No One Lives Forever 2: A Spy in H.A.R.M.'s Way
released on Sep 30, 2002
No One Lives Forever 2: A Spy in H.A.R.M.'s Way
released on Sep 30, 2002
A year after the first No One Lives Forever, tensions are rising between United States and Soviet Union over the tiny, but strategic Isle of Khios. Jones, now the sole Commander of U.N.I.T.Y. (after Smithy was discovered to be a H.A.R.M. spy in the first No One Lives Forever), is taking a vacation and leaves Temporary Director Lawrie in charge. The sequel to the award-winning No One Lives Forever returns you to a world of espionage, intrigue, and dry humor. In her second adventure, British UNITY operative Cate Archer must investigate a super-secret Soviet project that, if successful, could bring about the third world war.
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With the first game being one of my favorite games of all time, naturally I had high expectations for the sequel. Unfortunately, while I do see a lot of potential in NOLF2, it took a few steps forward and a lot of steps back. While still a great game, it does not live up to what the first release set up.
I'll start with the positives. The game is beautiful. The artstyle is a definite upgrade over the original. The models remind me of that Sims 2 flair, and I mean that as a compliment. Environments are even more detailed. All locations here are beautiful. The graphics are an amazing step up, and it gives TImesplitters vibes.
Levels are even more open with more objectives, which make the overall game feel more open-ened, which strengthens games such as this, Goldeneye Perfect Dark etc.
You're rewarded for exploring this time, as each type of intelligence found awards you with skill points you can spend in the new Deus Ex style skill system. In fact the game did try go for a more immersive sim type of game this time around, which I'm a really huge fan of. You can hide bodies, interact with things and solve a lot of problems in a multitude of ways, though not on the same level as the big immersive sims. This is more of an immsim light.
All of these I'm a big fan of and was really loving the first few hours thinking I was going to like this even more than the first game. But all of what I mentioned are where the positives end.
The first glaring issue is the writing. I'm not sure if the writers were changed or something, I didn't bother looking at the credits, but you can tell the wit is gone. The game just isn't funny anymore. It's humor is more akin to that of a Dreamworks movie. The story isn't even as compelling as the first. NOLF1 included a lot allogories/parodies of how thing were portrayed in the 60s, but here none of that exists.
The second big glaring issue is the gunplay itself. NOLF1 had some of the most satisfying gunplay in an FPS. Every weapon felt punchy and weighty. Here, most of the times enemies don't react to your shot and immediately ruins the feel of the game. The BIGGEST sin is that headshots are no longer 1 shot kills unless you upgrade the marksman skill, as well as weapon damage AND you need to ensure the emeny is not alerted. If you can't make headshots feel good, the gunplay is ruined already.
One of the other biggest sins, and is a big no-no in stealth games are respawning enemies. You DON'T EVER put respawning enemies in a stealth game, otherwise it ruins the whole point. What's the point of slowly taking out enemies one by one and hiding them, if other enemies are just going to respawn anyway? This honestly hurt the experience for me a whole lot. An actual cardinal sin of stealth games. If it wasn't for this one thing, I may still have liked this game as much as the first.
Having said all that, if you just ignore playing this as a stealth game and go through it guns blazing. You won't have that problem.
On top of all that, the game is just really glitchy. I had lots of technical issues and crashes that weren't present in the first game.
NOLF2 is still a good game and carries a lot of the strengths the first one had. I just wish it expanded on what NOLF1 was rather than regressing in some areas.
I'll start with the positives. The game is beautiful. The artstyle is a definite upgrade over the original. The models remind me of that Sims 2 flair, and I mean that as a compliment. Environments are even more detailed. All locations here are beautiful. The graphics are an amazing step up, and it gives TImesplitters vibes.
Levels are even more open with more objectives, which make the overall game feel more open-ened, which strengthens games such as this, Goldeneye Perfect Dark etc.
You're rewarded for exploring this time, as each type of intelligence found awards you with skill points you can spend in the new Deus Ex style skill system. In fact the game did try go for a more immersive sim type of game this time around, which I'm a really huge fan of. You can hide bodies, interact with things and solve a lot of problems in a multitude of ways, though not on the same level as the big immersive sims. This is more of an immsim light.
All of these I'm a big fan of and was really loving the first few hours thinking I was going to like this even more than the first game. But all of what I mentioned are where the positives end.
The first glaring issue is the writing. I'm not sure if the writers were changed or something, I didn't bother looking at the credits, but you can tell the wit is gone. The game just isn't funny anymore. It's humor is more akin to that of a Dreamworks movie. The story isn't even as compelling as the first. NOLF1 included a lot allogories/parodies of how thing were portrayed in the 60s, but here none of that exists.
The second big glaring issue is the gunplay itself. NOLF1 had some of the most satisfying gunplay in an FPS. Every weapon felt punchy and weighty. Here, most of the times enemies don't react to your shot and immediately ruins the feel of the game. The BIGGEST sin is that headshots are no longer 1 shot kills unless you upgrade the marksman skill, as well as weapon damage AND you need to ensure the emeny is not alerted. If you can't make headshots feel good, the gunplay is ruined already.
One of the other biggest sins, and is a big no-no in stealth games are respawning enemies. You DON'T EVER put respawning enemies in a stealth game, otherwise it ruins the whole point. What's the point of slowly taking out enemies one by one and hiding them, if other enemies are just going to respawn anyway? This honestly hurt the experience for me a whole lot. An actual cardinal sin of stealth games. If it wasn't for this one thing, I may still have liked this game as much as the first.
Having said all that, if you just ignore playing this as a stealth game and go through it guns blazing. You won't have that problem.
On top of all that, the game is just really glitchy. I had lots of technical issues and crashes that weren't present in the first game.
NOLF2 is still a good game and carries a lot of the strengths the first one had. I just wish it expanded on what NOLF1 was rather than regressing in some areas.
Silly and more over the top than the first game.
Again, I wish they didn't lose the rights to the series.
Again, I wish they didn't lose the rights to the series.
It's a pretty decent game. Overall I do think No One Lives Forever 2 is a better experience than the first - I appreciate the ability to upgrade your skills over the course of the game, and it rewards you for taking the time to explore environments to find notes and files and side-objectives to complete, so it's a pretty solid gameplay loop in that regard. Also, being able to lean is an incredibly welcome addition - not sure why leaning wasn't a thing in the first game.
That said, this game still has some rough spots - the Ohio and India stages in particular are really a pain to deal with, and kinda lower this game in my eyes. If you can get past those parts however, then there is fun to be had, here. The last few stages in particular I think are strong, and the game finishes out in a good way. I'm glad I finally got to knock this game off of my "to-do" list, after years of it sitting there unplayed.
Oh yeah - be warned that this game kinda behaves in weird ways on modern computers. One particular chase sequence in India, would break for me, unless I did the unusual workaround of recording my gameplay via OBS as I played. lol
That said, this game still has some rough spots - the Ohio and India stages in particular are really a pain to deal with, and kinda lower this game in my eyes. If you can get past those parts however, then there is fun to be had, here. The last few stages in particular I think are strong, and the game finishes out in a good way. I'm glad I finally got to knock this game off of my "to-do" list, after years of it sitting there unplayed.
Oh yeah - be warned that this game kinda behaves in weird ways on modern computers. One particular chase sequence in India, would break for me, unless I did the unusual workaround of recording my gameplay via OBS as I played. lol
jugue esta mierda con covid bro, otra cosita.
A game that can't decide what it wants to be. It clearly wants to be a stealth game that encourages and rewards cautious exploration but enemies are constantly respawning out of thin air like something out a 90's side-scrolling platformer pretty much forcing you into combat which Cate isn't really built for. A game that would easily be so much better with some tweaks that a Night Dive remaster could bring but we know we can't ever have that.
Kept crashing even after applying patches. Only got to play for a few minutes.