User Reviews (1 - 11 of 35)

Show these reviews first:

Highest Rated
Lowest Rated Newest
Oldest Most Helpful
Least Helpful

old guy review

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 13 / 17
Date: June 26, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I am not sure what the other reviewers are looking for in a game but Soldier Of Fortune is well above average. Perhaps they are comparing it to Halo or Splinter Cell but this one is fun to play. Just like Hitman, you can save at anytime, so when you die, you don't have to go all the way back to the beginning of the level. The number of weapons is amazing..especially the OICW. The graphics are on par with Hitman, Ghost Recon, Brute Force and, unlike Commandos 2, you don't have to search for tiny enemies behind trees that look like they were drawn by a 4 year old. It is fast paced without a lot of storyline, such as in Max Payne, etc. You have to use your brain to figure out where to go, what strategy to use, though not as intensely as Indiana Jones. The only complaint I would have is that when you are scrolling on the D pad to change weapons, the bad guys still shoot at you...not fair...they should have more manners.

Not the best, but it *is* fun.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 6 / 6
Date: July 17, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I just bought SoF II: Double Helix last week and love it so far. The graphics may not be the best of the best, but the action is non-stop and this game has a ridiculous number of missions. The missions place you all over the world, so you don't play in the same environment over and over. The Xbox Live aspect is not so great because they aren't many people playing, but the single player part of the game is worth it, anyway. I think MS may have had this one added just to throw one more game into the Live library, but I don't care because the rest of the game is pretty good.

I've played first-person shooters like Quake III, Red Faction, Unreal Tournament, Allied Assault, and SoF II: Double Helix is just as much fun. So what if the graphics are not as good as Splinter Cell, a lot of games aren't. What this game lacks in technical prowess, it makes up in action. Plus, you have some really cool weapons to choose from and blowing off various body parts is another plus. I have yet to get tired of blowing off someone's head with the shotgun. Sick, but you know you love it.

If you want reassurance, go check out reviews in gaming mags, they'll back this up. Double Helix is a fun FPS.

A Scar on the xbox's good reputation

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 9 / 12
Date: July 22, 2003
Author: Amazon User

first of all, I want to begin with a quote from someone's review:
"this game is a complete insult to the gaming capabilites of the xbox"

The Artificial intelligence, AI, are actually ARTIFICIAL IDIOTS

The weapons are good, and I've only played single player. However there are serious issues with this game and other activision games. They are a terrible company in my opinion, and the only thing they have to boast about is return to castle wolfenstien.
The craphics...err...graphics are ps2 standard. The characters' mouths dont move when talking. The missions dont have depth. And the entire game isnt much but a mess thrown together in a few days. The enemies die VERY unrealisticly, not in the sense of Damage, individual body parts are affected, but in the sense of ragdoll. I shot a soilder and he fell with one hand on his head and one on his his side, which looked like someone relaxing on the beach. I shot him 15 more times and his arms and legs dissapeard. Crouching makes the same amount of noise walking: L a m e!

thats the summary, here are the pros and Cons:

Pros:...let me think...

*Many weapon choices
*relistic sounds (weapons only)

Cons: will it end?

*unrealistic ragdoll
*AI in this game is not Artificial intelligence, its Artificial Idiots
*you can kill one guy in a pair of 2 patrolling, the other wont notice
*Terrible graphics
*random mission Generator has the SAME missions!!!
*Explosions are like flashes of light
*music lack

Those are the big points. This isnt a game for the market, Try again Activision....or dont if youre gonna make another game like this.

Wow. Just wow.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 15 / 28
Date: May 19, 2003
Author: Amazon User

This game is going to be stunning on the Xbox. Graphically and every other way possible. Many have played this game for the PC but have suffered numerous fraggings due to the complex controls, being the only real imperfection with SOF. So you take the beautiful PC game and bring it to the number 1 gaming console out there, making the controls and visuals THAT much better. You have to give Xbox props for bringing this highly-acclaimed game to the Xbox. Grab this game before it's too late- and an Xbox Live starter kit, too! (if you don't have one)

Not bad but not worth [$$$]

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: June 22, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Well, what can I say, I'm not impressed with this game at all. I finished Return to Castle Wolfenstein last month and Brute Force a few weeks ago and have to say I'm disappointed in this game by far in comparison to the ones I've mentioned.

The graphics in this game is mediocre at best, using "gun for hire" difficulty mode, the computer doesn't pose much of a challenge at the beginning levels. I do like the fact you can aim at certain parts of the body 'causing different damage levels at your opponent but then they all die the same way. Artificial Intelligence doesn't stretch very far in this game.

I bought this game to tide me over before the release of "Ghost Recon: Island thunder" - military action game but ended up feeling like I'm playing a cheap version of Wolfenstein or Medal of Honor. Both games which would beat this game hands down in entertainment, graphics, sounds, and value.

The NPCs on this game aren't as smart as Wolfenstein and especially Brute Force. They're none too smart about dodging, hiding and firing back. Somehow, you feel like you're not playing an Xbox game because it's such a setback from the really good FPS games like Wolfenstein, Halo, and Medal of Honor.

If you are a huge huge fan of this series, you probably won't be too happy about what I had to say but if haven't played SOF before, I'd advice you to rent this game first or get Wolfenstein instead.

Dude, where's my foot?

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: July 17, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I have mixed feelings about this game.
I bought the game to have another shooter on XBL. I thought it would kick some tail on-line. Not quite. Don't get me wrong, the on-line play isn't a total wash, but it lacks a lot. The levels are all kind of the same and not a lot of people are playing it on-line. The cool thing is that you can use any of the weapons on-line and most of them are big and deadly. So, playing on-line was not what I expected, but then I tried the off-line game. Nice.

The campaign part of this game is a lot of fun. They throw you into some hectic situations and you have to blast your way out of each one. Well, usually. Sometimes you have to sneak around, but there's not much of that, which is good because the stealth parts aren't as good as other stealth-based games.
The gore in this game may be a novelty, but I liked it all the same. The rebels you waste don't always drop dead when you blow a body part off. Sometimes they run around for a second with something missing, or they limp because you blew their foot or leg off. You gotta love that!
This game would be five stars if the on-line play was something original and the graphics looked a little better. The graphics can be really good in this game, but a lot times I wished there was an option to turn up the Gamma/brightness. Some of the outdoor missions looked a little too dark for me, but they weren't that bad. Maybe some folks have been spoiled by games like Halo and Panzer Dragoon? Other than that stuff, this is a good game to own if you like to shot everything on the screen and don't care about the on-line play as much.

Lame Lame Lame: Sold it same day I bought it.

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: August 07, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I know that some people are going to love this game, but just look at how many used ones are already available. This just shows that this game [is bad]. I love Ghost Recon, Halo, Medal of Honor e.t.c. But this game just blows. I sold it back after playing it for 10 minutes.

First of all the interaction between you and the world is [bad]. It's like playing a Nintedo 64 game. You get close to a door and all of a sudden you see a hand. This means you should open the door. No dah. When you crouch and walk it's as if there is an earthquake going on-you rock from left to right instead of just walking forward smoothly like in Ghost Recon (or any other game for that matter). The crouch walking may seem like a lame excuse to dismiss a game, but believe me it's extremely annoying during gameplay.
Loading: It takes way to long to load levels. The game is way to simple and easy. Switching weapons is too complicated. The graphics are horrible. I can't believe that they were so bad. One star is way too many for this game, it really deserved 0 stars. It doesn't even deserve a review, but this game was so bad that I couldn't help myself.
I would really hold on to my money and wait for all the new games that are coming out in the next 4 months prior to Christmas. If you have to get something and you already have Splinter Cell, Halo, Ghost Recon, and Medal of Honor get Hitman 2, or one of the James Bond Games. Not only are they cheap, but they are also good.

Truly, truly, a terrible game

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: September 12, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This game is pathetic. The gameplay is like any cut-and-paste first-person shooter, and is therefore boring. The GHOUL-2 engine is a good idea, but the way it was executed was pathetic. Okay, so you're telling me in real life if you take a slash at someone's face with a pocket knife, you will abruptly take out a 2-inch by 2-inch chunk of flesh and bone from their forehead for no apparent reason? And that if you fire at a guy's chest with any weapon all you get is a 2-dimensional hole, with absolutely no 3D effect on it, unlike the head and limbs, and only if you shoot it perhaps five or six times with a shotgun it will be blown into a big red slab of what looks like meat, that will disappear in six seconds? That you can shoot off a guy's leg at the hip with a Micro-Uzi? That if you do blow a guy's arm or leg off at the shoulder or hip the severed limb mysteriously disappears? Please. Other games didn't have this type of gore effect, but that's what makes them superior to this; at least they don't try and fail miserably. That's what is truly sad: the developer striving to be revolutionary but just ending up with something that pisses you off at the unprofessionalism of it.

Not only that, but the aiming device sucks. It's a poor attempt at mimicking the Tom Clancy game dot and sight iccon that increase in diameter signifying the innacurateness of your weapon. But in this one, it's always crosshairs, and if you stand still and shoot one round with your Micro-Uzi, you can hit an enemy precisely in the head at any range if you aim for them. How frickin' dumb. And also, a highly-trained mercenary with experience like a Green beret goes all John Woo-style and uses two handguns at once, or two Micro-Uzis at once. Okay, the military DOESN'T TEACH ITS TROOPS TO DO THAT CRAP!!! Realism my arse.

It's a very long game, but is very, VERY boring. All the missons are the same: go down a linear path, getting more weapons, shoot people, blast them to pieces. Even if there is a random scenario engine to create missions for you to do in different enviroments, it's still all the same, only the maps change.

The voice acting is terrible, the poor and stereotypical plot twists were easily perceptible from miles away, the plot itself was terrible, everything about this game was downright retarded. Now, normally, I don't care about graphics in the videogame, but the gameplay and plot was so terrible I have the right to complain about them for once. Simply put, they're horrible. The character models are blocky and generally lame to look at (which makes you wonder why the heck it has such high system requirements), the enviroments are completely bare and unrealitic, the GHOUL-2 engine was poorly executed (whoever designed that must have been on drugs, so was whoever described it as being ultra-realistic). There is nothing good about this game. Nothing at all. It wasn't fun, it didn't impress me in the slightest, it was the exact opposite of what they advertised it to be, it isn't worth any amount of money greater than $1.00. Now, if you have very, very low standards, go ahead and buy it, and have fun blowing people's heads off with a shotgun (how original), or blowing their limbs off, or cutting their head, arms, and legs with a combat knife with a few weak swipes and try to mutilate their torso before it blinks into nonexistence, but it gets old real fast, and it makes you wonder why the developer ever gave permission to pass this off for being "ultra-realistic".

And, for yet another attempt at creating a halfway-decent game, the developers decided to put a little stealth meter so you can get the impression that you can sneak around and use some type of strategy. However, if you crouch and sneak up on someone, they'll hear you because of their super-sensitive ears, turn around, and shoot at you, but if you crawl on your stomach, you can get right up to them, bump into their legs, stand up, and slash the back of their heads, without anyone noticing, even if one of your enemies is standing three feet away with his back to you. What the heck is with this game and a lack of realism?

Man, I am so mad I paid $50.00 for this piece of crap. Don't bother, save your money, and go buy a good FPS, like Red Faction, Unreal Tournament, even Postal 2 (as sad as it may be). A general rule: if a game is going to have a crappy excuse for a plot, then just exclude the plot altogether. That's what makes Postal 2 superior to this, even though it is a second-string game.

Eh....no.

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 4 / 7
Date: June 19, 2003
Author: Amazon User

This game is getting so much hype, unrightfully so. The graphics in this game are horrible and can be compared to the likes of Ghost Recon and Goldeneye for N64. Yes, I said N64. How can a port of such a stunning PC game look so horrible? A question I'm trying to answer. Graphics are just the tip of the iceberg. The sound is sub-par for the Xbox. While some of the sounds are great, you will find yourself hearing them OVER and OVER. They are recycled without variation. Single-player gameplay is mind-numbingly stupid. The game consists of 50 something levels (that all resemble each other) that are all maze-like in design, with only one turn that doesn't lead to a dead end. I can understand why they felt like they needed to element "strategy" after making the AI so dumb. If you shoot at an enemy soldier, he will often not react and keep walking. Nearby soldiers wont take notice and continue as if nothing happened. You can walk up to 2 soldiers, slit one's throat with a knife while the other watches without reacting for about 5 seconds. Let me break this down:

Pros:

-Huge arsenal of weapons (Shotguns, AK-47s, Pistols, Uzis, Knives and many different types of grenades and assault rifles)
-Xbox Live Support (perhaps this will save this sinking ship of a game)
-Dismemberment technology (shoot off limbs, rip apart bodies with your guns)

Cons:

-Horrible single player
-Unrealistic/stupid AI
-Graphics remeniscent of PS1 and N64
-Long load times
-Uninspired plot
-Enemies often require a lot of rounds to eliminate
-Very bad collison detection issues (enemies fall through walls, closed doors).

This game isn't neccessarily a bad one. I'll give credit where credit is due and say that this game sports some of the best dismemberment in a FPS. I cannot reccomend this game though, unless you are a violence-freak or you need to beef up your Xbox Live library. I'd say it's worth a rental (if you have Live).

solid shooter

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 6
Date: July 17, 2003
Author: Amazon User

i admit it, i thought this game would bite when it first came out and didn't pay any attention to it. but then i read some good reviews (obviously, not here, not sure what that's all about) and played the demo- wow, this game is fun after all... after i actually played it... imagine that.

so, are the graphics the end all and be all? umm, did anyone say they were? look, this is a port of an older pc game and the port job wasn't the best. yes, there are better looking games on the Xbox, but Double Helix looks like a lot of others (GR doesn't look any better, with the exception of the character models- and I love GR, but this game is a lot faster and more intense). the only time i didn't think the graphics looked that great were during some indoor scenes. even then, the graphics are, at worst, the same as most PS2 games. otherwise, the game looks decent, especially the sense of scale when you're looking around a large cityscape.

yeah, this game has some collision detection issues, but this has become more of the rule than the exception- so what's the problem? a lot of Xbox, PS2, and pc games i play have collision problems (you can see a guard's arm or gun coming through a wall or door, etc.). however, i haven't seen any seam tearing in this game yet, which most games can't claim. i don't know anything about a leaf deflecting a sniper shot. i've never seen anything like that happen in the game. a fluke?

the AI can be on the weak side... but it's a lot better when you jack up the difficulty level. considering the number of enemies this game throws at you, i didn't spend much time with strategy and just fragged everyone in sight without waiting to see if they would run or work together. just shoot 'em and move on.

the online play = you've seen it and played it before. the only advantage this game has online is that all of the weapons are available and there are a TON of cool weapons. It's fun to hop online for a few games, but i wouldn't buy this game for the online play alone (and i have yet to run into issues with lag. yet).

the gameplay? here's some of the action during the first few levels alone:

- i was taking out two guards, i accidentally hit a tanker truck behind them and the thing blows sky high taking them and the building behind them out = pretty sweet.
- i'm running through an alley blasting guys in front and behind me and all of a sudden this wooden crate comes smashing down. there was a guy above me pushing crates off of a ledge trying to crush me = nice touch.
- I grabbed a fixed, heavy machine gun and wasted a courtyard full of guys = bloody!
- wasted an entire hotel full of guards, including various body parts being blown off here and there = extra-bloody!!
- escorted a scientist (the objective) back out of the hotel.
- took over a heavy machine gun in the back of a truck while the scientist drove, blowing away tons of guards of guards, trucks, and one helicopter.
- snuck around a train station to try and get the scientist on the train without being seen by any guards = stealth action. somewhat. a little.
- once you get back to headquarters, they have you find your way up to a secured conference room for the next mission = changed the pace up a little.
- then dump you in a lush jungle where your camp is attacked by rebels and you work with friendly AI to take them out = back to the action!!

and that's only about an hour into the game with over 50 more missions like that to go. it's odd that no one complains that the pc version has repetitive levels, and yet this version has the same missions (plus a few extra, but you know what i mean).

i agree with Game Informer on this one = it's not the best, but it's a lot of fun and there's a ton to do in this game. if you're a fan of FPS's and action games in general, this game is definitely worth checking out. I would say the RTCW: Tides of War is a much better shooter online, but, for me, the single player game of Double Helix has a lot more action and that's what I was looking for. If you only like games that look better than all others and/or offer incredible new gameplay, wait for Half-Life II, Halo II, and Doom III (and then realize that most games don't fall into that category, anyway). and for reference, right now i'm also playing: Aliens vs. Predator 2, NOLF 2, ut: 2003, ToW, Midtown Madness 3 (xbl only, the single player game is useless), DMC II, Tenchu, and Midnight Club II. so yeah, i like games :)

((honestly, this game is worth it just to see a guy's bloody stump flop around at your feet after you've blown both of his arms off with an automatic shotgun...priceless.))

Review Page: 1 2 3 4 Next 

Actions