Soldier of Fortune: Platinum Edition

It's true, the game is brutal, the plot is globally one action movie cliché. But guess what? The feeling of being an action movie hero on the one-man-army genre is real while still being challenging. The settings are always different each mission as it happens on different part of the world, thus enemies are changing and the curve of difficulty can thus grow with your skills making each mission accomplished rewarding. In matter of gimmick? Well, back in time, while everyone mentionned the high detailed violence as a weak point, nowaday I would definitely call it a strong point. As I'm still searching for a game giving its AIs that much rich animations playing depending on the bodypart you shot. Speaking of that : weapons sound design is also excellent as no weapon feels weak as you use them, even the weak 9mm feels powerful. The gear management is simple but well efficient : you can carry a certain amount of weapons on you and item, and can choose those at the beginning of the missions and no limit, it all depends on the room in your pockets. And the items while just existing in your pockets in lower difficulty are definitely all useful when playing the higher difficulties. Flash bombs are definitely your best friend to save yourself from a situation in which you feel stucked due to a lack of life and numerous enemies (curse these snipers). In matter of lore, while I said it was a cliché action movie story, it would be a mistake to believe they rushed the thing : it's well paced and well told, even more the important characters. You brother in arms Hawk is certainly one of the NPCs followers I liked the most in any first person shooter, as his presence is never bothering and the game enjoys showing a difference of skill between him and you that's progressively reducing until you are definitely as skilled as him, if not better (plus one big thing that happens and won't spoil). Overall, this game is excellent and YOU MUST PLAY IT !!

A "military" action shooter with a good variety of guns and levels. Very simple mechanics, more running and gunning than thinking or strategizing. Not much variety in enemies, and the higher difficulty is frustrating. Somewhat short (around 5 hrs), but fun to replay. I miss something about how this game plays in modern shooters. It's the lack of the aiming down sights, cover mechanics, or bullet sponges, and powerful guns that let you thrash through the levels with constant fun. Bizarre story, but if you are a fan of the magazine, you might be surprised that Nazis and Apartheid South Africans get a bullet. Still very odd.

SOF1 really reflects on what the AAA games industry was like back in the day; creative, resourceful, unapologetic and dedicated to making fun experiences. Whether its the over-the-top violence, the semi-realistic backdrops, or the merging of childish fantasy and adult content (ninjas with suppressed SMGs getting blown to bits in Japanese alleys!), SOF is a great time all around. One only wonders what Raven could've achieve had they not been turned into another cog in the CoD machine...

Loved that game back in 2k and didn't touch it for >20yrs since... and its still great. Of course its outdated (don't you say lol) but a lot of stuff I didn't even remember I found amazing - for example the option to use flashbangs, a feature that I always associated with COD as the first "mainstream-FPS" to use that. I will not call it realistic (its far from that) but yet now I see many details I guess the real John Mullins (a real merc/military advisor that assisted the developers) brought to the table. They made it a fast-paced gory shooter with some very nice deails that I can appreciate today but that were lost on me back then as a kid. Sidenote: I'm actually doing security contracting work in Iraq at the moment I write this, making the whole situation sort of funny. ;-)

It's a good game, absolutely. But the crouching is VERY janky, the weapon swap animations are very slow and likely to get you killed on higher difficulties, the grenades don't follow a satisfying or predictable arc, the levels can sometimes be confusing on where you're meant to go, and you'll find yourself going multiple levels at a time mainly just using one singular weapon because it's the only one getting ammo. But, the combat is nice and chunky, when the game works it's a fantastic power fantasy, and I enjoy the characters, they're not the deepest and some are borderline cartoonish, but they serve their role well.