I played it with a friend and we had a really good time. The humor is super over the top and strongly reminiscent of Austin Powers and, of course, James Bond and the like. The gadgets and different ways to play a level were super varied, stealth also worked surprisingly well and was fun. The English dub was also great and the 60s vibe came across really well. Kate is super likeable and snarky :D and the last mission after the end was awesome, you can tell that the developers really put a lot of love into it.

There isn't much to be said that hasn't been mentioned in other reviews by now, but I figured I'd say my piece as well.

This game is a bit of an anomaly in the realm of FPS games of its time, dedicating itself to a rather nuanced parody of 60s flair and campiness. Apart from few exceptions, the game offers you the choice of generally choosing whether you want to feel like a real spy, stealthing your way through each level or just run through guns blazing and due to early 2000s general clunkiness you can probably imagine the latter is quite a bit easier.

That being said, should you wish you forego the popping of every head you come across you'll find what this game really is, which is purely its own form of comedy. The game takes an interesting approach to rationalizing the lives of the basic henchman, portraying them as often extremely insightful and often overeducated, examples of such being having advanced degrees in their field of study yet being unable to secure proper jobs and instead choosing to make their ends' meet in organized crime working under their meathead bosses. The resulting philosophy often has enemies conversing with dialogue wrapped in topics such as existentialism and mental-wellness, some of which feels more relevant today than it did when the game released. Even the less intelligently portrayed NPCs have an above average wittiness about them and it makes them often feel quite human, to which I often almost felt bad knowing that in some cases it was unavoidable to line their corpses with lead and move on to the next area wondering if I'm the bad guy.

Now I've mentioned jank, and there's definitely plenty of it. While I actually lean heavily toward a stealth preference in this game due to its nature as a well-spoken parody, it actually suffers a lot to be desired as the game itself seems to want to fight against you in some cases, whether it be through the mechanic revolving around the loudness of your footsteps/silenced weapons having absolutely zero impact on the enemy's somewhat superhuman ability to hear you or some particular goons having the most incredible vision of all time, spotting you across the map while you're crouched peaking around the corner half-hidden behind a shipping crate or stack of wooden planks. And as if to accentuate these issues, the gunplay in the game is actually quite nice, especially for an earlier shooter. Every weapon is effective in its own way with punchy sound design and a generally nice feel as enemies always react to getting hit by your well-placed rounds. At times it certainly feels difficult to just continue hiding in the shadows when you know you could just sprint through the area gunning down everything that moves with your choice of SMG and arguably have just as much or even more fun doing it.

Should you find yourself enjoying the game despite its jank though, you'll find its progression quite satisfying as the game introduces new gadgets every so often, many of which are far more useful than others but each and every one being fun in its own right; whether it be a lighter that acts as a cutter's torch for "silently" removing padlocks, or something as simple as a grenade disguised as lipstick. Everything works in a way that amplifies your style of play and can either make you feel like a force to be reckoned with or a superspy and honestly being able to choose most of your loadout before every mission always had me picking different options to see what was enjoyable.

The game suffers from a slow start, the first few levels showcasing the absolute worst of the game as you slog through moment to moment and it's obvious a lot of the creativity that lies in this game is backloaded but I promise it's worth it and the lovely Kit Harris portrays the protagonist Cate Archer in such a charming way that I found myself waiting for her lines more often than anyone else's.

All in all I highly recommend giving this game a shot, you may just find a diamond in the rough.

About to be blasphemous here but No One Lives Forever took one good look at Goldeneye and I said "I could that much better", and it did. NOLF is a first person shooter that is a parody of 60s Spy thrillers, similar to what Austin Powers is. In fact the game could have been inspired by Austin Powers as the game was being developed after the first movie released. You play as the British Spy Cate Archer, who takes you globe trotting around the world on missions to stop the the evil H.A.R.M agency from conducting it's plans. It's a very cliche spy parody, but it knows it and I love it. The game is humorously written and had a lot of dialogue that made me chuckle. The story is also somewhat compelling, and there are a lot of twists that I did not see coming. The game plays like goldeneye (with more refined controls) or one of the many other Spy games that came out in the 2000s era. Each level isn't just a level you need to shoot through. There are objectives you need to complete along the way, and if you don't complete those objectives you fail the mission. Some levels don't contain shooting at all and rely on social stealth + use of your gadgets. It really makes you feel like a Spy. The gameplay is kept fresh through it's 13 hour campaign as each level is so varied with what you need to do. The gunplay is also done extremely well and is very satisfying. This is a game that knows what it set out to do and done it extremely well. There is nothing ground breaking here. Just a game inspired by other games, made with extreme passion and care. NOLF is officially one of the most underrated/overlooked games of all time, mainly due to the fact that the IP rights are in limbo hell and you cannot buy the game anywhere. The fans have done something amazing and patched the game for PC. Just google NOLF revival project and you can easily get the game for free, including the sequel. I hope one day the rights for this amazing, and now one of my all time favourite games gets figured out so that it can get a modern port/remaster and sequel. (PSA: avoid the PS2 port at all cost)

What a game! The first few missions are a little rough but they set you up for the rest of the Game which for the most part is a FPS with a few stealth focused levels. Any awkwardness is easily made up for by the comedy and the FPS gameplay.

A few stand out levels are the ambush on the plane, where HARM agents try to kill Archer and take back the Doctor. Along with one of the last missions where Archer's backup attack the castle and she tries to escape the Castle.

It's a wonder this hasn't seen any kind of remaster or remake in the last few years.

Makes sort of a bad first impression with the first few levels; the game feels more natural as an action FPS than a stealth FPS. "Berlin by Night" is a big wall and what turned me off of the game on my original attempt. Get past that, and everything starts coming together. Lots of fun with the writing, aesthetic, and scenarios. The PS2 version isn't a huge downgrade, but the game's clearly designed around late 90s PC FPS conventions (i.e. Quick Save, replay, selectable loadouts, etc), and those absences (plus the original OST!) are sorely missed. "Nine Years Ago" missions are sort of whatever. Great candidate for a game to be remade, if the rights issues ever get sorted out.

When it comes to FPS games from the era around Y2K, everyone of course remembers Half-Life, but as ground-breaking as that game was in its design and presentation, you have to admit that the actual content was pretty dull, even for the time: An interdimensional portal opens, and then you fight your way through the corridors of giant research complex, shooting aliens and soldiers. Video games, eh?

In No One Lives Forever, you sneak into a stylish sixties nightclub, battle enemies while free-falling out of a plane, try to avoid the ticket inspector on a train ride, fight an obese German opera singer, explore a sunken ship in diving gear, inflitrate a giant office building and pick off enemies with a silent crossbow, drive a snow mobile through the alps, stand up against your sexist superiors in well-written interactive dialog sequences, visit a tropical island and infiltrate a secret base hidden inside an active volcano, pose as a journalist to interview a narcissistic big game hunter, and fly into space to disintegrate evil scientists with a laser gun -- all in one game, within a few hours. Now that's entertainment.

This game is comedy at its heart, and so, it really demands that you play stealthy, not because of XP boosts or extra loot, but because otherwise you're going to miss all the anecdotes, and ridiculous dialogue that the enemies share. But it's also not really a stealth game--you'll either have to learn the enemy patrols or save scum your way through it--it's definitely a comedy from the 2000s, and so some of its comedy hasn't aged well, but the script, cutscenes, music, and main voice roles are all wonderful. This game is a cult classic for a reason, and I hope it gets a remake sooner than later.

This is a game that had a rough start but really grew on me as i played. The first mission, IMO is by far the worst in the game and almost made me put it down. I’d urge anyone who plays it to stick with NOLF through at least the third mission before deciding whether to continue.

Just a couple of brief points:

Fantastic AI with a lot of care and detail put into how they respond to the players actions. Here’s a good example that I haven’t seen in many other games. If you’re playing stealthily you can get silencers for various different weapons one of which is an SMG. If you shoot an unsuspecting enemy in the chest with this silenced gun they go down before they can return fire every time. The only problem is, they scream in the second or so that it takes them to die and this can alert nearby enemies. If you go for a headshot they of course don’t scream and your kill is totally silent. NOLF has a ton of stuff like this - really specific and creatively thought out parameters for player AI interaction. It makes the game immensely fun to play and experiment with.

On the level design front this is a mostly linear game but one where there are enough alternate paths and different ways to deal with enemies that it can probably qualify as a near immersive sim. It is, however, first and foremost an FPS, and I would definitely recommend you go into playing it with this in mind. If you’re expecting a true immersive sim you’re going to be disappointed.

Story and tone is exactly what you’d expect: a campy tribute to the already campy spy media of the 60s and 70s. Not many of the jokes landed for me personally but the tone definitely does work, which made up for it. Despite all the campiness this game exudes, the story is surprisingly engaging from a plot and character standpoint and kept me entertained throughout.

Biggest critique is somewhat janky stealth mechanics where getting spotted feels very inconsistent. Stealth is still a fun time in spite of this but will probably necessitate frequent quick saving if you want to play the game that way. Stealth is very seldom required, however, so it’s jankiness doesn’t bring the game down too much.

This is overall a surprisingly detailed and well designed romp that does a good job delivering on what it promises. Its also very ambitious and feels very much ahead of its time for a game released in 2000, so it might also interest some people for that reason.

El juego tiene cosas muy buenas, y en general me parece recomendable, sin embargo con peros, es decir, el gunplay se siente bien, hay variedad de niveles y escenarios, pero hay problemas a la hora de la IA y cosas que molestan mas que ambientar. Es decir, las partes de sigilo (la parte de spia) pueden llegar a ser fastidiosas porque los problemas de la IA asi como algunos niveles tienden a ponerse molestos (y la alarma ya le agarras hasta odio) y es mas un prueba y error ya que no esta bien telegrafiado en ese sentido, algunos enemigos o son muy tontos, o por cualquier cosa te ven, y el juego deberia tener mas formas de afrontar esas partes, pero no, llega a ser muy ehh, aparte de problemas a la hora de el rendimiento (cuando apuntas con el rifle se llega a mover muy mal,) o que aveces el juego le da espasmos y apareces mas a la derecha callendote si hay algun lugar (y el daño por caida es muy severo si no te mata directamente) o en en se siente molesto que aveces vibre o el puntero se vaya a otro lado, trate de configurar, pero no resolvi eso. De resto, tiene niveles muy disfrutables, el humor y la protagonista son muy memorables, la musica esta bien pero podria ser mas variada, y bueno, armas que se siente bien.

Sin embargo esos niveles en donde te la pasan descubriendote todo el rato (y las pantallas de carga cuando autoguardas se vuelven bastante frecuentes y duran lo suyo) y lo molestas que pueden resultar, la verdad no es un jugo que volveria a tocar.

Story - 4.5/5 The story is well written and funny to say the least, it's like a bond movie but with a female protagonist and a long campaign, the levels are very well designed and bosses were awesome to fight against. Also soundtrack is awesome.

Mechanics - 4.5/5 Fast paced combat, stealth both are fun. The enemy AI is good enough.

Graphics - 4.5/5 It is good enough for when it released.

Overall - 4.5/5 Really great game, balanced, feels like an adventure even though it's fast paced and humourous.

".....so.....this is The Indominable Cate Archer.....ssssuperspy."

Lost to the annals of pre-digital copyright documents, Monolith's No One Lives Forever stands tall as an excellent example of the blender approach to game design; sprinkle a little Half Life, a little Goldeneye, a little bit of Blood and Shogi in for good measure, an entire VHS cassette collection of The Sean Connery James Bond Collection, and bits and pieces of every 60s Spy novel and film adaptation. Press blend on highest speed. Filter the product through the brains that thought it would be fitting to open Shogi with a full anime intro, and boom: you have one of the all time greats of the first person shooting genre.

You inhabit the role of fledging U.N.I.T.Y. agent Cate Archer, wrangled from a life of petty crime into becoming the world's best hope for survival. After losing her mentor on her first mission in the field, she's forced to build her reputation with the agency from the ground up. In the process she uncovers a great plot to destroy the world; the supervillain organization H.A.R.M. has developed a secret weapon capable to turning anyone into a bomb. Armed with a gun, a slew of gadgets, and enough snark and misogyny from her employers to kill a small child, she alone stands between the world and its complete destabilization.

The Operative: No One Live Forever lives on today in infamy; attempts to secure its rights for rerelease have become its legacy in the era where even Shogi, arguably a less significant game, is available on GoG for purchase. What this obscures is perhaps the finest realization of the late 90s FPS boom; the last great bastion of the wave that started with Quake in 1996 and ended when Master Chief landed on Halo. It has everything; objective driven missions set in tightly designed action levels, a fully voiced story that almost perfectly captures the tone of the 60s Spy craze without becoming Austin Powers-core, a set of punchy, delicious weapons, and a dynamic score that adjusts to match the intensity of what you're getting yourself into, similar to Lucasarts' iMUSE system of old. It's the real deal.

Each level, split into multiple small scenes likely due to memory limitations and story structure decisions, feature a variety of objectives that allow for an excellent chance to roleplay as a 60s super spy. One mission has you meeting up with a contact at different locations to exchange information using janky code phrases, the next has you diving through the wreckage of a sunken freighter ship to seek information on its cargo in full scuba gear. Some missions insist on you moving through the level undetected, while others allow you the freedom to go in guns blazing, Metal Gear Rambo style. If variety in objective and setting isn't enough, the game features a full suite of gadgets and weapons with various forms of ammo that you can mix and match as you please to allow for maximized flexibility in your approach; each level is carefully designed to reward both broad progression, as well as minute exploration to uncover secrets and shortcuts. It's absolutely wonderful.

The game isn't without its shortcomings however; its stealth mechanics can be a bit cumbersome as AI pathing and frustrating camera placements restrict your options in levels that mandate it. Occasionally alarms will go off for seemingly no reason which can sometimes make success feel random.

It also suffers from classic FPS blunders; boss fights feel sloppy and amount to little more than grappling with bullet sponges, and vehicle controls are largely atrocious.

All of these things considered, No One Lives Forever is still an exceptional game. Even encased in copyright carbonite, community support has worked wonders to keep it accessible even on the most modern of Windows operating systems. You owe it to yourself even if you have a little bit of interest in the genre's history or just have an interest in playing excellent games in general to shoot your way through this FPS classic. Highly recommended.