Check out our video review:
Before Raven Software began putting all their efforts into the Call of Duty franchise, they were responsible for all kinds of different games. Many of them good games. I haven’t played all of their stuff but enough to say that, in my opinion, they earned the reputation of a respectable developer. There were periods of time when they were really on a roll. Some titles were a swing and a miss but many were successful and among them was Soldier of Fortune, a first-person shooter running on a modified version of the Quake II engine. Known for its violence and gore, Soldier Fortune follows mercenary John Mullins, a character based on the real John Mullins who was a consultant for the game, as he engages terrorists around the world.
Developed by Raven Software and published by Activision, Soldier of Fortune was released for PC in April, 2000. It was also released for Dreamcast and PlayStation 2 in 2001. For this review, I played the PC version. I did, of course, consult the game’s PCGamingWiki page before playing and installed the SoFplus mod which resolves issues with the game running on modern systems and adds some new features. Soldier of Fortune is a game notable for its graphic violence – blood, gore, dismemberment – the cool stuff that causes controversy. In fact, from what I understand, it was quite the controversial game back in the day. A lot of games have a gimmick or attraction or feature, whatever you want to call it, that draws people in. Sometimes it’s unique and/or makes the game stand out. In Red Faction, it’s destructible environments. In Soldier of Fortune, it’s dismemberment and gore.
The story centers on the theft of nuclear weapons by a neo-fascist group. John Mullins, the protagonist, works for a mercenary organization known as The Shop. He and his partner Hawk are assigned to recover the nukes and foil the terrorists plans. They travel to numerous locations around the world in an effort to gain intel and locate the nukes. I like the plot not because it tells an incredible story but because it’s reminiscent of something you might see in an action movie. Our hero takes no prisoners and the bad guys are portrayed as evil scum and hammy. I also like that The Shop is portrayed as a secret rogue organization of sorts. John and Hawk’s Shop contact is a bookstore owner and the bookstore itself contains a secret room or area for Shop-related work, where weapons and equipment are stored, and where agents can access a computer to communicate with The Shop or at least retrieve information on their assignments. Combine all of this with the over-the-top violence and gore and there’s a somewhat cartoony quality to it.
Soldier of Fortune is very much a run and gun shooter. It comes with a campaign and multiplayer mode and while I did see some servers out there, I did not see many active players so I didn’t get a chance to really experience the multiplayer. This review will focus on the single player. The game plays out in missions and the difficulty you select dictates the number of saves you’re given per mission or area, type of enemy spawning, enemy toughness, carrying capacity, and if cheats are available. You can also configure these settings in the game’s custom difficulty mode. In between missions, you’ll get to access The Shop computer to view information on your next mission and you can outfit John with weapons and equipment including armor, night vision goggles, grenades, C4, flashpaks, and medkits. These can also be found in the environments.
I did play through the Tutorial or Training mode first and there’s not much here that we haven’t seen before in other first-person shooters in terms of the basic mechanics. The training mode is nice but I found the game does feature a great first mission which is also educational. It’s fun and introduces you to most of the game’s features. You’re given the shotgun which is one of the best weapons for highlighting the game’s violence and gore, there’s plenty of enemies to shoot, and you’ll also encounter civilians and SWAT team members. You’ll need to watch your aim because you can fail missions by killing too many innocent people.
Soldier of Fortune features a solid arsenal of firepower, most of which are traditional weapons. The gunplay is great thanks primarily to the violence and gore. Shooting enemies will result in visible wounds and you can even expose an enemy’s innards. You can decapitate people, blow off their limbs, and turn them into gibs. People will react differently depending on where they’re shot and will often scream and groan in agony. Downed enemies will often squirm around in pain before they die, pools of blood will form under bodies and while the animations are scripted, many of the hit reactions and death animations are fantastic in my opinion. As for the weapons, they have good audiovisual feedback and most feel great to fire. The shotgun is one of the best in the game simply because it can easily blow off limbs but other notable weapons include the Slugthrower which fires low explosive slugs, great for obliterating foes, and the Microwave Pulse Gun which can cook the flesh of its targets. I also enjoyed using the Heavy Machine Gun which can not only be used to mow foes down but also launch white phosphorous grenades.
While Soldier of Fortune is good fun, it’s not perfect. It can feel a little janky at times, I got stuck in the environment on more than one occasion forcing me to load a previous save, and there are aspects of the game that are questionable. The big one for me is the P.A.D.D. The HUD includes a Personal Audio Detection Device indicator (P.A.D.D.). In the training mode, you’ll learn that the P.A.D.D. shows how loud you’re being. The tutorial claims that the more noise you make, the easier it is for enemies to find you. I don’t know how other players would interpret this but when I first played this, it made me think there would be some kind of stealth element. There’s isn’t. Not as far as I can tell, anyway. Funnily enough, the P.A.D.D. will emit a beep sound when in the red or in other words, when you’re making a lot of noise. But the environments are linear so there’s not a lot of options when it comes to how you proceed and approach situations, most weapons are loud, and I can’t say I ever felt encouraged to be quiet. For what it’s worth, I found a mod that mutes the beeping sound.
There’s one sequence in the game where John is forced to holster his weapons and navigate a path undetected up to a certain point. It feels scripted and there’s nothing else like it in the game. Whenever you enter an area, any enemies in the vicinity will typically start shooting at you and all you do in Soldier of Fortune is run around and shoot bad guys. You can get your hands on a suppressed submachine gun and the sniper rifle is also quiet. All the rest make noise. I tried walking or what you might call sneaking a few times, to try and approach enemies quietly, and I was detected every time. My research tells me the noise you make results in enemies spawning nearby. That’s apparently what the noise feature is all about and that does explain why enemies would sometimes spawn or appear behind me every so often.
I guess the type of spawning condition dictates the number of enemies that will spawn. I say this because after I beat the campaign, I decided to play through the first mission on the custom difficulty with the “type of spawning” set to “ridiculous” and I learned that it certainly is ridiculous. Enemies appear everywhere and spawned behind me all the time. I’m guessing certain weapons make more noise than others but the first mission gives you a shotgun and pistol so what was I supposed to do? I have to go in loud which I guess means enemies are going to spawn everywhere. Plus, how much noise do you need to make for enemies to spawn? Do you have to be in the yellow on the P.A.D.D.? In the red? Is it safe to assume staying in the green is an acceptable amount of noise? It’s not really explained. What I want to know is can you play through the game with the “type of spawning” set to “ridiculous” and have no additional enemies spawn ever? Is that possible? I’m seriously asking because I would love to see this.
For what it’s worth, I searched for a stealth or quiet playthrough of the game on YouTube and couldn’t find one. Players were running and gunning and shooting everybody in sight with loud weapons, the P.A.D.D. would beep at times, and nobody seemed to give a fuck about noise. That’s what I discovered. Considering the environments are linear and most of the weapons are what I would consider loud, and enemies are everywhere, it seems like it would be very difficult to avoid detection and/or stay quiet. So when all is said and done, the P.A.D.D. seems unnecessary. I guess it’s just there to let you know when enemies will spawn but it’s poorly implemented.
Every mission comes with objectives to complete and you can reference them at any time. However, you don’t really need to be aware of some of them since there’s never anything special you need to do. For example, many missions include objectives like assist the police and/or help any civilians in trouble. But, in reality, you don’t actually have to do anything. I’ve shot and killed civilians by mistake and witnessed enemies execute people before I got the chance to save them and most of the time, it never affected my progress. Outside of failing missions for killing too many innocent people, civilians and cops can simply be ignored. You just need to watch your aim and shoot the bad guys.
All of the environments are populated with foes and a couple of missions feature what I would consider boss battles. Enemies come in different character models to reflect the different let’s call them factions but most seem to behave the same and are not very bright. Much of the challenge comes from simply being outnumbered. Enemies will wield different weapons, some are equipped with armor, and you’ll be attacked by dogs every so often. Foes run and roll around, shoot at you, lob grenades, and some fire rockets. Later in the game, you’ll come up against foes with Microwave Pulse Guns and sometimes they were able drop me in one shot which was a little annoying but for the most part I can’t say I struggled or had a particularly tough time at any point in the campaign. I should mention that I played on the Medium difficulty.
I do enjoy the environmental variety that Soldier of Fortune offers. The game takes you to locations all around the world including New York, Tokyo, Siberia, Iraq, and Germany among others. The gameplay doesn’t really vary all that much. Run from A to B and shoot all the enemies in between. That’s every mission. The environmental variety at least keeps things somewhat visually interesting. You’ll blast your way through the subway system of New York, a moving train in Uganda, and through the outskirts of Baghdad. Every major location you visit looks and feels different. The environments are linear with plenty of corridors and rooms to navigate and you will have to press buttons and interact with things and even break certain things to progress. I did get stuck a few times which was usually because I missed a button or something I needed to interact with. Other than these things, there’s really not much to say about the environments just because of how straightforward they are. The action always feels contained. It seems that most environments were designed to look like realistic locations and settings and for the most part, I would say they succeed.
I can’t say Soldier of Fortune is one of best looking games of its time but I do like the presentation. Most environments are visually diverse, I like the weapon models, and character models have a bulkiness to them which I think gels nicely with the gore effects. The visual and gore effects do look great and are what really helps elevate the action in my opinion. You might even say the violence and gore is what carries the game. On the audio side, most of the weapons fire sounds excellent and I enjoyed all the screaming and groaning of dying enemies. As for the music, I can’t say any songs really stick out to me. The music ranges from somber and dramatic to more intense stuff and it all gets the job done. On the technical side, the game ran smooth and I encountered no major issues.
I love Soldier of Fortune. This is not my first time playing it and I admit it’s not perfect. It can be janky, the campaign can start to feel repetitive after a while, and without the violence and gore, it would probably be a very average game. But the satisfaction I get from a well placed shot resulting in dismemberment or decapitation is unmatched. Sure, there are better shooters and better looking games with better looking gore effects and even some of its contemporaries featured significant violence and gore. But I think Soldier of Fortune’s focus on graphic violence is what makes it stand out. In my opinion, it feels different. Even today, I can’t say there’s a lot of games quite like Soldier of Fortune. At least not that I’ve played. There’s just something about it. Yeah, there’s a lot of violent games, a lot of gory games, but nothing that really matches what’s on display here. At least in my opinion. I think it’s a combination of its action movie feel, the straightforward run and gun nature, the somewhat cartoony quality, and the over-the-top violence. Even if I am desensitized to all the violence, there’s something about Soldier of Fortune that still brings a smile to my face that other games just don’t do in the same way. It’s one of those games I come back to every so often whenever I want some simple run and gun violent and gory fun.
I would absolutely recommend Soldier of Fortune. It’s one of my favorite shooters and I think it still holds up well. I’m aware it’s not perfect but it’s a lot of fun and I still find it’s main attraction appealing. The violence and gore carries it and also makes for very satisfying gameplay. As of this review, there is an active community surrounding it and it’s pretty easy to get running on modern systems. So if you enjoy run and gun shooters with over-the-top violence, definitely check out Soldier of Fortune.