about getting killed. Then when I wanted a challenge I moved it back up to Hard (I wasn't about to try Super Spy ;).

The new cooperative mode is really cool as well. I wasn't sure if I would like it or not, but my brother and I have been playing it a lot. It feels just like the single player game, but is cool since you can organize with another person the best approach and when you're about to get killed the other person can run in and protect you. Very, very cool. We used to fight a lot when we'd play deathmatch against each other, but now we're on the same side and I actually feel closer to him when I save him from getting killed (or revive him after he has died). I know it sounds weird, but we don't fight as much anymore! (well, we still fight, but not when playing NOLF 2! ;)

There is a ton more that is cool about the game, but since so much of the game is the story I don't want to ruin it for anyone. The story lives up to the first game, and is actually much funnier in many ways. The NOLF series is definitely my favorite and I hope just like the Bond movies that they just keep making them forever. Anyway, I think I'm going to go start over from the beginning and see if I can play though the whole game without killing anyone! Just be super sneaky like a real spy!

If you haven't played this game you have missed out on an extrodinary gaming experience! Go buy it now! :)

Quite good, but not outright "exceptional"

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 29 / 31
Date: October 09, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I very much enjoyed the creativity of the original No One Lives Forever and had very high hopes for this sequel.

Very importantly, make sure your computer meets the technical requirements (e.g., video card capable of hardware transform & lighting--T&L--I've heard people without capabilities have big problems if they can even play). Graphics work is extremely smooth and well done. The sound work is a very rare, if not unique, 10 out of 10 for soundtrack, cues, etc. Outstanding. New features for hiding, increasing various skills levels, dragging away bodies, etc. have been seamlessly incorporated and are very easy to learn. Most levels can be accomplished by either stealth or brute force--the occasionally maddening stealth requirements of the original don't exist, save perhaps for one not-too-difficult courtyard one needs to sneak through. Cut scenes are more efficient and not as much of an interruption. I don't recall encountering any real bugs, perhaps a first for a game (!), save perhaps getting trapped once or twice by civilians in a corner in India from which I couldn't move.

On the downside:
There's new humorous gadgets, but it's quite easy to go through the entire game and never use them, even forgetting if they're being carried. Switching weapons/gadgets isn't always the easiest thing. Unique levels requiring things like skydiving, SCUBA diving, etc., don't appear. One swims for maybe ten seconds total, and the rest of the time is running around, primarily with weapons and some attention to stealth when needed. There's a snowmobile, but barring a couple of mandatory jumps across chasms, it can be ignored and things just run through if wanted. The game overall can seem pretty "standard" until about the last third (about the time the tricycle and the mimes kick in! Bravo!). Completing the game takes about 1/3 the time of the original. In making a streamlined and cohesive game, some of the unique and unpredictable creativity of the original appears to have been toned down.

Overall? This remains a very very good game, and is extremely well put-together, perhaps the "slickest" and most commercial-feeling overall of anything to date. For those more "experienced" who like things challenging and with some variety, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Jedi Outcast, and Serious Sam 2 are probably better bets. When it comes to game of the year (for which this MAY be a contender), games like Grand Theft Auto 3 and Mafia probably have more going for them (and we're still waiting on the new Tomb Raider). NOLF seems to be going a bit more "slickly" mainstream and losing a tad of its original "what the heck let's be creative and do something bizarre" edge. Still worthy of getting a movie made from its concepts though, as much as it's starting to feel more like a female Austin Powers rather than just being its own thing.

NOLF2 gets a strong recommendation, with a caveat that fans of the original may find that more work was put into graphics and sound than in creating and expanding creative concepts, and another caveat that "serious" gamers may find this a surprisingly relatively quick and straightforward play.

Thumbs up, but I want my NOLF 3.

It's Archer, Cate Archer!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 17 / 18
Date: December 23, 2002
Author: Amazon User

No One Lives Forever 2: A Spy in H.A.R.M.'s Way continues the story of British agent Cate Archer, and her quest to save mankind. She's like a female Austin Powers, set in the 60s but a bit more witty and intelligent.

Cate Archer isn't Rambo. Her missions aren't about shooting everyone in sight. Instead, you lurk in the shadows, use your ultra-cool weapons like the Angry Kitty, and distract your enemies by throwing coins or hitting wind chimes.

The levels are very well done. The graphics are great and quite realistic, making you really feel like you're in different areas of the world in the 60s. The computer characters chat with each other and the ambient noise fits in well. The music is great!

There are all sorts of types of missions, with a wide selection of weapons to find and funny scenes to keep you entertained. The game really pulls you along and the ride is quite enjoyable. The characters are very well done and seem quite real. Add on to all of this a quite-fun on line game experience and you can easily play this for months. Highly recommended for any spy-game-fan!

What Autin Powers should have been like.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 12 / 12
Date: November 20, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Having never played the first installment, I can't vouch for NOLF2's faithfulness as a sequel. Apparently some fans of the first NOLF were a bit disappointed. Regardless, I am now officially hooked on Cate Archer. "A Spy in H.A.R.M.'s Way" beautifully captures all the feel, textures, and sounds of 60's spy flicks with an absolutely delightful sense of humor.

Yes, this is basically another first-person shooter with an entrance and exit to each level, fairly linear missions, and several "bosses" to defeat, but enough was going on in between to keep me very interested. I found the levels and missions were also varied enough between stealth, shoot-em-up, investigation, riding on a snowmobile, and downgright silliness, to keep things from getting dull.

The graphics are gorgeous and show excellent use of the lithtec jupiter engine. All the locales from snowy Siberia to the caves of HARM's secret underground headquarters (complete with artificial lava) are very well done. I especially enjoyed the retro 60's look in HARM's undersea lab and UNITY's headquarters.

The sounds and music are also outstanding. One level has Cate doing some investigating in a trailer park in Ohio - with a full blown tornado in the background. While inside, the sounds of the
wind battering and rattling the house are quite unnerving. Once outside, total chaos reigns with sounds of debris striking off of and embedding itself in various surfaces while the wind roars in the background and trailers roll over. The music is top-notch and perfectly matches each locale and the 60's theme. The music also changes appropriately depending on the action.

As far as weapons go, you always start each mission with just a small array, but every level has plenty of weapons to find with a little looking. As is the case with the game in general, weapons range from the typical shoot-em-up ak47's and tommy guns, to spy gadgets like tranquilizer darts and stun guns, to the plain absurd like laughing gas grenades, explosive mechanical kitties, and my favorite hands-down - the banana!

It's really the characters, though, that made the game for me. The voice acting is movie quality and all of the NPC's are done very well. And, unlike the Austin Powers series, there is no shameless mugging or gross humor here, which implies that the creators of this game know what real humor is - namely grabbibg a tommy-gun and hopping on the back of a kiddie tricycle being peddaled by your burly Scottish sidekick (kilt and all) in pursuit of a 3 foot mime/arch-criminal on a unicycle through the back streets of an Indian city.

System specs: P4 1.9ghz, 512mb rambus, TI4600 Geforce4 128mb, Soundblaster live X-gamer. Performance was flawless.

FUN...But Something Seems To Be Missing

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 15 / 17
Date: January 07, 2003
Author: Amazon User

If you had the opportunity to play the original No One Lives Forever, and you're thinking of purchasing the sequel, chances are you liked the original: A fun, campy, action-packed spoof of 1960's spy movies (James Bond in particular) and television shows.

NOLF2 delivers another dose of the same in this first person shooter. The graphics are well-done with Lithtech's Jupiter engine. The levels are varied (the tricycle chase and the house-in-a-tornado battle were both different and hilarious), the conversations between the bad guys are as much the silly fun they were in the original and the action is well-paced. A new skills-based "lite" system adds interest to the game. Cate Archer, the character you play, is able to be made into a sneaky, silent spy or a full-bore gun goddess. Your choice!

The Artificial Intelligence is some of the most interesting that I've seen. The baddies don't just go off on timed pathfinding. They are programmed to be object based. In other words, they do something different all the time, based on objects in a room. And when there are many different objects in the room (cigarettes, chairs, desks, coffee cups, etc.) it can trigger a different action each time you load the game--extending its replayability.

So, with so much right, why only 4 stars? On its own, it's a brilliant game. However, compared to the original NOLF, it is missing something. It's taken me a long time to pinpoint what that is, but I believe it lacks the same soul as its predecessor. The cut scenes have been trimmed CONSIDERABLY, which has led to less character development than the original had. The game is also shorter. Plus, some of the stealth aspects were still less feasible because there is a place early in the game where the baddies respawn. It tends to push you from loitering in one place for too long, but that is an irritating way to move the game along.

Overall, I got the feeling that the developers did an excellent job listening to complaints about the original and addressing them. However, I believe they overcorrected in their solutions. Still, the game stands on its own. I have no doubt a third installment will be coming. My hope is that the end result will include the better storytelling aspects from the first, meshed with the improved design of the second.

Clever ideas brought down by boring "find the key" missions

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 12 / 13
Date: October 09, 2002
Author: Amazon User

General/Summary: NOLF 2 improves upon many aspects of the original: more flexible, easier stealth missions; better gadgets; shorter cutscenes; and better graphics. It's production values are great, oozing with 60's style, from the great voice acting to the campy music. It's only downfall are the somewhat dry moments of gameplay, near the end of a mission.
Gameplay: The action, humor, and style of this game make it addictive and entertaining throughout its 15 hour length. Missions can be finished by either stealth or guns blazing, and unlike its predecessor, the sounding of alarms doesn't mean inevitable death; you can usually blast your way out of a massive enemy firefight intact. However, the "find the document/find the password/find the exit/find the briefcase/plant the third explosive" style of missions really bring the game down.

Some of the missions are downright genius in their scope; the Siberia mission is wellintended, spanning about 2 hours, and featuring vehicles to travel on. But there are times when it DRAGS. You may clear out an entire enemy force and then be slowed down for 15 minutes, searching every corner and filing cabinet for the item that moves the mission along. At times it feels like Resident Evil where you have to constantly click so you don't miss any critical items. The Calcutta missions in the game are also exciting at times, but brought down by monotonous "filler" missions like scrounging the area for posters.

When nearing the end of the game, in a submarine setting, it becomes maddening searching through corridors, checking every desk and piece of metal for a shred of paper with essential intelligence.

It's interesting enough to play through and enjoy, and laudable for some of it's clever missions (the escaping Ohio level with the tornado is a real looker), but the constant "find the item, move along" style of gameplay becomes very tedious.

Graphics: I never thought the Lithtech engine would look this good. The outdoor environments are some of the best I've ever seen in a game. Facial animations and expressions are amazing, with lip-synching technology that nearly works. Graphics and effects are strong throughout the game, and the textures, especially in the Calcutta levels, are extremely detailed.

It's framerates are decent, and it appears to be CPU bound with a Radeon 9700. I ran the game at 1280x960 with all the details up, with 2x AA and 16x anisotropic filtering at a constant 45-75 fps.

Sound: Unlike the recently released UT2003, the sound in this game is great. Voice acting is done very well, and the way the dialogue is delivered really adds to the humor. The music fits the 60s theme, as do the environmental sounds.

Big shoes to fill

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 11 / 12
Date: October 15, 2002
Author: Amazon User

NOLF 1 is in my top 10 of video games, so I knew NOLF 2 would have big shoes to fill. I'm happy to say that the sequel is an excellent followup.

Like the original, NOLF 2 pits sexy superspy Cate Archer against HARM, the nefarious and bumbling crime syndicate. It has the dry humor and campy style that made the first one a hoot to play. As before, half of the thrill is sneaking up on enemies and listening to their hilarious conversations as they complain about their employer, bicker about work assignments, and gossip about other villainous organizations.

NOLF 2 features a gorgeous graphics engine that uses the newer video cards' transform & lighting (T&L) capabilities to produce eyepopping textures, stunning water and fog, and beautiful special effects. I was impressed at how detailed the characters look in the cut scenes. In the opening menu, Cate sashays onto the screen, poses like a runway model, and struts off again. When NPCs talk in cut scenes, they make realistic expressions. You can actually read fear, surprise, digust, and impatience on their faces.

The gameplay is outstanding with plenty of weapons to play with and a crisp plot. You travel to exotic locales including Siberia, Calcutta, and a secret base on the ocean's floor.

The only disappointment with NOLF 2, for which I deducted a star, is that it is much shorter than the original. Whereas The Operative featured many short levels, A Spy in HARM's Way has 14 sprawling levels. It took me about half the time to finish this one compared to its predecessor. When a game is this good, it leaves you wanting more.

Austin Powers meets James Bond and a super model.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 9 / 9
Date: October 16, 2002
Author: Amazon User

This is a really great game. Excellent graphics and great gameplay. The 3d characters look fantastic as compared to games like Jedi Outcast in which the eyes and mouth of characters didn't look quite right when they were talking. This game has
all the cool gadgets of a James bond movie, and the fun humor of an Austin powers movie, and Cate Archer is easy on the eyes. There are many things in this game I havent't seen in other 3d games. The ability to hide in shadows,
tip over objects or toss coins to distract adversaries, the ability to decide what area you want to improve your skills in first.(searching, gadgets, weapons, sneaking, etc.) Most weapons also accept multiple types of ammo. One of my favorite parts so far was chasing a bad guy on a unicycle while riding on the back of big scottsman who was in pursuit with tricycle and trying to shoot a tommy gun! It's of fun setting up traps too. Like angry kitty, a robotic kitten who lunges at enemies and explodes, or banna peels and bear traps. Almost all missions can be accomplished with either brute force, stealth or a combination of both. If your looking for an entertaining game with great graphics, this it.

Awesome Sequel to the 2000 action game of the year!!:D

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 10 / 12
Date: October 19, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I didn't think NOLF 2 would be so good, but it is awesome. Much better engine, great multiplayer, and more. And Cate is back, tautin' enemies, bein' her normal super spy self, you even get to find super ninja assasins with swords!!! It's so fun!!! It requires pretty heavy systems though, not as heavy as ut2003. And the gameplay is great, much better lightning quality and texture/environment detail plus shadow quality, better sound effects, music effects, only by alittle. Very Realistic Shadows, though I think they need to work on casting the shadows on to the models. Besides that, it's great!! Awesome!! On my computer, as I believe it's an P4 1.7ghz, 256 mb ram, GeForce 2 mx, WinXP, and more, It ran pretty fast and pretty slow. Yet the graphics are incredible, and so is the AI. Much better more realistic ingame cinematics, it requires an Pentium III 500mhz, 128mb of ram, 1.4 GB of HARD DRIVE SPACE, DirectX 8.1, 32MB 3-D Graphics Accelerator modern completeley compatible and supporting DirectX8.1 with Hardware T & L, it also requires an Windows Compatible 16-Bit DirectX compatible and certified sound card, 56kModem connection, and the OS is Windows 98/98SE/ME/2000 with latest service pack/XP. They recommed P3 1ghz, 64 MB vid card same, same sound card just with EAX 2.0 support, 1.67 GB of Hard Drive space, cable connection, And that's all I remember. And the water is much better. All I can say is this may end up being the 2002 action game of the year!!! I recommend this for any action/adventure gamer that meets or exceeds the minimum system requirements of NOLF2!!:) I recommend GeForce 3, but GeForce 1 is required....

Review Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Next 

Actions