Soldier of Fortune

by ACTIVISION

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00003031F
• Media: CD-ROM
• Release Date: March 31, 2000
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (61 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #13,570 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Amazon.com Review

Soldier of Fortune steers the first-person shooter genre away from the supernatural weaponry of Unreal and Quake and toward the realistic tactical combat of Rainbow Six and SWAT 3. In Soldier of Fortune, stealth, caution, and cover carry as much importance as accuracy and firepower.

Players assume the role of John Mullins (also the name of the game's real-life mercenary consultant), a soldier for hire who accepts the most dangerous missions the U.S. government offers, including recovering stolen nuclear warheads and infiltrating war-torn Kosovo. Hawk, a burly sidekick voiced by The Green Mile Oscar nominee Michael Clarke Duncan, accompanies Mullins primarily in scripted sequences that advance the grisly story. Solder of Fortune's single-player story line exceeds genre standards and rivals Valve's classic Half-Life for depth and excitement.

A first-person shooter wouldn't be complete without explosive weaponry--Soldier of Fortune certainly doesn't disappoint. The arsenal includes a knife, several pistols, a shotgun, a variety of machine guns, a rocket launcher, flamethrower, sniper rifle, grenades, and a futuristic microwave gun. Unlike most action shooters, players select new weapons before each mission--and you're restricted in how much armament John carries. For instance, you must make tough decisions between the larger weapons. Should you take the submachine gun for close-quarter combat or grab the sniper rifle for a stealthier strategy? Weapons also do much more damage than in typical first-person shooters. If you're unarmored, a single shotgun blast could end your game. These elements give Soldier of Fortune an intensity not often seen in the genre.

Soldier of Fortune uses a heavily modified version of id Software's Quake 2 3-D engine, and the results are impressively realistic--perhaps even too realistic. Shoot an enemy in the foot with the pistol, and he'll clutch the wound and favor his good leg. Shoot him in the knee with the shotgun, and the limb will be explosively severed in a spray of gristle. If you're the type of person who thinks most action movies are fakey, you'll appreciate the accurate look, sound, and effect of Soldier of Fortune's real-world weaponry. But if you're the type of person who closed your eyes during the beach scene in Saving Private Ryan, you'll want to turn on the password-protected violence lockout option or buy Soldier of Fortune Tactical, which has the lock permanently active. --Doug Radcliffe

Pros:

• Heavily modified and very crisp Quake 2 graphics engine depicts the carnage with frightening realism
• Varied multiplayer modes provide frenetic online excitement with smooth action on a standard modem connection
• Over two dozen missions with multiple objectives and diverse locations, such as on a speeding train and at Kosovo
• Some of the best weapons and weapon sound effects ever used in a first-person shooter
• Ability to lock out the realistic gore

Cons:

• In-your-face violence could disturb even the most hard-core shooter fans
• Limited enemy artificial intelligence

Product Description

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

61 of 64 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Kick-arse gib fest, December 6, 1999

By 

Stewy__ (Oregon) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Soldier of Fortune (CD-ROM)

This game is what most people would call a mind-less shooter but I for one enjoy it. Most of the game is spent shooting and killing soliders that react very realistily, I.E you shoot a enemy in the leg, he gropes his leg and limps around, you shoot a guy in the stomach, he bends over in pain. The game also has a lot of blood in it. You shoot a guy in the stomach with a shotgun, his guts hang out, you shoot a guy in the head with a .44 pistol, it explodes. If you shoot a guy in the middle with a pistol, you can see where it comes out of the back of his body. You shoot a guy in the head with a .9mm, the back of his head explodes. This game is not for the easily sickend or for the young, but it is very fun and very entertaining. The game also has great grapics, very detailed textures and uses bump-mapping to make bricks look like bricks and cement look like cement. This game requires a 3d accelerater card and at least a 300 for it to run good, but once you get it running, you'll love it. This is one of the funnest games I've played in a long time, and all I played was the OEM 3 level version that came with my mouse.

Well, thats all I got to say, I'm going to be getting this game the first day it comes out, be looking for y'all on multiplayer.

52 of 55 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Best Thing Since Half-Life!, April 19, 2000

By 

G. Long (United States of America) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Soldier of Fortune (CD-ROM)

As of now, this is possibly the most realistic 3D shooter I've ever played. No kids allowed here! (There's a Wal-mart (censored) version, but it's not as fun) The graphics are excellent, and everything could have happened. Your objective is to destroy 4 nukes that were stolen. No aliens, zombies, plasma guns, or super death rays are in here! The weapons are even modeled after real-life ones, for crying out loud! Of course, the funniest thing is the "gore-zones." Depending on where you shoot a guy, a gun shot or a knife mark will appear there. Blowing off half of a guy's head with a shotgun can be the UNTIMATE stress reliever. Sure, it's more violent that even Kingpin, but in SoF, an F-word isn't inserted casually into every conversation. However, SoF is not perfect. The AI can be quite stupid at times, with people running in circles, or ignoring you entirely. Plus, in the later winter stages, there is a fog which can get really annoying when the AI can see you, but you can't see them. Other than those problems, I think SoF is an otherwise flawless game.

32 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The guy who thought that SoF was like Blood2 is wrong, April 11, 2000

By 

C. Stelzner "general distrustor of Hollywood" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Soldier of Fortune (CD-ROM)

The whole reason that this game is so great is because we havescripted cutscenes that keep you in the game the entire time, muchlike Half-Life. The graphics are terrific, and here we have a game where limbs can actually come off one at a time, or weapons and/or equipment can be shot off. The accuracy of a few of the weapons is borderline ridiculous, but when you figure in the fact that this game is one of the first to have time-delay bullet impacts, it evens out. If you are trying to circle someone in multiplayer, you have to correct for their movement and shoot where they are going to be, and not where they are.

There isn't a ridiculous storyline, and everything in the game could have happened. There were no aliens and no secretly developed weapons. Just nukes. Sure, the microwave gun is a little out there, but weapons like that gun exist and have the same effect, albeit to a lesser extent. It's not necessarily filled with the exotic visuals as Half-Life was, and it doesn't have the multiplayer variability that Unreal Tournament does, but UT was built around multiplay. Soldier of Fortune was built around the life, realism, and possible work of a real man named John Mullins. This is what they tried to simulate, and they succeeded wonderfully. People who can't appreciate this game are in the wrong PC game genre.