By the time this game came out, it was already outdated. The engine was several years old, and it hadn't been upgraded in any noticeable way. But Counter-Strike was still beloved by many, so it had a potential to appeal to the fans.
Deleted Scenes does manage to bring over the physics of Counter-Strike, but with this clearly inferior AI and the difficulty level adapted for a single-player campaign (you wouldn't get far with the multiplayer CS's difficulty), it just feels nothing like the original.
The game tries to bypass the limitations of the engine by inserting a lot of scripted scenes. And it kinda succeeds at that. Every couple of minutes something happens to keep your attention. In many cases it's something emulating physics, like a guy falling out of a window (this particular trope is used ad nauseam). The locations are also diverse and vibrant enough to keep you wanting to see more. And the environments are very thoroughly developed, with many secrets and easter eggs, some of which are only accessible by using the noclip cheat. The two highlights for me were the poster of The End of Evangelion and the fish from the Simpsons' Mr. Sparkle commercial (Matsumura Fishworks). You can tell the devs put a lot of love into creating these levels. There are many unused rooms just beyond the boundaries. And the level design in general, although mostly linear, is very creative and often rewards your exploration.
But, ultimately, the core gameplay eventually does get tedious. You can't really do much with the almost complete lack of environmental physics and the dumb AI. No matter how much you stack on top of it, it's still gonna feel like an underwhelming experience. I'd say about the last 30% of the game I kinda forced myself to push through. It's also not helped by the occasional escort missions and bullshit enemies and their placement. Often you'll walk into a room and immediately get hit by a sniper or a rocket launcher (which will one-hit kill you), and the only way to combat them is to save-scum. And the last mission was insane in terms of difficulty.
Though as a complete experience the game was generally enjoyable, most of the time I kept asking myself: why am I not playing Soldier of Fortune 2 instead?
Deleted Scenes does manage to bring over the physics of Counter-Strike, but with this clearly inferior AI and the difficulty level adapted for a single-player campaign (you wouldn't get far with the multiplayer CS's difficulty), it just feels nothing like the original.
The game tries to bypass the limitations of the engine by inserting a lot of scripted scenes. And it kinda succeeds at that. Every couple of minutes something happens to keep your attention. In many cases it's something emulating physics, like a guy falling out of a window (this particular trope is used ad nauseam). The locations are also diverse and vibrant enough to keep you wanting to see more. And the environments are very thoroughly developed, with many secrets and easter eggs, some of which are only accessible by using the noclip cheat. The two highlights for me were the poster of The End of Evangelion and the fish from the Simpsons' Mr. Sparkle commercial (Matsumura Fishworks). You can tell the devs put a lot of love into creating these levels. There are many unused rooms just beyond the boundaries. And the level design in general, although mostly linear, is very creative and often rewards your exploration.
But, ultimately, the core gameplay eventually does get tedious. You can't really do much with the almost complete lack of environmental physics and the dumb AI. No matter how much you stack on top of it, it's still gonna feel like an underwhelming experience. I'd say about the last 30% of the game I kinda forced myself to push through. It's also not helped by the occasional escort missions and bullshit enemies and their placement. Often you'll walk into a room and immediately get hit by a sniper or a rocket launcher (which will one-hit kill you), and the only way to combat them is to save-scum. And the last mission was insane in terms of difficulty.
Though as a complete experience the game was generally enjoyable, most of the time I kept asking myself: why am I not playing Soldier of Fortune 2 instead?