I finished this game on Sunday, March 18, 2007, 11:04:00 PM. This review was first published on GameSpot on June 26, 2007.
Soldier of Fortune II: Double Helix is a successor to the violent classic Soldier of Fortune. When Soldier of Fortune was released, its defining feature was the violence. The gameplay was standard FPS fare, but the in-game violence grabbed headlines. Oh, and also you get to kill Saddam Hussein — in case you needed more convincing to buy the game.
In Soldier of Fortune 2, you once again play as John Mullins. You work for a secret organization called The Shop, which is located somewhere in Texas. You are typically sent on near-impossible missions to various parts of the world, to basically save the world. One man against entire terrorist organizations of the world.
The game uses a modified version of the Quake 3 engine and Raven’s GHOUL II technology for the damage model. There seems to be some sort of a problem when the game is played at the highest detail settings. Everything appears like an architectural model, so I had to reduce the detail. The water looked like this during the entire game:
Water mesh
The locales are varied, and you don’t linger in one place for too long, so at least in that regard it doesn’t get repetitive. There are a variety of weapons, like knives, M1911A1 semi-automatic, AK-47, the special military OICW, shotgun, Uzi, pistols, grenade launcher, etc. Pistols and Uzi can be dual-wielded, although I didn’t use this feature a whole lot; it’s fun initially.
The sound is top-notch, with excellent effects. The weapons sound very good and they deliver just as well. The enemies scream in different languages depending upon the location. It’s a good audio experience with my Creative speakers and Audigy sound card. Everything sounds crisp and clear.
The story tries to be believable. It’s one man out to save the world from a mad terrorist who unleashes a deadly virus onto the world and tries to make millions by manufacturing the antidote. It really doesn’t matter too much; your job is to kill anyone pointing a gun at you.
The violence is very believable. There are a lot of hit zones on the enemies, so they react depending on where they are shot. Apparently there are 16 dismemberment zones and 36 damage zones, and they can be killed in a variety of ways using the same weapon, and they will not have the same reaction. There is also a violence lock in this game. I have a feeling it was done to avoid bad publicity.
The enemy AI is pretty good. I played in Experienced difficulty mode, and I found that the enemies are not going down easily. They take cover, throw smoke grenades, and lean around corners to take shots at you. Sometimes they have this kamikaze tendency to rush at you, so all you have to do is wait in the corner and pick them off one by one.
There are 55 levels in all, set in varied locations like the streets of Hong Kong, the jungles of Cambodia, aboard a cargo ship, and The Shop itself. It took about 3 weeks of very casual gaming to finish it.
There are some stealth missions in the game, and they are quite monotonous, where you cannot use your usual weapons. You’ll have to go about your business with knives and a pistol with silencer (provided you included that in your inventory). I felt these levels could have been implemented better. All it takes to raise the alarm is for the enemy to just spot you, and it’s game over. I thought this was poorly implemented.
Once you are through with the main campaign, there is multiplayer as well as a random mission generator. I don’t know much about the multiplayer; I cannot say if people are still playing this game online. The random mission generator, however, is an interesting feature. You can select different types of missions like assassination, infiltration, demolition, and escape. You can customize the mission by choosing the difficulty, time of day, time limit, and location. Once you do that, you are off on a single independent mission. This increases the replay value of the game quite a bit.
Soldier of Fortune II is a solid game that will guarantee hours of fun. I recommend it.
This post is published on Apr 20, 2026 Monday 06:50:14 AM CDT