No One Lives Forever
Monolith and Sierra's 60's spy spoof is a darn good, albeit mortally crippled, PC shooter that manages to move to consoles without most of the usual compromises.
Published: May 13, 2002
Over the last few years, first-person shooters have emerged as one of the most effective means of telling an immersive narrative possible in a video game. The bar set by Half-Life may or may not have been raised by past efforts like Deus Ex, Red Faction or the PC release of No One Lives Forever, depending on who you talk to, but they've doubtlessly forged new ground in the genre in their own unique ways. In the case of the latter, it was simply blending elements from every good 60's Bond-like spy movie (disguised gadgets, clichéd villains, and a confident, witty, capable lead character) with a story that's much more interesting and well thought out than the movies that inspired it, and level design that helps tie it all together. NOLF does this incredibly well, and pulls it all off with a heavy splash of legitimately funny comedy to boot.
No One Lives Forever lets you play out a rather complex tale of a former cat burglar turned international spy Cate Archer. Archer just recently, while under the tutelage of her mentor, accepted a role as active agent for UNITY, a secret agency that dispenses agents to quell problems all over the globe. The problem is, most of the active roster of agents has been offed by a mysterious man working for a terrorist organization called HARM. The game starts with Archer's first assignment in Morocco, which quickly goes sour, and slowly pulls the veil off a story involving HARM and their plans to use an explosive that can be injected into a person, making them essentially a walking bomb - a bomb that's fueled by people, so the denser the population the larger the chain-reaction explosion.
Most of the game plays out with delightfully stereotypical overtones. Archer is (obviously) a woman, and in the swinging 60's, sexist attitudes are certainly still in full effect. As a result, there's usually some sort of hilarious back-and-forth between Cate and any of her male contacts, whether it's using pick up lines as code phrases or the hilarious banter between one of her more chauvinist and doubting superiors. Other 60's clichés, from the wardrobe to color palettes to brassy, twangy music cloned perfectly from Monty Norman's James Bond theme, lend an incredibly persuasive air to things, and really show Monolith's efforts to keep things as realistic as possible.
I'm sure it helps that No One Lives Forever uses the Lithtech Engine, the culmination of a couple iterations of Monolith's 3D graphics engines that have served as the basis for earlier FPSes Blood 2 and Shogo (among others). With the latest and greatest version, PS2 compatibility was actually one of the key points, and so the port from PC to PS2 is about as flawless as one can expect given the technical hurdles that must be jumped when moving from a system with lots of memory and hard drive space to one with, well, neither.
When I say flawless, however, I'm speaking from a technical standpoint. The usual texture and framerate issues are still largely prevalent, but I'll touch on those more later. As far as level design, gameplay and presentation are concerned, the two are carbon copies. The sound, while mirrored perfectly content wise in comparison to the PC version, does suffer a bit from a drop in quality, but again, that's something I'll go into more detail about in just a bit. Suffice it to say that thanks to more appropriate pacing and level design, you won't be lacking too much if saddled with the PlayStation 2 version of NOLF.
Perhaps I'm painting the general experience of the PS2 NOLF with too broad a brush, however. While it's true the objectives, core gameplay, extras and general structure are just like the PC version, there's one massive and unforgivable mistake that absolutely kills the game. As good as the story, level design and gameplay are, the glaring omission of a quick save, or even any kind of mid-level save is absolutely moronic. For the more general missions, it's annoying, but acceptable since you can usually find a place to hide should you be spotted. However, a good portion of the game relies on stealth-only missions (though the whole game itself is played out more as a sneaker than a guns-blazing shooter), and if you're spotted in any way, it's back to the beginning. I can't tell you how many times I had to replay the same mission (I was suck for literally days on one, in fact) because after spending 20 minutes running around avoiding guards and collecting evidence, I was spotted and the alarms were sounded. It's needlessly aggravating to the point of chucking a controller at the ground, and could be avoided with a feature that EVERY other story-driven first-person shooter on the PS2 already has.
If you can overlook this brain-dead decision (and if you can't, nobody will blame you), you'll find a helluva game here, though certainly not a jaw-dropping looker. As is the case with most ports to the PS2, NOLF comes off looking rather low-res in execution. The models are done well, and offer a conservative use of polygons that do an admirable job of giving the characters some dimension despite being coated with noticeably low-res textures. The combo of models with the low-res texture work is certainly better than, say, Deus Ex's supposedly higher-poly models, but if you've played the PC version, you'll notice the change.
Most of the rest of the objects in the game world follow suit. NOLF's architecture isn't anything wild or out of the ordinary, and with the exception of a few points in the game, doesn't offer much beyond the usual square walls and straight corners of office buildings and spy penthouses that make up the majority of your missions. Even the four PS2 exclusive levels where you slip into the catsuit of a young Cate feel very squared off. It's not really a huge problem, even with everything rather sparsely textured, because it all feels very in line with the general theme of the game. The texture work that is there does of good job of transforming what your peepers are peeping into that kitschy, gaudy 60's motif that manages to subtly touch even the most aristocratic of offices. For those that are picky, it's also worth mentioning that the game runs in 16-bit color mode, so there is a bit of dithering, but then the PC version had the same option, and the texture work doesn't really suffer, since the palette seems well optimized for the number of colors available.
While the effects and some of the voice acting in particularly suffers from a bit of quality loss (no doubt to help the whole mess fit on the DVD - it's nearly completely full), it's all really unimportant, however, when you hear what is pushed out through your speakers. NOLF boasts some of the single best dialogue ever heard in the genre, and manages to both amuse and hook the listener thanks to absolutely top-notch voice acting from absolutely everyone in the game. Granted, most of the goons speak with some variation on a Slavic/Anglo/East Indian accent, but it doesn't really bother too much when you hear the hilarious quips spilling from their digital lips. Some of the best lines in the game can be heard by just eavesdropping on random conversations between goons, though the main scripted dialogue certainly isn't lacking in any way. Despite being ridiculously clichéd, all of the main villains have a fantastic aural accompaniment and their give and take during certain scenes is enough to have you on the floor doubled over with tears streaming down your face -- if that's how you laugh when you laugh really hard. Y'know, like I do.
Of course, if it were all voices and ho-hum music to tie the action together and punctuate any in-game narratives, it wouldn't really amount to all that much of a presentation. Luckily, the music composed by Rebecca Kneubuhl and mixed by Gabriel Mann not only falls right in line with anything you'd hear from the 60's era John Barry Bond movie soundtracks, but manages to capture a distinct feel of its own. Some of what you hear echoes Rich Ragsdale's NOLF title theme, but there's plenty of variety in the arrangements. For the more action-heavy sections, the score moves to a throaty, brassy sound from wailing trumpets, and when more stealth is required, there's plenty of reverb-heavy glockenspiel and xylophone work that drops in among the plucky, reserved backdrop of the occasional string section. Sewn throughout all the themes is a heavy presence of that classic Bond guitar, which ambles and underscores most of the main movements, giving the soundtrack a perfect authenticity.
If it seems like I spent more time digging on the sound in this game, it's no illusion. While I've heard scores that I enjoyed more as a whole (Deus Ex comes to mind), the soundtrack, and really the entire presentation of NOLF is pulled off with such bombast and flair that you're simultaneously impressed and unobservant. It's not often that I just sit back and enjoy a game for the story and pacing, but NOLF did that for me. In fact, on more occasions than I could count, I wanted to chuck the controller at the ground and start right into this review disgruntled and jaded by the fact that there was no friggin' mid-level save option. I'm still righteously pissed, but the game itself has soothed my strained nerves and somehow allowed me to overlook it time and again as I struggled to just finish the damn thing before I really reviewed it. I'm glad I did, of course, since the story is fantastic, and it's as much about the experience (albeit repeated over and over and over and over and over again - forcibly) as anything else.
I can't recommend that anyone goes out and buys the PS2 version of NOLF (though if you have PC that can handle the game, there's no friggin' reason not to already own it), since it'll require a Herculean effort to control your rage as you watch 20 minutes of sneaking around evaporate into nothing with just a single misfired shot, but that doesn't mean the game shouldn't be tried. If you don't have a PC, and you're willing to invest at least a week or two of solid play time into beating game, despite levels that will make you scream four letter expletives that would make a drunken longshoreman blush, there's a lot to love in NOLF. I can't help but ding it harshly for the lack of such a simple feature that absolutely kills what could have been a largely smooth translation from PCs to the console realm, but if you don't experience No One Lives Forever in some form, you will absolutely be missing out on one of the best story-driven first-person shooters ever made. Period.
No One Lives Forever lets you play out a rather complex tale of a former cat burglar turned international spy Cate Archer. Archer just recently, while under the tutelage of her mentor, accepted a role as active agent for UNITY, a secret agency that dispenses agents to quell problems all over the globe. The problem is, most of the active roster of agents has been offed by a mysterious man working for a terrorist organization called HARM. The game starts with Archer's first assignment in Morocco, which quickly goes sour, and slowly pulls the veil off a story involving HARM and their plans to use an explosive that can be injected into a person, making them essentially a walking bomb - a bomb that's fueled by people, so the denser the population the larger the chain-reaction explosion.
Most of the game plays out with delightfully stereotypical overtones. Archer is (obviously) a woman, and in the swinging 60's, sexist attitudes are certainly still in full effect. As a result, there's usually some sort of hilarious back-and-forth between Cate and any of her male contacts, whether it's using pick up lines as code phrases or the hilarious banter between one of her more chauvinist and doubting superiors. Other 60's clichés, from the wardrobe to color palettes to brassy, twangy music cloned perfectly from Monty Norman's James Bond theme, lend an incredibly persuasive air to things, and really show Monolith's efforts to keep things as realistic as possible.
I'm sure it helps that No One Lives Forever uses the Lithtech Engine, the culmination of a couple iterations of Monolith's 3D graphics engines that have served as the basis for earlier FPSes Blood 2 and Shogo (among others). With the latest and greatest version, PS2 compatibility was actually one of the key points, and so the port from PC to PS2 is about as flawless as one can expect given the technical hurdles that must be jumped when moving from a system with lots of memory and hard drive space to one with, well, neither.
When I say flawless, however, I'm speaking from a technical standpoint. The usual texture and framerate issues are still largely prevalent, but I'll touch on those more later. As far as level design, gameplay and presentation are concerned, the two are carbon copies. The sound, while mirrored perfectly content wise in comparison to the PC version, does suffer a bit from a drop in quality, but again, that's something I'll go into more detail about in just a bit. Suffice it to say that thanks to more appropriate pacing and level design, you won't be lacking too much if saddled with the PlayStation 2 version of NOLF.
Perhaps I'm painting the general experience of the PS2 NOLF with too broad a brush, however. While it's true the objectives, core gameplay, extras and general structure are just like the PC version, there's one massive and unforgivable mistake that absolutely kills the game. As good as the story, level design and gameplay are, the glaring omission of a quick save, or even any kind of mid-level save is absolutely moronic. For the more general missions, it's annoying, but acceptable since you can usually find a place to hide should you be spotted. However, a good portion of the game relies on stealth-only missions (though the whole game itself is played out more as a sneaker than a guns-blazing shooter), and if you're spotted in any way, it's back to the beginning. I can't tell you how many times I had to replay the same mission (I was suck for literally days on one, in fact) because after spending 20 minutes running around avoiding guards and collecting evidence, I was spotted and the alarms were sounded. It's needlessly aggravating to the point of chucking a controller at the ground, and could be avoided with a feature that EVERY other story-driven first-person shooter on the PS2 already has.
If you can overlook this brain-dead decision (and if you can't, nobody will blame you), you'll find a helluva game here, though certainly not a jaw-dropping looker. As is the case with most ports to the PS2, NOLF comes off looking rather low-res in execution. The models are done well, and offer a conservative use of polygons that do an admirable job of giving the characters some dimension despite being coated with noticeably low-res textures. The combo of models with the low-res texture work is certainly better than, say, Deus Ex's supposedly higher-poly models, but if you've played the PC version, you'll notice the change.
Most of the rest of the objects in the game world follow suit. NOLF's architecture isn't anything wild or out of the ordinary, and with the exception of a few points in the game, doesn't offer much beyond the usual square walls and straight corners of office buildings and spy penthouses that make up the majority of your missions. Even the four PS2 exclusive levels where you slip into the catsuit of a young Cate feel very squared off. It's not really a huge problem, even with everything rather sparsely textured, because it all feels very in line with the general theme of the game. The texture work that is there does of good job of transforming what your peepers are peeping into that kitschy, gaudy 60's motif that manages to subtly touch even the most aristocratic of offices. For those that are picky, it's also worth mentioning that the game runs in 16-bit color mode, so there is a bit of dithering, but then the PC version had the same option, and the texture work doesn't really suffer, since the palette seems well optimized for the number of colors available.
While the effects and some of the voice acting in particularly suffers from a bit of quality loss (no doubt to help the whole mess fit on the DVD - it's nearly completely full), it's all really unimportant, however, when you hear what is pushed out through your speakers. NOLF boasts some of the single best dialogue ever heard in the genre, and manages to both amuse and hook the listener thanks to absolutely top-notch voice acting from absolutely everyone in the game. Granted, most of the goons speak with some variation on a Slavic/Anglo/East Indian accent, but it doesn't really bother too much when you hear the hilarious quips spilling from their digital lips. Some of the best lines in the game can be heard by just eavesdropping on random conversations between goons, though the main scripted dialogue certainly isn't lacking in any way. Despite being ridiculously clichéd, all of the main villains have a fantastic aural accompaniment and their give and take during certain scenes is enough to have you on the floor doubled over with tears streaming down your face -- if that's how you laugh when you laugh really hard. Y'know, like I do.
Of course, if it were all voices and ho-hum music to tie the action together and punctuate any in-game narratives, it wouldn't really amount to all that much of a presentation. Luckily, the music composed by Rebecca Kneubuhl and mixed by Gabriel Mann not only falls right in line with anything you'd hear from the 60's era John Barry Bond movie soundtracks, but manages to capture a distinct feel of its own. Some of what you hear echoes Rich Ragsdale's NOLF title theme, but there's plenty of variety in the arrangements. For the more action-heavy sections, the score moves to a throaty, brassy sound from wailing trumpets, and when more stealth is required, there's plenty of reverb-heavy glockenspiel and xylophone work that drops in among the plucky, reserved backdrop of the occasional string section. Sewn throughout all the themes is a heavy presence of that classic Bond guitar, which ambles and underscores most of the main movements, giving the soundtrack a perfect authenticity.
If it seems like I spent more time digging on the sound in this game, it's no illusion. While I've heard scores that I enjoyed more as a whole (Deus Ex comes to mind), the soundtrack, and really the entire presentation of NOLF is pulled off with such bombast and flair that you're simultaneously impressed and unobservant. It's not often that I just sit back and enjoy a game for the story and pacing, but NOLF did that for me. In fact, on more occasions than I could count, I wanted to chuck the controller at the ground and start right into this review disgruntled and jaded by the fact that there was no friggin' mid-level save option. I'm still righteously pissed, but the game itself has soothed my strained nerves and somehow allowed me to overlook it time and again as I struggled to just finish the damn thing before I really reviewed it. I'm glad I did, of course, since the story is fantastic, and it's as much about the experience (albeit repeated over and over and over and over and over again - forcibly) as anything else.
I can't recommend that anyone goes out and buys the PS2 version of NOLF (though if you have PC that can handle the game, there's no friggin' reason not to already own it), since it'll require a Herculean effort to control your rage as you watch 20 minutes of sneaking around evaporate into nothing with just a single misfired shot, but that doesn't mean the game shouldn't be tried. If you don't have a PC, and you're willing to invest at least a week or two of solid play time into beating game, despite levels that will make you scream four letter expletives that would make a drunken longshoreman blush, there's a lot to love in NOLF. I can't help but ding it harshly for the lack of such a simple feature that absolutely kills what could have been a largely smooth translation from PCs to the console realm, but if you don't experience No One Lives Forever in some form, you will absolutely be missing out on one of the best story-driven first-person shooters ever made. Period.
