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No One Lives Forever Prequel Unveiled
Thanks to GameSpy.com for their hands-on preview of the PC FPS, Contract J.A.C.K., the prequel to Monolith's critically acclaimed but disappointingly selling No One Lives Forever series. According to the preview, "..the expansion has opted for a male hero, more action and less stealth, and a bit of de-emphasis on the campy 60's feel.. you play Jack - 'just another contract killer' - who's been hired by the nefarious H.A.R.M. to help with a little problem." Contract J.A.C.K. will retail as a stand-alone game for an expansion-pack price (around $30) when it launches in October - could this be the title to finally turn the public on to the NOLF games?
It was my understanding that NOLF was, in fact, fairly successful but that the sequel did poorly.
Anyway, though I thought that the graphics were much, much improved in NOLF2, the gameplay suffered a bit (but not terribly so). I remember the gameplay and mechanics of NOLF were quite solid (it reminded me of goldeneye), but I felt that gunplay element was not near as polished in the sequel -- enemies would "dodge" by instantly appearing to the left/right of your crosshair when shooting. Also, while the addition of skill points was a good idea, I thought that the hiding system seemed counter-intuitive at times. Also, while I like the stealth elements, I felt that the sequel was at times too stealthy -- sometimes I felt arbitrarily forced to be stealthy when a small amount of ass-kicking would have been just as effective and far less time consuming.
It's also worth noting the multiplayer component of both NOLF and NOLF2 were generally considered to be lacking (this was almost by design as to focus more on the single-player element). I've played both online and I must agree. My guess is that NOLF2 would have done much better in the market had the multiplayer experience been as good as, say, Unreal Tournament.
Still, it was a great game either way and it's a bummer that it didn't do better.