Soldier of Fortune COMPLETED! (PC Game)

Completing Soldier of Fortune (SoF) is very much like completing Half Life (HL). Both games offer an unusually rich storyline, that shows how far it is possible to go on the established First Person Shooter (FPS) genre.

Since ID's Wolfenstein, that the FPS titles have all been about finding your way around a map, and shooting at everything that moves. What HL and SoF bring in as an extra, is a supporting history that feels very much like a movie's script. The story is told between episodes / levels, and does nothing more than explaining why and where you'll be next.

SoF is a bit original, since its in-between-stories aren't pre-rendered. After completing any action episode, you'll still control Mullins (the game's main character), though into a library, which is a disguise for the headquarters of the organization that pays you to accomplish dangerous missions.

SoF's last missions are absolutely superb. As you can read in my 161000 update, the Japanese episode brought me to an halt, for a few days, as I didn't understand what to do with the SUNI code, even after trying it on the whole building... Well, when returning to the game, I realized that there is a very narrow edge, around the exterior of SUNI Corporation's skyscraper! How didn't I see it before?!

Straight to the point, the only thing left to do is to carefully follow the patch, until the outside of a room, which is locked from inside, holding some hostages and some terrorists, who are about to kill the innocent persons who know about "Jessica Six" - the code name for something related to a nuclear device.

What follows? Much follows! The last of your Iraq incursions will take you to Saddam Hussein's nest! And there will be this moment, when you talk to Saddam himself, just in time to prevent the dictator of executing Amu, a military you need to find out about Dekker's hideout - "Excuse me, Mr. Hussein, I need the general alive".

During your "conversation" with Amu, you'll be told that "Jessica Six" is the plans for a neutron bomb, but you won't be fast enough to learn where it is being constructed, with low grade uranium, as the general gets shot by one helicopter, following Dekker's orders.

The next mission takes you to the production plant to where the uranium was shipped. This adventure will first resemble a very hard challenge, as half of the action will happen on dense fog, making it a must to carry a sniper gun, in order to peek the surroundings, before stepping in. On the other hand, once inside the structures, visibility gets back to normal and you'll find dozens of bullet-proof-vests, and loads of ammo, balancing the episode to the difficulty of your previous experiences.

Hanover, at Germany, is the "endgame" mission. And what a mission! Most of the time you'll be inside a medieval castle, crammed with very well dressed elite guards. Beware with their pulse guns!, as the respective microwave beam literally cooks targets from inside: with just a bit of focus, the victim will burn to dust!

What looks like a "regular" castle, is a high technology expo... When digging into the more private rooms, you'll notice from electronic doors, to... a nuclear submarine. In between, there is the ramp that is supposed to launch the neutron bomb, inspired on the "Jessica Six" plans.

From here to game completion, there will be two main challenges: beating the bomb's countdown clock AND killing Dekker!

Dekker is - of course - vincible, though it will require hundreds of bullets. With much persistence you'll bring him down and complete SoF! To reward your efforts (some 24 hours of game play on my case), there is a reasonable finale that suggests a follow-up, on the company of a new friend: Taylor. Oh, and Taylor is a she...

Superb game! Soldier of Fortune was well worth the money! Just patch it to 1.05 and you'll certainly enjoy a military adventure like very few.

SoF was a topic on updates 081000, 161000 and 291100 (this one).

If you want to try the finale, with no sweat, just download my terminal game saves, and unzip them to your SoF folder [224 KB ZIP file].