This game is a black mark on an otherwise very solid FPS franchise. This isn't the worst game of all time but it is definitely in smelling range of the worst shooter of all time. I've played some bad games, Daikatana, Duke Nukem Forever, Warhammer 40K: Fire Warrior. Those are all bad but have at least some redeeming factor, even if its just so bad its fun to laugh at (see Daikatana). SoF:Payback has no redeeming features. The closest it comes is the limb based damage with gibbing functions (ala blowing a guys arm/leg/head clean off). Unfortunately, with poor hit detection, even after manually setting framerate to 60fps, and ungodly bad AI, there is little joy to be found in the gibbing of braindead AI. The map design is equally as awful as the gameplay and AI. Many enemies dont spawn until you've passed an invisible line and often spawn from behind you in areas you've just cleared leading to numerous cheap deaths, requiring memorization of spawn points and triggers. I'm not gonna talk about the story as the writers clearly didn't put in any effort and neither shall I. Just understand that at the end of the game, you are no closer to catching the bad guy than at the start. The biggest FU given to the players is the fact that even if you force yourself to beat this sorry excuse for a game, you get nothing. Not even the ability to take the weapons unlocked thru the campaign back to early levels and wreck people. The weapons available to you are purely map dependant. If, for some unknown reason, you feel compelled to play this steaming pile of software, DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES PAY MORE THAN 5 USD. That gives you roughly one dollar per hour to beat it. Most of those hours will be spent repeating the same level over and over as you try to figure out where that one guy with the grenade launcher is shooting you from, but I digress. Seriously, don't buy this, dont play this. It's terrible with no redeeming qualities.
