No One Lives Forever
I’m not a big expert on computer games, but I’m working on it. My favourite game right now is No One Lives Forever 2. Prepare to be told all about it.
The game is a first person shooter. For the uninitiated: that means you see it from the perspective of the person you’re playing. You don’t see yourself, just your hand in front of you. The person you are playing is secret agent Cate Archer. The setting is a 1960s spy film. Bond, but with a sense of humour – which would make it more Austin Powers. Your missions take you all over the world, from Japan to Siberia, to India, to Antarctica. From a secret underwater base to an American trailer park with a hurricane approaching (and trailers flying around!). There’s also variation in the kinds of missions. There are puzzle-like elements like how to escape that glass cage or the man handler machine, missions complicated by incoming water, by not being able to kill anyone, or how do you get past those security cameras? It’s a nice combination of sneaking and shooting.
Once you’ve done all that there’s the multiplayer games. These come in several flavours. You can do co-op games, where you can do the same kinds of missions together with some other people. You can do death match games, where it’s everyone for themselves and against each other. Death match also comes in a team death match variation. And then there’s the Doomsday game. That has two teams, each of which starts with a part of the doomsday machine. A third part is located in between them. The team that collects all three parts and completes their machine, wins.
The fun atmosphere comes from the cut-scenes (little films explaining the storyline before each mission) and conversations you can eavesdrop on. Like one of the ninjas complaining that her mom doesn’t want her to wear those sexy outfits (I’m like: Mom! It’s the sixties!), or Indian tradesmen complaining about monkeys sabotaging their carts.
And then there are the fun weapons. Most games have a nice variety of weapons, but they’re not much fun. Nolf has bananas you can lay on the floor to trip your opponents. It has a utility launcher, which can launch glue (which people get stuck in) or an electric charge. There are laughing gas grenades, sleeping gas grenades. And let’s not forget the robotic kitties that run up to you and explode.
There’s already a new game in this series. It’s called Contact J.A.C.K. and it’s a prequel. And, like most prequels not that good. We’re still waiting for the real Nolf 3. Meanwhile, Nolf 2 is quite cheap and as such great value for money. :)
10:25:55 PM 
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