This looks and sounds like a pretty intensive game that I wanna try, but it's $30 now, or at least that's the cheapest I've seen it so maybe I should wait awhile for it to come down (as it already should've, cuz it's 2 years old now), and with any and all patches for it so I don't have wait for long periods to get any online. I'm also kinda hoping that Costco will get it in a package that includes its strat guide, but if they don't then no big.

This is an extremely violent, gory game, with 26 points that you can target on an enemy to hit and the enemy will react accordingly, which is supposed to make it seem as realistic as possible. That's all thanks to their GHOUL rendering system. It's also got a sequel coming out soon, which I suppose is gonna be as violent, if not more so, than this one. Two major sites for it are Soldier of Fortune.com and Planet Soldier of Fortune if you wanna know more about it, and if that second one looks a little suspiciously like Planet Half-Life, it's cuz they have similiar site addresses for many other games.

Anyway, who's tried it and how do you like it?

Isn't this a fun little game?

I got the Special Edition version on budget recently, which contains the Brady Strategy Guide on the disc, plus the trailer for Double Helix and an interview with John "3 Purple Hearts" Mullins, military advisor for the games - your character in the game is based upon him, which sounded a little bit too narcissistic for my liking. Besides, in the game he looks too much like UK celebrity chef Kevin Woodford.

I got the Platinum Edition. Is that the same version? I don't remember it having the strat guide or SoF2 trailer, but maybe I just didn't look closely enough or forgot about it. I got it some months ago when it was down to $20-30.

Yes, the Special Edition does include the Platinum edition version of SoF.

By the way, the Kevin Woodford analogy wasn't mine, it was that of twisted genius and one-time games journalist Charlie Brooker (he once commented that calling him a games journalist was like calling prostitutes "escorts") - his credits include "TV Go Home" and Chris Morris's "Brass Eye".If this offends anyone, please delete.

Silly me. I just looked at the back of the jewel case and it mentions the SoF2 preview and Brady strat guide. I only wish I'd remembered to look at those when I still had the game installed but oh, well. I'm not gonna reinstall just to look at the preview.

Good game but a tad easy in parts. I'm honestly surprised the media didn't make a big fuss out of this one.

Try SOF2. It's even bloodier now with 36 hit areas with which you can dismember your foes, and there are quite a lot of those, too. Blow off a guy's arm or leg and he'll die from that alone, probably due to blood loss. Shoot a gun outta his hand and he'll hold the injured hand and then pick his gun back up with the other hand and shoot back at you. Or he'll pick up a dead cohort's gun. Shoot a guy in the crotch and watch him writhe in pain (how realistic!). Early in the game, when you're done rescuing the mayor inside the Prague Hotel you'll have to jump onto the back of the truck he'll drive, and you'll fire the machine gun at enemies chasing after you on the ground and in the air. It's about the most fun I had in the game. Very intense, and you get about 5,000 rounds to waste so knock yourself out! One piece of advice: Save the game right after the opening cinematic after Mullins leaves the building cuz if you die you'll have to sit thru the long movie again. You'll start with only a .45 pistol and 5 knives which you can throw by hitting either ALT key. Comes in handy with the first baddies you encounter, from whom you'll get submachine guns and more .45 ammo.

If you really think the game is too easy try setting the difficult to "Unfair," which is a vast understatement. I wasn't even able to get through the first level with the difficult up that high. And on regular difficulty I still can't kill that last boss... those autoguns always get me. Does anyone know a sure-fire way to get rid of them? Every weapon I've tried (rocket launcher, microwave pulse gun, heavy machine gun, grenades, C4, etc) just bounces right off.

It's been awhile since I've played SOF1 (like about a year) but I think you just have to keep hitting that boss constantly with everything you have and keep circling around the sub at the same time. You will eventually kill him. If you're still having trouble then you might wanna look up walkthroughs for some help. I looked on Gamespot and GameFAQs.com but they both had the same awful ones that didn't say anything about the ending at all. I just remember being in the sub area, shooting dozens of bad guys and then finally facing the boss last, and killed him by running around the area, as some walkthrough suggested but I forget which one.

The walkthroughs were the first thing I checked, being the shameless cheater that I am. And the boss himself isn't really all that hard to beat down... that gun of his fires so slowly that you literally can run circles around him. But the problem is those damned autoguns. Once the boss gets to a certain level of damage he takes off and actives the three AA guns that are placed around the room. This leads to almost instantaneous death for Mr. Mullins because no matter where you go in the room, one of those guns can get you. And one is easily enough to make life short and miserable. The walkthroughs address this with helpful hints such as "When the autoguns come on, take them out." But how? Every gun I've tried on those things has literally zero effect that I can see. Personally, I think it's a glitch in the game. The guns can't be destroyed before the boss activates them. So there must be some invincibility script for them that just doesn't shut off when it's supposed to. Or are they actually supposed to be able to survive half the load of the heavy MG? The tanks in the game can't survive a lead storm like that! If anyone plays this level in the near future, please let me know how it works out for you and just how much fury you have to send at those guns before they go away.

It's been several months since I've played it but I don't remember any autoguns there. Are they in the sub area? I'd have to reinstall and replay the game and I'm not gonna do that. Got too many other games to play. I just remember lots of goons in the room, some of which who won't act against ya till you get close enough or start firing from afar.

Anyway, have you tried godmode to keep from dying and reloading so much? Yes, I'm quite a cheater myself, except with Max Payne, whose cheat codes I can't quite figure out to enable yet by changing the target field. But I'm up to Chapter 6. I guess godmode isn't really all that necessary anyway cuz you get painkillers which restore your hit points, but you only get 8 so you have to be careful with them. Thankfully, you can go easy on them if you reload several times to get through a part with little or not injury to you...er, Max. You'll also find them placed sporadically here and there, mostly, from what I've seen, in bathrooms.

One thing that happened earlier in the game that I laughed at was when I was in the railroad yard and there were some goons to the right and above on balconies and when I shot one's head off his body was went down to its knees and was cowering in fear! I think that happened 2 or 3 times in the game after that. Did you have that happen too?

Nope, never had an enemy cower in fear after I killed him. Sometimes they do scream long after you've blasted every possible bit of life out of them though...
I can't help but think of this game and the Iraq missions. Both of them were fun, especially the second one, where the enemies have the same heavy machine gun that you do. And in a couple of months (or perhaps weeks) some real soldiers of fortune (most likely Delta Force or SEALS) will be going in there to do it for real! I wonder if any of them have played this game? If the real soldiers make it all the way to Saddam's bedroom like you can do in the game, I hope they don't let him get away! That's always bothered me about SoF... Mullins has at least two good chances to blow away Saddam but he doesn't even make the attempt.
BTW, if you like first person shooters like this one, you should definitely try the single-player missions in Command and Conquer: Renegade. Not as gory as SoF but way more fun if you ask me.