No One Lives Forever 2: A Spy In H.A.R.M.'s Way

Other products by Sierra

Product Features

• It's the height of the Cold War, and Cate is called upon to stop the Soviets from unleashing a new weapon that could provoke a nuclear response.
• Heavy first-person shooter action on 40 unique levels.
• Use your marksmanship combined with stealth and the coolest spy gadgets to overtake the deadliest enemies outside of a James Bond film.
• Over 40 exciting levels that take you to the most scenic & unlikely places in the world from Japan to Siberia to Ohio.
• Mission-based multiplayer features let you fight H.A.R.M. with a four-person team.

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B0000663TT
• Item Weight: 5 ounces
• Media: CD-ROM
• Release Date: December 8, 2005
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (104 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #4,905 in Video Games (See Bestsellers in Video Games)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Platform: PC

From the Developer

No One Lives Forever 2: A Spy in H.A.R.M.'s Way is a humorous story-driven first-person shooter featuring the beautiful but deadly British UNITY operative Cate Archer. In this new adventure, Cate must investigate a super-secret Soviet project that, if successful, could bring about a third world war. Armed with an assortment of conventional weapons and experimental gadgets, players will explore exotic locales, circumvent devious traps, and contend with sinister agents determined to take Cate out of the secret agent trade once and for all.

Product Description

You are secret agent Cate Archer, a beautiful but deadly secret agent on a top-secret mission. Armed with an arsenal of deadly weapons, spy gadgets, and devious traps, it's up to you to save the world from H.A.R.M.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

48 of 49 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars You might not live forever, so play this before you die, April 12, 2003

By	Yu-jin Chia "Yu-Jin Chia" (Cupertino, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The world of first person shooters is getting a bit played out. There's pretty much two kinds of them: the realistic military type (Counterstrike, Ghost Recon, Operation Flashpoint) and the sci-fi type (Unreal, Alien vs. Predator, System Shock). In all this, there's not much room for improvement and things are getting a bit repetitive- all you do is go in and kill everything that moves, and solve (or cheat) your way past the occasional puzzle that primarily exists to justify putting a longer gameplay figure on the box. Looking at most new titles, the only really interesting thing is even more detailed graphics and effects, which- by the way- mean you need a new PC.

Enter No One Lives Forever 2: A Spy in HARM's Way. This excellent shooter and sequel to an excellent shooter is the type that will save the genre. Here's why:

System requirements: You don't need a new PC to run this game, but this doesn't mean it looks like the original Doom. More on that later.

Gameplay: There are some puzzles, but they aren't annoying or counterintuitive. It is possible to get past some levels without killing anyone. Curiosity and inventiveness pay off here, but if you can't do that, you can usually just go in with guns blazing.

Something new: The game has some nice additions from the original NOLF. Most significant of these are skills. Completing primary and secondary objectives and finding intelligence items gives you points, which you can invest in 8 different skills that all have a significant impact on gameplay. Additionally, there are new and cool gadgets to play with. Many of them auto-activate when necessary, which disposes of the annoyance of having to switch over to use them. HARM also has some new hires and allies, including French mimes (no, I didn't make that up). Do you need any other reason to play?

Story: This is what really makes the game fun. The voice acting and cutscenes (all done with the game engine) are superb, and really draw you into the plot. As you might guess from the title, the usual suspects are up to no good once again. It's a tossup as to whether this is more of a James Bond or Austin Powers kind of script, but whatever it is, it's a good one.

AI: The NOLF AI is smart- as good as any other game I've seen. They take cover behind objects, go prone, roll out of the way of grenades, and seek you out if you make noise. The AI characters also act like real people. If you pick one of them off with a silenced weapon, they'll be confused for a second and then load their guns and start looking around. If you can see them, they can see you, and given enough time they definitely will.

Replayability: Due to the detail of the levels, it's unlikely you'll find everything there is to find on one pass. Also, the AI behaves in a random enough fashion that every time you play an area the outcome could be very different (if you don't believe me, just try reloading a save). Also, you don't have enough skill points to advance to the max in every area. Playing again with a different set of skills is quite fun. For example, try going all-out stealth and health instead of firepower and attempt to sneak your way through places you blasted by earlier. It's arguably more exciting trying this!

Graphics and sound: This is the first game I've seen that models expressions believably. The Jupiter engine has the look and feel of something that would require a cutting-edge machine to run, but goes smoothly on an average computer. It is, quite simply, astonishing. There's a huge amount of interaction with the environment, and things have an almost movie-like appearance. The characters are especially a pleasure to see, due to the attention to detail. Ms. Archer in particular has had a gorgeous makeover- she is arguably the hottest woman in any game to date, even including live motion actresses. Oh, and by the way, the soundtrack is killer.

Multiplayer: The version of the game that shipped did not have significant multiplay support. This has been remedied. Updating to the latest version gives you deathmatch, team deathmatch, cooperative, and assault game modes. Additionally, there are plenty of maps out now. The only thing missing here is bots, which is a bit of a pity considering how good the AI is. I'm sure someone will think to add those later.

If this isn't enough to convince you, the setting is just plain cool. This is the 60's, folks, complete with President Johnson, neon colored clothing, retro-tech spygear, and even a bellicose American general. The characters that populate this world have true depth and, more often than not, are good for some great laughs. Lastly, this game is probably the best deal you'll ever see at such a low price. Don't miss out- grab NOLF 2 while you can.

51 of 56 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best Single Player FPS Ever Made, September 16, 2002

By A Customer

If you enjoyed the first No One Lives Forever, you'll be surprised that the developers at Monolith have improved it in every possible every way.

The story is just as fresh and funny as the original, but is delivered through the most impressive in-game cut-scenes I have ever seen. The character's lips are synched perfectly with the hilarious dialogue and their eyes blink and follow the person they are talking to in a perfectly natural way. It reminds me of the first time I saw "Toy Story" and I had to remind myself that everything was really a computer generated cartoon and not real. It is very hard to believe that these cut-scenes are not pre-rendered, but are actually done with the game engine!

After watching the opening cut-scene you find yourself inside the beauty of the game itself. The first level is the most beautiful FPS game level I had ever seen (untill I played the rest of the game! :) I don't want to spoil the game, but just like the original No One Lives Forever, you will travel to many different exotic locations around the world and each one is better than the last. I don't know how they pulled it off, it is a testament to the skill of the developers at Monolith, but each location is beautiful and believable. You really have to experience it yourself to understand how impressive the art in the game really is.

The gameplay is outstanding. All of the hype you may have heard about the new and improved AI is NOT hype, but truth! I couldn't believe how realistic the AI was, many previews have talked about it so I won't go into detail here, just believe the hype! The coolest thing is that you can adjust the gameplay difficulty at any time so when it got too hard, I just went from Hard to Normal and it was much more fun. For a while I played on Easy just to run around and fight and not worry about getting killed. Then when I wanted a challenge I moved it back up to Hard (I wasn't about to try Super Spy ;).

The new cooperative mode is really cool as well. I wasn't sure if I would like it or not, but my brother and I have been playing it a lot. It feels just like the single player game, but is cool since you can organize with another person the best approach and when you're about to get killed the other person can run in and protect you. Very, very cool. We used to fight a lot when we'd play deathmatch against each other, but now we're on the same side and I actually feel closer to him when I save him from getting killed (or revive him after he has died). I know it sounds weird, but we don't fight as much anymore! (well, we still fight, but not when playing NOLF 2! ;)

There is a ton more that is cool about the game, but since so much of the game is the story I don't want to ruin it for anyone. The story lives up to the first game, and is actually much funnier in many ways. The NOLF series is definitely my favorite and I hope just like the Bond movies that they just keep making them forever. Anyway, I think I'm going to go start over from the beginning and see if I can play though the whole game without killing anyone! Just be super sneaky like a real spy!

If you haven't played this game you have missed out on an extrodinary gaming experience! Go buy it now! :)

29 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Quite good, but not outright "exceptional", October 9, 2002

By A Customer

I very much enjoyed the creativity of the original No One Lives Forever and had very high hopes for this sequel.

Very importantly, make sure your computer meets the technical requirements (e.g., video card capable of hardware transform & lighting--T&L--I've heard people without capabilities have big problems if they can even play). Graphics work is extremely smooth and well done. The sound work is a very rare, if not unique, 10 out of 10 for soundtrack, cues, etc. Outstanding. New features for hiding, increasing various skills levels, dragging away bodies, etc. have been seamlessly incorporated and are very easy to learn. Most levels can be accomplished by either stealth or brute force--the occasionally maddening stealth requirements of the original don't exist, save perhaps for one not-too-difficult courtyard one needs to sneak through. Cut scenes are more efficient and not as much of an interruption. I don't recall encountering any real bugs, perhaps a first for a game (!), save perhaps getting trapped once or twice by civilians in a corner in India from which I couldn't move.

On the downside:
There's new humorous gadgets, but it's quite easy to go through the entire game and never use them, even forgetting if they're being carried. Switching weapons/gadgets isn't always the easiest thing. Unique levels requiring things like skydiving, SCUBA diving, etc., don't appear. One swims for maybe ten seconds total, and the rest of the time is running around, primarily with weapons and some attention to stealth when needed. There's a snowmobile, but barring a couple of mandatory jumps across chasms, it can be ignored and things just run through if wanted. The game overall can seem pretty "standard" until about the last third (about the time the tricycle and the mimes kick in! Bravo!). Completing the game takes about 1/3 the time of the original. In making a streamlined and cohesive game, some of the unique and unpredictable creativity of the original appears to have been toned down.

Overall? This remains a very very good game, and is extremely well put-together, perhaps the "slickest" and most commercial-feeling overall of anything to date. For those more "experienced" who like things challenging and with some variety, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Jedi Outcast, and Serious Sam 2 are probably better bets. When it comes to game of the year (for which this MAY be a contender), games like Grand Theft Auto 3 and Mafia probably have more going for them (and we're still waiting on the new Tomb Raider). NOLF seems to be going a bit more "slickly" mainstream and losing a tad of its original "what the heck let's be creative and do something bizarre" edge. Still worthy of getting a movie made from its concepts though, as much as it's starting to feel more like a female Austin Powers rather than just being its own thing.

NOLF2 gets a strong recommendation, with a caveat that fans of the original may find that more work was put into graphics and sound than in creating and expanding creative concepts, and another caveat that "serious" gamers may find this a surprisingly relatively quick and straightforward play.

Thumbs up, but I want my NOLF 3.

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