Having played Halo to death it was about time a new FPS came in to take the hours away. Soldier Of Fortune II is just the answer for a new replacement FPS.
The game focuses around one man named John Mullins who is a Weapons Specialist and Anti-Terrorist Mercenary. His job in SOF2 is to stop a new type of biological warfare from being released and to save everyone from a potential disaster from occurring.
The game is realistic and it has real weapons used by the armed forces like the M16, USP45, AK47 M60 Machine Gun and many more. There are also, realistic animations and also target areas on bodies. For example, one shot in the head is an instant death. The way that the game handles weapons is very good too. You have a magazine with the correct amount of ammo in for example when you are in the middle of a gunfight you will have to reload. If you just spray randomly you will not get anywhere in the game. This is what separates the two types of FPS and in my opinion it works very well in this game. There is also the secondary attack which can be performed where you hit the enemy with the butt of your gun. This can only be performed by certain weapons. However, it is an essential part of the game unlike Halo as you have to use it to be silent. The animation of the reloads is very clean and smooth and the lighting is very nice as well as the effects like fog. However, it seems to feel like there is a lot of slowdown, especially when in a big battle against several enemies. However, it seems to handle very well.
The control system is very similar to that of Halos which makes FPS players on the Xbox at home, however, you can still customise the controls enough to suit your own style of gaming. As it stands, the right trigger as usual is fire, & the left trigger is secondary fire. There is the use key, reload key, jump and all the usual. Overall the control system is fairly good and takes very little time to get used to.
SOF2 has graphics that can equally compare to the quality of that of the latest releases on the console. The animation is smooth and runs very well, the textures of the environment is above average and is particularly evident when in the 3rd mission in the jungle. The textures are very impressive and help give over the whole realism feel of the game. There is a lot of detail also in the street levels and a lot of attention has been made to make the game look visually impressive which in my opinion is a good thing despite the occasional slowdown. This brings to the cut-scenes which make this game a lot more interesting than the normal FPS with little story and just mission objectives. SOF2 has good cut scenes which use in game graphics which remain good. The cut scenes are usually very long which helps a lot to get the story over and keep you interested and playing on.
Another good thing about SOF2 is the sound. The weapon and sound effects are realistic. The voice acting is something to draw special attention to. The voice actors for once are fairly good and being American and developed by Americans the voice acting is spot on unlike some conversions. It helps a lot having the voice acting instead of just text subtitles which make a game very plain and dull. With SOF2 you familiarise yourself with the crew especially John and it helps make the story more addictive and encourages you to play on. The sound effects are spot on and are all there including the gun fire, reload bolt pull, and al the extras that are completely not needed like pistol whipping and telephone booth which makes a ring. It all helps.
There is a major advantage and disadvantage to the multiplayer mode. People with Xbox Live will be very happy as it supports this only and has team games, death match and all the normal type of modes that you can expect from an online shooter. It is not a dedicated team game like Counter-Strike and Ghost Recon so it still remains as a shootem up however it does support team play. The main disadvantage is for people who cannot get Xbox Live as the game does not support a multiplayer feature that is split screen so you will have to make do with single player. A good thing to note however which will keep you playing this game unlike Halo is that it has a random mission generator so every time you play it will be a little different which holds very well for this game.
Overall I would rate this as a definite buy for the Xbox video game console, especially if you have not played it on the PC as I believe it is a standard port. The single player missions will keep you occupied for sometime as it is not a walk in the park (even on easy). Other features like the random mission generator will keep you coming back for more, and the Xbox Live multiplayer feature is where the real replay value is. Overall it is a good game alone and worth the purchase. and the multiplayer is a lovely addition for gamers. Apart from occasionally being frustrating and hard and some slowdown every now and again, there is not much that you can criticize this game for.
