No One Lives Forever

Nitcentral's Bulletin Brash Reflections: PC Games: The Games: No One Lives Forever
By MarkN on Thursday, November 08, 2001 - 2:20 am:

This is a very fun FPS game, which I just finished last night. It's Austin Powers meets James Bond, taking place in 1967, complete with 60's sounding music, clothes, cars and hairdos and is very funny. You play as Cate Archer, a new, untested spy operative for UNITY and who must discover who the traitor is that's letting UNITY agents be systematically killed by their enemy HARM. There are several very funny conversations between two NPCs and cutscenes that you'll come across in all the levels.

As you progress you'll ride on two trains (one early on, the other almost towards the end), dive into the wreckage of a ship you were just on while it was still afloat (watch out for the sharks!), learn to ride a motorcycle and not much later a snowmobile (they're both a bit tricky but you'll get the hang of 'em; just don't steer too quickly or you'll run into things and damage the vehicle) and go up into space to a space station. You'll always have to be very stealthy and can't just shoot and kill every enemy you see. You have to be sneaky about it, or else you'll alert the others in the near vicinity and maybe even set off alarms.

Sneaking also helps a lot when you come across cameras, which will instantly sound an alarm if they spot you, and then lots of enemies will come after you. If you're quick enough you can sneak right up underneath a camera and it won't see you, but if you're in a hallway there might be another one at the other end that might see you so watch them both to see when it's best to sneak. Oh, and save often, and only when it's safe to do so. This game is great about letting you save anywhere (as ALL games should) and also automatically saves at the start of each level.

You're not just thrust into your various missions unprepared, though. You'll go through many training missions to learn how to use some of the many items you'll need in certain missions, like a pair of sunglasses that can snap pictures of documents that you'll need to report back to UNITY about. It also detects landmines. Another cool thing is a belt buckle that's also a hook that you can use to pull yourself up to higher areas. You'll just have to be quick about avoiding enemies shooting at you before you can find safety and shoot back before you're killed (especially when you're in the construction site level). This is one of the reasons you'll want to save often.

The last few nights of playing it, though, it'd freeze up on me for some reason, sometimes several times and I'd have to reboot. But otherwise I really enjoyed this game and highly recommend it. I got the original version of it but now there's a newer one with I guess all patches and I think 4 more missions. When you finally learn who's been betraying UNITY (I won't give it away here) at the end you won't be too surprised, nor at the end cutscene either, which is after the credits finish rolling, so watch out for it. Just remember to not believe everything you see in this game cuz things aren't always what they seem.


By Brian Kelly on Sunday, March 17, 2002 - 3:33 pm:

I found a mistake. When a certain someone is being driven to the airport, he gets into an arguement with his driver and asks to be let out. Then, someone (apparently Volkov) comes along and kills him. We know it was Volkov because a lily was left by the corpse. The problem is that the lily was already there when the guy was dropped off.


By MarkN on Sunday, March 17, 2002 - 9:41 pm:

I don't remember that part. I'd have to play it again. Whereabouts does it happen in the game, like how far into it?


By Brian Kelly on Friday, March 22, 2002 - 9:11 pm:

It happens at the end of Scene 3 of "Misfortune in Morocco". Now you know who that "certain someone" is.

Best line:"Please be full of hay! Please be full of hay!"


By MarkN on Saturday, March 23, 2002 - 12:30 am:

It's been awhile since I've played the game, but I still don't remember what you're talking about. Well, I do remember Volkov killing someone at pointblank range, and that Archer meets an operative after she kills all the Moroccan goons (IIRC, he wouldn't appear till all of the goons were killed), but that's about it.


By MarkN on Sunday, March 24, 2002 - 12:57 am:

I found an Easter Egg link on CNET.com that lists thousands of those li'l buggers, and here's one with two NOLF eggs.


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