Soldier of Fortune II: Double Helix - Gold Edition

SOF 2 ditches the fast paced action of the first game for a more slower "tactical" approach. What this translates to is extremely hard hitting enemies, with the ability to mow you down in seconds if you aren't careful. This could be considered devise, but I don't think that its inherently a bad thing. What really makes or breaks the combat in my opinion is the level design, and they aren't all winners. It really seems to me that about every other level in this game is kind of a stinker. It's especially atrocious when you play the game the developers intended with a limited saves system, luckily you can edit the difficulty to include the ability to save whenever. The story also took a bit of nose dive as well. Not that the first game had a brilliant story by any means, but it was appropriately cheesy . SOF 2's story on the other hand is pretty dull and takes itself too seriously. I would overall recommend this game, but don't expect it to play anything like the first game, nor

I played this game and its multiplayer a long time ago. I can't believe I don't remember how bad it was. The game feels like it doesn't want you to play it. Constantly taking away the core-gameplay with stealth levels, visiting home-base, and on-rails turret sections. Different minor design decisions could have made this game good. But it's really really bad. -The guns look like they should be cool but they suck. Recoil, spread, and just using them in general is awful. -Enemies spawn behind you, or even in front of you if you outrun the level triggers. -Easy to get soft-locked. In one case, C4 I planted never did anything. In another, I could kill a guy behind glass that was supposed to break a window down for me to continue. Had to restart the level. -Stupid story, honestly doesn't even affect my rating. -Enemies will shoot you through some objects. -Instant-kill enemies are placed to stop you from going to SOME places. -Some keypads open doors, some don't -At one point you have to crawl, even though it NEVER came up before that you can crawl. -Not all of the hits on enemies even have a hit-effect, no blood or anything. -Helicoptor fights suck Just play it on lowest difficulty, or with cheats. Not worth the time. We were lucky the Jedi Knight games were good.

It's like they took the winning, over-the-top formula that made the first game such fun to play and replaced it with modern Call of Duty mechanics. The first few levels play embarrassingly badly. The shooting feels worse, then you have missions with mandatory stealth and AI that just does some weird things until you forget about it, followed by a mission that heavily involves scripted escort; and then a boring turret section. I think most of the cutscenes were unskippable, too. Easily one of the worst shooters I've ever played. Stop at SoF: Platinum and save yourself some regret.

I've never played the first game, so any references to it will have gone over my head. Not that it matters, watching some videos makes it look like SiN anyway, and this game is basically a post-9/11 modern military shooter. Then again, it came out not even a year after, so I guess it's running off of post-90s fumes. I played this when it was relatively new back in the day. Regardless, I just finished the game, and let me tell you, it is a fun ride, but it is very bumpy. Don't be ashamed to cheat, the game is not designed around fair play. It locks you into a bunch of situations where god mode is mandatory. So if you keep dying in, say, an on-rails section, just throw setrandom sv_cheats 1 into the console and god mode until you are satisfied the game is playing fair again. This may be tempting to do so when the game is hard, but I assure you, I played on Consultant with unlimited saves and inaccuracy off and the game throws a bunch of stuff at you, but unless it is absolutely clear the game isn't playing fair, only do so if you just can't get past something. The game isn't the prettiest, but I think it holds up. Not the character models, they veer into the uncanny. The art design is very clean with high res textures in the environment, and the brushwork makes me nostalgic for that not-quite-HD era. It runs on the Quake 3 engine after all. Speaking of level design, the game is very linear. You'll have some areas that stock you with resources and maybe somewhat alternate paths, but generally speaking, there's always one way to go in one fashion. I was actually surprised at what the level design requires of the player. In this age of waypoints, this is definitely old school. I was stumped more often than not, but I'm a clever boy, so I persevered and didn't bother noclipping through levels like I did as an easily amused and bemused child. Let's just say, it requires platforming and an eye for the hidden. I give this game a base recommendation. Not great, not bad.

First I was excited to play SoF 2 as I loved the first game. However my excitment quickly vanished after the forced stealth level around 30 minutes in. Then comes the infamous Colombian jungle level. Enemies see through foliage, throwing grenades which insta kills you. The rest of the missions aren't great either. But only if the gunplay would be good, but it's not. I see a lot of people reviewed this game while having their rose tinted glasses on but the game is aged horribly and a massive downgrade from the first one. Instead on focusing the stenghts of the first game, SoF 2 tries to be some poor man's tactical shooter. Only saving grace of this game is the superb gore system and the few levels where the game actually feels good to play but those are far and few between. PS: I would have given a game 3 stars but now the game refuses to do wide and fullscreen for some reason while having the fixes up and it worked so far.